National Consultant to conduct a review of the situation of children with disabilities

UNICEF Country Office in Romania is looking for a National Consultant to conduct a review of the situation of children with disabilities living with their families or protected in public or private care, to better understand the specificities of their needs for the design of alternative care solutions.

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For every child, safety.

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Background

As part of the deinstitutionalization process, the National Authority for the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities, Children and Adoption (National Authority) has initiated several amendments of the legislation in force, including raising the age limit for the prohibition of institutionalization children from 3 to 7 years old and the elimination of the exception regarding the placement in residential care of children with disabilities aged 0 to 3 years old "dependent on care in specialized residential services", starting with January 1^st, 2021. The exception of institutionalization of children with disabilities between 3 and 7 years is maintained for now if they have both “complete functional impairment, as well as complete limitation in activities and restrictions of participation, confirmed by the Complex Evaluation Service within the Directorate General for Social Assistance and Child Protection and for which, access to rehabilitation services cannot be ensured.”

Current context

Until the above-mentioned provisions will enter into force, UNICEF Country Office in Romania in cooperation with the National Authority intends to design and test alternative solutions for special protection and care of children with disabilities, especially in family-like environments such as foster care or placement with other families, including the facilitation of access to adequate specialized services for children with disabilities and their families.

In this regard, UNICEF Country Office in Romania intends to conduct a review of the situation of children with disabilities living with their families or protected in public or private care, to better understand the specificities of their needs for the design of alternative care solutions.

Purpose of the Consultancy

The purpose of the current consultancy is to review the situation of children with disabilities with special focus on the access and quality of services (especially recovery and rehabilitation services) for children with disabilities and their caregivers, living in their families or in placement in foster care or with other families. 

Objectives of the Consultancy

The review of the situation of children with disabilities will provide a description and analysis of the current context in which children with disabilities are living with their families or protected in the child care system and will have the following objectives:

• To better understand the specificities of the needs of children with disabilities especially with regards to the access to specialized services;
• To inform the design of alternative solutions for special protection and care of children with disabilities living in family-like environment (natural or substitute families);

• To document best practices best or promising practices or lessons learned from previous experiences of public and/or public organizations.

  Audience and use

  The primary audience for this review will be the National Authority and UNICEF and report will be used in the developing of the modelling project for alternative solutions for special protection and care of children with disabilities, especially in family-like environments such as foster care or placement with other families, including the facilitation of access to adequate specialized services for children with disabilities and their families.

  The review will be also used by the representatives of the 2 working groups already established at county level (Brasov and Bacau) with participants from relevant county authorities, NGOs and children and young persons with disabilities.

  Methodology

  The review based mainly on secondary data analysis, but which may include some qualitative data collection and analysis as well, should examine the causes of shortfalls and inequities within the access and quality of specialized services for children with disabilities and their caregivers. The conceptual framework for this review should include immediate causes of non-realization of children’s rights and as well determine the underlying and structural causes of this issue. The review needs to identify the bottlenecks and barriers as well relevant to the provision and use of essential interventions and services for children with disabilities to support the development of the modelling alternative solution for the special protection and care of children with disabilities.

Timeframe of consultancy and deliverables:

• Conceptual framework and list sources for the secondary data analysis by the within 2 weeks after the contract starts.
• Draft review of the situation of children with disabilities – report of 20-25 pages, by the end of second month.
• Final review on the situation of children with disabilities – report of 30 pages including executive summary, plus annexes (1 – 2 case studies of 2-3 pages each), by the end of the third month.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Advanced university degree in social sciences, law, political science or public policy;
• Comparative knowledge on child rights, child protection mechanisms and system and its reform;
• Experience from practical, research or evaluation work in the areas of the rights of children with disabilities;
• Familiarity with rights-based approaches and with principles of gender mainstreaming;
• Proven experience in conducting analysis for various research and report writing;
• Strong analytical and conceptual thinking;
• Excellent oral and written Romanian and English language skills;
• Availability for work within the proposed time frame.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

General conditions

Reporting: the consultant will work under the supervision of the Child Protection Specialist and in close collaboration with the Child Protection Officer, Child Rights Monitoring Specialist and experts from the NAPRCA.

Ownership: UNICEF will have sole ownership of all final deliverables; no parts of the deliverables will be reproduced without the permission of UNICEF.

Payment and calendar: This contract include no other benefits. Travel costs to project sites and attending project meetings (situations when consultant is authorized to have access to UNICEF transport) will be covered by UNICEF outside this contract. Considering the tasks and timeframe mentioned above, the fee will be paid in max two instalments after submission of draft and final report on the situation analysis, upon approval by supervisor.

Note: consultant will sign health statement prior to taking the assignment and the designation form will be completed. The Consultant will be responsible for paying income taxes and any other due taxes as per applicable national legislation.

Application procedure:

The application must include:

1. an updated CV focused on the skills and experience requested by the current consultancy;

2. a financial offer Financial template_total fee.docx, specifying the requested GROSS TOTAL fee in RON taking into consideration that the consultant will be responsible for paying all his/her due income taxes as per Romanian fiscal legislation.

    

   Application deadline: 9 December 2019.

    

   Selection procedure:

   Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Applications which do not include the financial offer will not be considered.

    

   The contract will be awarded based on the best combination of expertise and fee.