Derya Yanık, Minister of Family and Social Services, stated that the focus of the services they provide to citizens is the support and empowerment of the family in her presentation at the Plan and Budget Commission of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, and said: “Our Ministry aims to improve its capacity and services regarding social services and aids targeting the whole society in 2023, and to develop new service models and areas. It will continue to develop and produce solutions to new challenges and risks that will arise.”

Indicating that social service centres (SHM) provide all citizens with the support they need through social service models under one roof, Yanık said that 393 SHMs have been opened throughout the country since 2013, and they aim to increase the number to 400 by the end of this year and to 410 in 2023. Yanık stated that within the scope of the Family Social Support Program (ASDEP), 4.6 million households have been visited by 4,802 ASDEP officials to date.

Pointing out that the fight against addiction has an important place in the development of healthy generations, Yanık noted that more than 1 million people were trained with the Substance Use Risk and Prevention from Substance Addiction trainings within the scope of Türkiye's Addiction Trainings and Family Education Program carried out in cooperation with the Green Crescent.

"We are approaching the end of the project for Romani citizens"

Yanık stated that they continue to work towards improving the living conditions of Romani citizens in the fields of education, health, employment, housing and social services, and said, "We are approaching the end of the Project for Establishing an Effective Monitoring, Evaluation and Coordination Mechanism for the Romani Strategy Document (ROMSID). The Strategy Paper and Action Plan for Romani Citizens (2016-2021) has come to an end. Our Ministry has started to work on a new strategy document and action plan. We have prepared and completed the Strategy Paper for Romani Citizens (2022-2030) and the Phase 1 Action Plan (2022-2025).”

Emphasizing that the foundation of a strong society is the well-being of children, who are the the future, Yanık said, "We provide our services for our children in 3 stages. The first is to support children socially and economically with their families. Secondly, if this is not possible, providing them with a foster family and a family environment through adoption by taking them under institutional care. If this is not possible, our children, who are under institutional care, are able to sustain their lives in our children's home sites and children's homes where we try to establish a family format. Since 2002, the rate of children benefiting from our family-oriented services has increased from 39 percent to 91.8 percent.”

Informing that within the scope of the Social and Economic Support (SED) service, an average of 2,337 lira and 31 cents per child per month is provided, Yanık said, "As of September 2022, the number of children actively benefiting from the SED service is 147 thousand. At the same time, we provide support to children to whom we provide SED service, in terms of making use of their time in and out of school, within the scope of the School Support Project. In this context, we reached 31 thousand 643 children in 81 provinces."

Strengthening the Foster Family System Project

Pointing out that the number of children staying with foster families has increased 17 times in the last 20 years and reached 8 thousand 793, Yanık reminded that they will implement the Project for Strengthening the Foster Family System in Türkiye in order to further strengthen this system. Yanık stated that 18,779 children have been adopted so far within the framework of family-oriented services, 6 thousand 639 children reside in 113 children's home sites, and nearly 6 thousand children reside in 1191 children's homes.

Explaining that they established Child Protection and First Response units in order to determine the most appropriate service model for children, Yanık said, "The most appropriate service model for our children is determined in our 118 Child Protection First Response and Evaluation Units. 88 percent of our children who were accepted here were returned to their families."

Yanık said that they established the Specialized Children's Home Site to ensure the rehabilitation of children driven to crime and victims of crime, and that they designed the Child Support, Development and Education Program for children under protection and care in children's homes and children's home sites. Indicating that 312 children were placed in a higher education program after the university entrance exam this year, Yanık stated that there were 10 national athletes and 2,172 licensed athletes among the children under protection and care.

Emphasizing that 1511 children attend private schools free of charge in the 2021-2022 academic year, Yanık said that children who benefit from social service models but could not continue formal education are directed to vocational education in order to ensure their employment after coming of age.

"37,821 young people trained under state protection were employed in the public sector"

Reminding that young people who benefit from state protection are placed in public institutions 3 times a year, Yanık said, "Since 2002, 37 thousand 821 young people who have been trained under state protection have been placed in jobs in public institutions and organizations. With regulation, young people are appointed according to the characteristics of the department they graduated from.”

Indicating that the SSI premiums of the private sector that employs the children brought up in the care of the institution are covered by the ministry for 5 years, Yanık stated that the employment of 9,711 children in the private sector has been supported with the Private Sector Employment Incentive implementation.

