The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy has put forward a draft amendment to the social assistance act, which it says will make the system "more modern, accessible and better tailored to people's needs".
A central plank of the reform is a new requirement for local authorities to offer home-based or community support, including assisted living, before placing anyone in a residential care home, known in Poland as a DPS.
Exceptions would apply only where there is an immediate risk to life or health.
Children in care homes
Among the most contentious proposals is a ban on placing children in DPS facilities, where around 900 children currently live alongside some 6,200 disabled adults across 100 homes.
Experts say children who end up in such facilities typically remain there for life, with little prospect of moving to a foster family.
Under the plan, children already in DPS care would be allowed to stay until adulthood.
The government says future cases should go to foster families where possible, or – as a last resort – to specialist therapeutic facilities for children only.
Deputy Minister Katarzyna Nowakowska, who is leading the reform, has stressed the changes will be gradual.
"We don't want to act abruptly. Introducing these changes will take years," she said.
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The plans have not gone unchallenged.
Catholic Sisters running the Dom Chłopaków care home in Broniszewice, which houses 25 children and 42 adults, warn that the proposed specialist facilities, with capacity for up to 30 children, would in practice be larger than the small residential units they currently operate.
Speaking to Polish news website Wirtualna Polska, they also raised concerns about what happens when children turn 18 and must move on.
"Life shows that the children who come to us have no chance of becoming independent," said Sister Eliza.
Broader reforms
The draft legislation also introduces changes to how DPS fees are charged.
People who took ownership of a relative's property – for instance through a life annuity agreement – while committing to provide care, but whose relative ended up in a care home regardless, would now be required to contribute to the costs.
Minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk was clear the reforms were not about closing care homes.
"DPS facilities are important institutions in the system and they care well for their residents," she told public broadcaster TVP Info.
"But the direction of change is clear – supporting people in need in their own environment, in their place of residence."
(ał)
Source: tvp.info, wp.pl