Netherlands Cabinet Making Tender

The cabinet is making 613 million available to municipalities to solve acute problems in youth care. The cabinet and the VNG have made that agreement. With this money there will be room to expand the crisis capacity in youth mental health care and to tackle waiting times. In addition it has been agreed that municipalities and the national government will work on measures to improve the structural sustainability of the implementation of the Youth Act.The money is in addition to the previously pledged 300 million for 2021. Municipalities also previously received a total of 95.5 million from support packages for young people in the context of corona to provide accessible mental support to enable social activities and to target vulnerable target groups. support. Together this amounts to more than 1 billion.Relieve pressureState Secretary Blokhuis VWS The cabinet recognizes that the pressure on municipalities partly due to the corona crisis has increased sharply. It is very important that young people receive the care they need in good time. I am pleased that we have reached agreements in consultation with the municipalities that will ease the pressure in the short term. But this is just the beginning. The youth system is unsustainable in the long run and we therefore need to make spending more manageable. An important joint task. Tackle acute bottlenecksThe money is used to tackle a number of acute bottlenecks in youth care. For example the crisis capacity in youth mental health care will be temporarily expanded in order to better meet the greater demand for care which has partly been caused by corona. Part of the money will be used to tackle waiting times for specialist youth care in the region and to prevent waiting times in regions where there are no waiting times. Municipalities and central government are working out a waiting time approach which also focuses on improving the handling of complex cases. Money is also available to immediately help children young people and families who are now trapped in the system of the youth protection chain.Manageability of the youth systemIn order to offer young people who need it now and in the future suitable care it is necessary to increase the manageability of the youth system. The central government and municipalities are working on this and will intensify this further together in the form of a number of measures. This involves stimulating tariff differentiation and standardization of the implementation narrowing the medical referral route by referring only to contracted offerings and the broader introduction of a practice nurse for youth mental health care at the GP. As a result of the latter more young people can receive low-threshold assistance in general practice and a referral to specialist mental healthcare is not necessary for them.Fundamental choicesIn order to make the youth system manageable in the long term fundamental choices are necessary for example about the scope of the Youth Act and the policy freedom and role of municipalities in implementation. It is up to a new cabinet to decide on this. This involves a combination of measures and structural extra money.