The Minister of Family and Social Services, Yanık, said that child protection mobile teams took precautions regarding 37 thousand 52 children who were worked and begged on the street, and that close to 129 thousand monitoring and evaluations were made for children who were exposed to risk and provided social services within the scope of the Children are Safe Programme. Noting that according to TURKSTAT data, approximately 360 thousand of the 23 million children in the country are orphans, Yanık informed that 167 thousand of them benefit from the social services and assistances of the ministry.

Pointing out that private kindergartens, day care centres and private children's clubs, whose permits are given by the Ministry, are inspected at least twice a year, Yanık said that the number of private nurseries, day care centres and children's clubs, which was 1179 in 2002, reached 2 thousand 365 and there were nearly 86 thousand.

"Social Media Working Group continues its work"

Indicating that the Social Media Working Group within the Ministry, which identifies the risks that children may encounter in digital environments and carries out preventive studies, continues its work, Yanık stated that 1552 content has been interfered with in this context so far. Yanık said: "The Board for the Protection of Minors from Mischievous Publications has evaluated 22 thousand 197 periodicals and 72 books so far, and has stated that 36 books are harmful. In addition, 10 thousand 500 forensic expert reports on obscenity were prepared and sent to judicial authorities.”

1147 foreign national children in care institutions for children

Yanık drew attention to the fact that the studies on unaccompanied children who came to the country through irregular migration and were caught by law enforcement units are carried out on the basis of the best interests of the children, "As of September 2022, there are 1147 foreign national children, 525 of whom are Syrians, in our child care institutions. We continue to take care of children who came to Türkiye due to the Ukraine-Russia crisis within the scope of the Intervention Program for Children Coming from Ukraine to Türkiye."

Indicating that they stand with persons with disabilities and older persons in every field such as education, health, economy, and social life with inclusive, equitable and sustainable services, Yanık shared the following information:

“"We provide services in 104 public care and rehabilitation centres affiliated to our ministry, in line with their own or their guardians' requests, in order to compensate our 7 thousand 64 persons with disabilities who need special attention, support and protection, to compensate for their loss of function and to equip them with skills that will enable them to be self-sufficient in society. While in 2007, 10 private care centres provided services to 351 persons with disabilities with a capacity of 915, in September 2022, we offer residential care services to 26 thousand 491 persons with disabilities with a capacity of 30 thousand 693 in 304 private care centres. The care fees of 94 percent of these 26 thousand 491 persons with disabilities are covered by our ministry.”

"We transferred 36 million liras to YADES in 6 years"

Noting that the Elderly Profile Survey will be held for the first time this year, Yanık said that they aimed to create social indicators that address the services for older persons in Türkiye and the needs of older persons in a holistic manner and to obtain evidence-based data.

Yanık stated that 560,000 people benefited from the home care allowance service, which they started with the aim of providing care for persons with disabilities with their families and supporting them in their environment, and that approximately 79 billion liras have been paid to families who want to care for their family members with disabilities at home since 2006. Noting that 642 older persons are served in 37 day centres for older persons in order to increase the quality of life of older persons and to contribute to their active participation in social life, Yanık said, “Our Elderly Support Program (YADES), which we started in 2016, is currently ongoing. Within the scope of YADES, we transferred a total of 36 million TL in 6 years. For the projects to be carried out in 2022, we have increased the amount of resources we transferred to the projects to 39 million, with a further 3 million lira resource transfer."

11 times increase in the employment of persons with disabilities in the public sector

Referring to the works for the employment of persons with disabilities, Yanık stated that there has been an increase of more than 11 times since 2002 in the employment of persons with disabilities in the public sector.

Yanık stated that they plan to implement the 2nd National Action Plan for Persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (2023-2030), which will include necessary measures to implement programs that will change the lives of children with autism spectrum disorder and prepare them for the future, and to expand support services for their families, as soon as possible.

Indicating that the preparations for the "National Action Plan on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to Realize the Barrier-Free Vision", which will determine the roadmap of the country until 2030 in the field of disability, are continuing, Yanık stated that the Disability Rights Monitoring and Evaluation Board, which they formed, will hold its first meeting on November 15.

