This report was conceptualised jointly by Eurochild and the UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO) and builds on the Eurochild report on alternative care in Europe published in 2009. It also includes a full set of country profiles.

The DataCare Project was launched by Eurochild with support from UNICEF in March 2020. The project aims to carry out a comprehensive mapping of child protection data systems across the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) and the UK. In addition to providing an overview of the situation of children in alternative care in Europe, this project aims to inform EU efforts to agree to comparable benchmarks and indicators to monitor progress in child protection reforms across Europe.

The analysis of the Step Up to Social Work and Frontline programmes found participants of both, while highly trained and valued by employers, often found the move to a full caseload a “major step up”.

But it said that “dissonance” between an idealised conception of social work and experience of local authority practice – leading to “disappointment” – was much more pronounced among graduates of the latter programme.

Latvia's parliament on Thursday passed new amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Children Rights, under which American citizens would no longer be able to adopt Latvian children, member of parliament Artuss Kaimins told Sputnik on Thursday.

On this day, 30 years ago, the UK Government made a pledge to the United Nations that it would honour the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international human rights treaty containing comprehensive state obligations towards children.

‘Stronger and stricter’ intervention on child safeguarding is needed in light of the recent murders of two children in England by their own families, a county councillor has urged.

The use of the settings, which provide housing with limited or no support for children in care has been banned for under-16s. Campaigners had called for this ban to be extended for all under-18s.

But this week the government said the settings for 16- and 17-year-olds will be allowed to continue, and will be overseen by Ofsted from 2023 under a new set of mandatory national standards.

In a landmark ruling, the European Court of Justice on Tuesday (14 December) said same-sex parents and their children should be recognised as a family in all EU member states.

Putting this second national report on corporate parenting before the Scottish Parliament in line with their duties under Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, the Scottish Government provides an overview of corporate parents’ activities over the last three years. The report aims to become a useful learning resource for corporate parents.

The views and experiences of foster carers and services have been published in a new State of the Nation's Foster Care 2021 report from The Fostering Network. The findings are based on a survey of foster carers and fostering services across the UK.