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The Opening Doors 2018 country factsheets provide an update about the progress with the transition from institutional to family- and community-based care (also known as deinstitutionalisation). The new generation of country snapshots covers 12 EU Member States, 2 EU pre-accession and 2 EU neighbouring countries. This factsheet highlights the developments and challenges still ahead in Belgium and offers key recommendations to the EU and the national government to ensure that children are cared for in family-based settings.
The Opening Doors 2018 country factsheets provide an update about the progress with the transition from institutional to family- and community-based care (also known as deinstitutionalisation). The new generation of country snapshots covers 12 EU Member States, 2 EU pre-accession and 2 EU neighbouring countries. This factsheet highlights the developments and challenges still ahead in Austria and offers key recommendations to the EU and the national government to ensure that children are cared for in family-based settings.
The 2017 country factsheets provide an update on the status of child protection and care reforms from 16 European countries that are the focus of Opening Doors for Europe’s Children campaign in Phase II. The latest compilation of data identifies key achievements and gaps towards DI reforms in each participating country across member states, pre-accession countries and countries within the EU neighbourhood. The evidence focuses on policies that regulate deinstitutionalisation and prevention of child abandonment; engagement of civil society; existing know-hows;…
Executive Summary
Across Europe hundreds of thousands of children are growing up in institutional care. The consequences are devastating for children, devastating for families and ultimately, devastating for society as a whole.
The Opening Doors for Europe’s Children Campaign seeks to improve the quality of life of children and young people in, at risk of entering, or leaving institutional care across Europe by promoting the transition from institutional to family-based care, also called deinstitutionalisation (DI). Through coordinated advocacy at national and EU level…
This article is part of a special edition of the journal Psychosocial Intervention (Volume 22 No.03 December 2013) focused on the state of child protection in a wide variety of countries with special attention to out-of-home care placements, principally family foster care and residential care, tough several aspects related to adoption were included as well.
While there is a large difference in the number of young inhabitants in the Netherlands and Germany, their child protection frameworks are quite…
This article is part of a special edition of the journal Psychosocial Intervention (Volume 22 No.03 December 2013) focused on the state of child protection in a wide variety of countries with special attention to out-of-home care placements, principally family foster care and residential care, tough several aspects related to adoption were included as well. The articles in this special edition review the systems and practice in 16 countries chosen to represent very different cultural contexts,…
Institutions are often referred to as ‘orphanages’, but the term is misleading: in reality, the broad majority of children in institutions in Europe still have one or even both parents alive. For many, separation from the birth family could have been prevented with a timely provision of assistance and support. For others, a nurturing environment could be found in the enlarged family, a foster family or a family-like setting.
This briefing paper by Eurochild and Hope and Homes for Children seeks to address some of the key…
This paper by Eurochild and Hopes and Homes for Children aims to raise awareness on the perverse effects of institutionalisation on children and it calls for comprehensive system reforms, starting with a transition towards family and community-based care. The UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children clearly speak in favour of such evolution: “where large residential care facilities (institutions) remain, alternatives should be developed in the context of an overall de-institutionalisation strategy, with precise goals…
This publication by SOS Children’s Villages International brings together research findings, learning and policy recommendations about sibling relations in alternative care gathered from the experiences of five different SOS Children’s Villages associations. The SOS Children’s Villages associations in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Spain worked together to develop the content of this publication, in cooperation with external experts and academic institutions. The overall purpose of the report is to draw attention to the importance of sibling…
Many European countries have high rates of young children in institutions, where the physical care of the child predominates, with social/emotional needs a secondary concern. Institutional care is a very poor substitute for positive family care, increasing the risk of development delay, attachment difficulties, neural growth dysfunction and mental health disorders. This article provides an update on a series of projects that have highlighted this issue in Europe, arguing that babies and small children aged less than 3 years old, with or without disability, should not be placed in residential…