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This article discusses how at the end of the Soviet Union the world was alerted to the situation of thousands of children living in large residential institutions across countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) region.
The study discusses a variance in results in eliminating use of large-scale residential institutions for children across the CEE/CIS region. In particular, there was noticeable variance between Bulgaria and Ukraine. The researcher investigated this variance using a comparative case study approach. The researcher…
Published jointly with UNICEF, this new BCN Working Paper focuses on the role of gatekeeping in strengthening family-based care and reforming alternative care systems. Gatekeeping refers to systematic procedures aimed at ensuring that alternative care for children is used only when necessary, and that the type of care provided is suitable to the individual child. This Working Paper reviews different approaches to gatekeeping in five countries--Brazil, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Moldova, and Rwanda--to consider what has and has not worked, to analyze lessons learned from practice, and to…
Gatekeeping has been widely promoted as a key strategy to combat the unnecessary institutionalisation of children. This paper by Andy Bilson and Cath Larkins provides details of research into the gatekeeping system in Bulgaria for children under three and examples from recent Bulgarian and international practice, with a particular focus on the experience in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS). The authors note that although gatekeeping remains a central approach to reduce institutionalisation, and…
A major ministerial conference on ending the placement of children under three in institutional care was held in Sofia, Bulgaria on 21 and 22 November 2012. Organized by the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria in collaboration with UNICEF, it brought together representatives of twenty governments from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, experts from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, international and local NGOs and the academic world to discuss strategies and emerging good practices to support vulnerable families…
This report was prepared by Dr Andy Bilson, Professor of Social Work at the University of Central Lancashire, at the request of the UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS. This report looks at children who enter institutional care because of being without parental care, children with disabilities, child victims of abuse and children in conflict with the law. The aim is to identify key routes through the systems in order to understand the nature of the difficulties that lead children to be placed in institutions and thereby to be able to identify alternative strategies that will better support…
The following is a summary of the Bulgarian experience in implementing a comprehensive reform of the care and protection system for children at-risk.
It shows the achievements as well as the lessons learned during this challenging process, exploring identification and implementation of reform priorities, the Bulgarian experience of reducing rates of institutionalization, capacitating the social welfare sector and citizen constituency to support foster care development, and responding to social attitudes around at risk children and family and community based care.
The reforms undertaken during the transition to a market economy have had an uneven and divergent social impact on the countries within the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. It is now recognized by governments in many parts of the region that the policy of using institutional care for children with welfare needs is both ineffective and expensive. Despite reforms, the quality of care within institutions and in the new community- based services is still inconsistent and in many cases does not meet the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The…