Romania
Aurora: A case management information system (CMIS) for child protection in Romania
Aurora is a complex system, with multiple components that interact with each other, and was built
to answer the need to monitor and evaluate the situation of children and their families, to plan
the provision of services and to develop public policies to respond to the identified needs.
Direct registration
Case work
Children and their families
Information system description
Aurora is a child protection platform developed by UNICEF Romania to support the
implementation of the UNICEF Minimum Package of Services (MPS) model.
The platform
enables community workers in identifying vulnerable children, assess the vulnerabilities
of children and their families, manage cases and services provided, and monitor and
integrate social workers’ and other community workers’ activities at the local level.
Initial challenge
Aurora was developed by UNICEF Romania in 2014 as an easy-to-use Android application
and web platform that allows for the identification and case management of vulnerable
children and their families (including the provision of basic services, monitoring and
evaluation).
The initial challenge was to better understand the threats faced by the
“invisible” children from the poorest communities in Romania and to address them
through an integrated response.
Results
The CMIS was initially used in rural communities in 8 counties of North-East
Romania. Starting in 2015, Aurora was deployed in 45 rural and urban localities
from Bacău County as supporting infrastructure in the Minimum Package of Services
(MPS) model.
Until now, 48,247 households with a total of 118,197 persons, out of
which 49,473 children have been assessed, supported, and continuously monitored.
As a result of successfully piloting the MPS model, in 2020 the Social Assistance
Law No 292/2011 was modified by introducing the minimum package of services for
children and families at the national level (taking over the UNICEF MPD model and AURORA).
INTAKE POINT:
Direct registration
The entry point in Aurora is direct registration performed by the social workers. In
the first phase, a community census of households with children is carried out.
Information about all families with children is registered in Aurora. Based on the data
collected, the children's and the household's vulnerabilities are assessed.
Corresponding
to the identified needs, the vulnerable children and their families receive a dedicated
package of services (of basic, integrated services in health, education, and
social/child protection).
Most services are targeted to children, yet some are addressed
to parents or other adults in the household, such as pregnant women.
LEVEL OF CASE MANAGEMENT:
Case work
Aurora supports local teams of social, health, and education workers throughout their case
management process. It facilitates assessment of risks faced by children and their families,
provision of services (information, counseling, accompaniment, assistance), referral to
additional/specialized services, monitoring of beneficiary families, and facilitation of
multi-professional teams' intervention.
It also integrates a second coordination layer
with county supervisors and a national layer for monitoring and evaluation.
POPULATION GROUP SERVED:
Children and their families
Aurora facilitates the case management of vulnerable children and their families, from
needs assessment to providing a minimum package of services and monitoring and evaluation.
CMIS EXISTING AND ACTIVE?
Yes
YEAR OF LAUNCH
2015
REGISTERED OPERATORS
(All unique users):
(All unique users):
About 300 community workers and professionals from 45 rural and urban communities in Bacău County and in Brașov Municipality.
BENEFICIARIES SUPPORTED
BY THE CMIS:
(From the start of the program)
BY THE CMIS:
(From the start of the program)
In Bacău County, 48,247 households with a total of 118,197 persons, out of which 49,473 children have been assessed.The percentage of vulnerable children in 2021 is about 40% of all assessed children, declining from a high 70% reported in the 2018 AURORA project evaluation study. These vulnerable children targeted by the minimum package of services accounted, in 2018, 0.5% of the total population of children in Romania and over 15% of the total population of children in Bacău County.
