아동복지법상 자립지원 대상자의 복지향상을 위한 법제 고찰

The child comes to be discharged from the relevant protective facilities given being terminated the protection of a child eligible for social self-reliance support. This leads to being confronted with various problems including social and economic difficulties, psychological anxiety and housing problems. Pressure and fear get into being experienced as saying that a person eligible for social self-reliance support should directly solve this problem. Accordingly, the child re-protection measure was prescribed through the partial amendment in 「Child Welfare Law」on February 6 of 2024. This resulted in having improved and supplemented some loopholes, which were shown in the operation of the current system, through the law revision such as raising the scope of children in need of self-reliance support from a presidential decree to a law and as including even those who have been deemed necessary by the Minister of Health and Welfare to be eligible for self-reliance support as a person who was finished the protective measures or left the corresponding facility before reaching the age of 18. This was aimed to contribute to enhancing the welfare in persons eligible for social self-reliance support by extending the scope of people eligible for self-reliance support. A variety of legal and institutional improvement measures are emerging with regard to those eligible for self-reliance support. But the effectiveness problem about welfare is still being brought up. The basis for the age and re-protection measures as to those eligible for self-reliance support has been established according to the revision of 「Child Welfare Law」. Nevertheless, there is a limit to promoting welfare through continuing to amend 「Child Welfare Law」. Hence, the ordinance for the improvement in the welfare of youth preparing for independent living, which is enacted as the local statute of several local governments, must become the applicable Act in the welfare of persons eligible for self-reliance support, by being enacted as a special law to upgrade the welfare of persons eligible for self-reliance support. Furthermore, there is a need to discover blind spots and to investigate the real condition of those eligible for self-reliance support in the fact-finding survey on self-reliance support under Article 38-2 of 「Child Welfare Law」. A fact-finding survey shall be conducted annually and reflected in the establishment of a self-reliance support plan. Moreover, In counseling for those eligible for self-reliance support, regular training of dedicated professionals and expansion of qualified professionals should be made to have expertise in the field. lastly, in a request for the appointment of a child's guardian in accordance with Article 19 of「Child Welfare Law」, there is necessity of expanding the scope of appointment of guardians for guardianship duties pertinent to persons eligible for self-reliance support after the release of the protective facilities, in terms of applying 「Act on the guardianship duties for minors in the protective facilities」to children under protection in the child welfare facilities. This legislative improvement leads to supporting effectively those eligible for self-reliance support, resulting in being likely capable of allowing them to adapt properly to society.