Yanık, stated that the biggest share in the development of societies belongs to women. Indicating that they will continue to work so that no woman will feel unattended, insecure and alone, Yanık said: "This perspective will further strengthen the position of women and will bring us closer to the goal of 'Strong Women, Strong Family, Strong Türkiye that we always express."

Noting that they have increased the female literacy rate among the population over the age of 6 from 79.9 percent to 95.5 percent, Yanık stated that the net schooling rate of girls at secondary education level increased from 45.2 percent to 89.3 percent. She also underlined that the net enrollment rate of women at higher education level rose from 13.5 percent to 49.2 percent.

Pointing out that the zero tolerance principle is extremely important in the fight against violence against women, Yanık said: "Violence against women is always our red line. Our work in this area continues with a wide range of topics, such as legislative work, training and awareness raising efforts, increasing cooperation and coordination among institutions, strengthening institutional mechanisms for the protection and support of women victims of violence, data collection and development of statistics within the framework of the zero tolerance principle.”

Reminding that the 4th National Action Plan on Combating Violence Against Women was in effect as of July 2021, Yanık reminded that they also put into effect the 2022 Action Plan on Combating Violence Against Women.

Yanık stating that the support continues to prepare the women staying in the shelters for life and to eliminate their disadvantages, said: "In 2022, we are conducting the 'Research on Violence Against Women in Türkiye with Prevention, Intervention and Policy Dimensions and the Effects of the Kovid-19 Epidemic. The results of the research are planned to be shared with the public at the end of this year. We have completed the preparatory work to realize the 'Creation of a Model Including Multifaceted Social Service Intervention for Perpetrators of Violence Project' in 2023."

Indicating that they plan to complete the third research on domestic violence against women in Türkiye in 2024, Yanık stated that developments related to women's rights and women's empowerment with international dimensions are followed.

"We employed 47,437 relatives of martyrs and veterans in the public sector"

Emphasizing that they care very much about the relatives of martyrs and veterans, Yanık said that they stand with the relatives of veterans and martyrs and veterans in many areas such as income support, the right to employment, health services, education, and they continue to do so. Yanık said: "We have provided employment for 6 thousand 315 relatives of veterans and martyrs and veterans in the public sector from 1995 to 2002, 10 thousand 187 from 2002 to 2014, and 30 thousand 935 since 2014, when this task was transferred to our Ministry. In total, we reached 47 thousand 437 employments.”

Reminding that the monthly payment to the relatives of martyrs and veterans has been increased from 1500 TL to 2 thousand 600 TL, Yanık said, "With the latest regulation, these payments have been increased to 4 thousand liras. Dedicated to July 15, 2 monthly payments are made in July. In addition, an additional 2 thousand lira payment was provided during religious holidays. To date, approximately 195 million TL have been transferred to the accounts of the rightful relatives of martyrs and veterans.”

The ratio of social assistance to gross annual product rose to 1.36 percent

Indicating that the social assistance expenditures, which were 1.3 billion TL in 2002, were increased to 97.8 billion liras in 2021 with all public institutions, Yanık said, "As a requirement of our social state understanding, the resources allocated to social assistance have increased, while the ratio of social assistance to gross annual product has also increased. The ratio of social assistance expenditures to gross annual product, which was only 4 per thousand in 2002, increased 4 times in 2021 to 1.36 percent.”

Yanık noted that they increased the number of social assistance programs to 50, which was 4 in 2002 when they came to power, and that the total number of single households currently benefiting from social assistance is 4 million 332 thousand 805.

Indicating that they will build 2023 houses for women whose husbands passed away, Yanık expressed that they care about employment-friendly social assistance.

Explaining that they held consultations regarding women, children, migration and humanitarian aid, persons with disabilities and older persons, relatives of martyrs and veterans within the scope of civil society meetings, Yanık also shared information on the ministry's activities abroad.

Indicating that the 2023 budget proposal of the Ministry is 149 billion 868 million 618 thousand liras, Yanık said, "Our Ministry will continue to improve its capacity and services regarding social services and aids targeting the whole society in 2023, to develop new service models and areas, and to find solutions to new challenges and risks that may arise.”

The 2023 budgets of the Ministry of Family and Social Services and its affiliated and related institutions were accepted in the Planning and Budget Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye.