Dutch youth-protection agencies leave children under court protection orders without a caseworker for months and relabel their waiting lists, inspectors found.

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In a report published 25 September 2025, the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) and the Justice and Security Inspectorate found that the certified institutions that carry out court-ordered child-protection and youth-probation measures on the government's behalf still fail to give too many children timely protection, guidance and help. On 1 April 2025, 1,358 children with a court order were on a waiting or 'throughflow' list with no fixed caseworker (about 1,500 when the inspection began in October 2024); at least 31% of surveyed parents and children had gone through a period with no caseworker, and almost 40% had had four or more. The inspectors found cases where nothing had been done during the entire term of a supervision order, so judges had to extend it, and said agency boards made it look as if they were meeting their legal duty by calling waiting lists 'monitor lists' or 'work stock'. The inspectorates said the situation is virtually unchanged since they first flagged it in 2019, that a 2022 'temporary' staffing-shortage protocol has become permanent, and called on the two state secretaries responsible for the system to take the lead.

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