After the launching of the control investigation by the Protector of Citizens, the Secretariat for Education and Child Care of the City Administration of the City of Belgrade enabled a child to use the service of a personal companion, who had the right to do so in the opinion of the Commission for assessing the need for providing additional educational, health and social support.
Following the complaint of the mother of the child who was not allowed to use this service and who was put on the waiting list, the Protector of Citizens launched an investigation to control the regularity and legality of work of the competent city secretariat.
As part of the investigation, the Protector of Citizens established that in October 2021, the child's mother submitted a request to the City Centre for Social Work in Belgrade – New Belgrade Department for the provision of the service of personal companion for the child, and that a month later, the Humanitarian Organization "Child’s Heart" from of Belgrade, as a licensed and authorized provider of this service, informed this authority that the current capacities are full and that the child is enrolled on the waiting list.
The Protector of Citizens also established that at the end of June 2022, the City Centre sent an urgent request to the organization "Child’s Heart" for the provision of the service of a personal companion for the child, as a priority, after which the waiting list was updated and the position of the complainant’s child was changed because another child stopped using this service as of 1 August 2022.
The Protector of Citizens was informed that the procedure for the inclusion of the complainant's child in the child's personal companion service is in progress, thereby meeting the legal conditions for the suspension of the investigation against the competent city secretariat.