o €800,000 EU Twinning

The overall objectives of this project was to reinforce the child welfare system at national, regional and territorial level and to improve the system for monitoring and control of the Inspectorate of Agency for Social Assistance (ASA), protecting the rights of the users of Social Services.

Since August 2008, NI-CO practitioners from across the NI Social Protection arena have been actively engaged with counterparts from across Bulgaria, supporting their professional development through holistic training covering a range of Child Protection issues.

Key outputs include:

• Wholesale review of current structures and training needs analysis
• Delivery of training to over 400 Bulgarian Social Protection workers
• Enhanced professional capacity of the Bulgarian Social Protection Agency through supported learning and best practice examples from the UK