Family policy and family support systems in the Republic of Croatia

Predmet ovog rada je obiteljska politika i sustavi podrške obiteljima u Republici Hrvatskoj. Na početku su prikazane definicije obitelji i obiteljske politike, te određene demografske promjene kroz koje prolaze obitelji u Hrvatskoj te njihov utjecaj na obitelji. Nakon toga slijedi povijesni razvoj obiteljske politike kroz 4 najbitnije faze u kojima su postavljeni institucionalni temelji današnje obiteljske politike te koja se zadnjih godina, nakon pristupanja u Europsku Uniju, mijenja sukladno propisima europske pravne stečevine. Nakon toga se definiraju uže mjere obiteljske politike, a to su doplatak za djecu, rodiljni i roditeljski dopusti, porezne olakšice, te usluge ranog predškolskog odgoja i obrazovanja. O svakoj od mjera objašnjeno je od čega se sastoje, izneseni su određeni statistički podaci, te ključni problemi s kojima se susreću. Nakon užih mjera obiteljske politike govori se o ulozi lokalnih i regionalnih jedinica u obiteljskoj politici te mjerama koje su financirane od strane njih. Na kraju se govori i o podršci koja je pružena obiteljima tijekom Covid – 19 krize, krize koja je pogodila cijeli svijet i koja je još uvijek aktualna, a koja se uglavnom sastojala u donošenju preporuka za postupanje, a ne u nekoj učinkovitoj sustavnoj podršci.The subject of this paper is family policy and family support systems in the Republic of Croatia. At the beginning, the definition of family and family policy are presented, as long as some certain demographic changes that families in Croatia are going through and their impact on the family. This is followed by the historical development of family policy through the 4 most important phases in which the institutional foundations of today's family policy have been laid and which in recent years, after accession to the European Union, has changed in accordance with the acquis. After that, narrower measures of family policy are defined, and those are child allowance, maternity and parental leave, tax relief and early preschool education services. Each of the measures is explained what it is consisted of, certain statistical data are presented, and the key problems they are dealing with. After narrower family policy measures, the role of local and regional units in family policy is mentioned, as long as the measures that are financed from those units. Finally, there is talk of support provided to families during the Covid-19 crisis, a crisis that has hit the whole world and is still current, and which mainly consisted of making some recommendations for action, rather than some effective systematic support