SITUATION ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL RISK FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN IN LATVIA

Children have rights to grow up in favourable conditions that facilitate their development. But not all children can enjoy this, as there are more than 12 thousand risk families with 6.7% of all the dependent children in Latvia. The aim of the paper is to investigate the situation related to the social risk families in Latvia - to identify problems these families are facing, and to evaluate support provided by the state and the local governments. Situation analysis is based on publicly available statistical data and 24 semi-structured in-depth interviews with heads of social service offices and social work specialists. The research shows that families at social risk are characterized by a variety of problems - poverty, alcohol abuse, violence, unemployment, poor housing and other. Most of the problems are related to poor basic skills or lack of them, also to lack of motivation to change. Support for social risk families is provided by the state and local governments but as research data show, there are obstacles to problem-solving, especially in rural areas - shortage of financial and human resources; inadequate inter-institutional cooperation and coordination of work; and the lack of preventive work. To improve work with social risk families it is essential to elaborate more responsive system of services for families with children, to establish more effective collaboration between professionals and to allocate additional financial resources.