Displaying 1 - 9 of 9
There is a firm commitment by the European Union and its Member States to the deinstitutionalisation of children in alternative care and support for their transition to care that is family and community-based. Children growing up in alternative care have very often experienced significant trauma before being placed in care. Residential care, in particular, is known to expose them to additional risks if it is not equipped to provide them with the individualised care they need for their healthy development and social inclusion. Children need stable and safe relationships with caring adults to…
Eurochild and UNICEF carried out the DataCare project to map alternative care data systems across the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU-27) and the United Kingdom (UK). They found that despite differing national definitions and categorisations of alternative care across the region, enough data being published at national level can be used at an aggregate level to establish comparable indicators on the number of children in residential care and three other relevant and interlinked indicators.
As the European Union does not currently have comparable and Europe-wide data to gauge the…
Child poverty in Europe was already unacceptably high before the COVID-19 virus outbreak. In 2018, one in four children in the European Union (EU) were already growing up at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The crisis has had devastating consequences for people across the continent and the evidence from this paper shows that children and their families have been further disadvantaged during the pandemic.
The financial pressure on families, the impact of the closure of services on children’s lives, the online education inequality and the impact of the crisis on refugee and migrant…
The provision of child protection services varies considerably across the world. This paper offers a broad overview of some of the main approaches to child protection used internationally. Using examples from Canada, Sweden, Belgium and the Gaza Strip, it offers policy-makers the chance to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, as well as how these examples might be used to inspire improvements within the Australian context.
This document discusses the means by which the Council for the Administration of Criminal Justice and Youth Protection in the Netherlands (the Council) can provide the highest level of protection for children placed in the intercountry adoption focus group. In doing this, the Council hopes provide an answer as to what intercountry adoption scenario is preferable.
The Council notes a sharp decline in the number of intercountry adoptions into the Netherlands over the past ten years. The report states that the positive aspect of intercountry adoptions is that children are…
The project Safeguarding Unaccompanied Migrant Minors from going Missing by Identifying Best Practices and Training Actors on Interagency Cooperation (SUMMIT), launched in October 2014, is co-funded by the EU under the Pilot Project “Analysis of reception, protection and integration policies for unaccompanied minors in the EU.” It was implemented through a partnership cooperation of six organisations, including Missing Children Europe, NIDOS, Defence for children-ECPAT, KMOP and Child Circle and TUSLA, the Irish Child and Family Agency, and the University of Portsmouth (UK).…
This joint memo was issued by a group of European organizations to clearly state their belief that the draft language on community living in the proposed EU Structural Funds Regulations should be amended to enhance the effect and to better advance the rights of children, persons with disabilities, and older people. The memo highlights the need to clarify and improve the text, and why this is necessary in order to uphold the international legal obligations of the EU to promote the right to community living, particularly for children, persons with disabilities, and older people.
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…
The UN Secretary General’s report on violence to children highlights the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which requires all member states to offer effective child protection services, giving paramount importance to the rights of the child (0-17 years) and their best interests. There has been a growing awareness among professionals that physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect of children does occur and its identification, assessment and management requires sensitive and careful handling by all involved.
The aim of this policy briefing is to give an overview of what…