2018 Country Factsheets

 

Commitment towards children’s transition from institutional to family- and community-based care in Europe grows, 2018 country fact sheets reveal

The Opening Doors for Europe’s Children – a pan-European campaign that advocates for strengthening families and ending institutional care – released 16 country fact sheets about the progress with the transition from institutional to family- and community-based care (also known as deinstitutionalisation) in 2018. The new generation of country snapshots covers 12 EU Member States, 2 EU pre-accession and 2 EU neighbouring countries[1].

Evidence reveals steady progress and growing commitment to the transformation of child welfare and child protection services in Europe. However, legislative and policy commitments and funding, including continued EU financial support, should be channeled more efficiently to close the gap between the closure of institutions and the development of a full range of prevention and alternative care options, as well as more individualised family and community-based support.

Through recommendations addressed to the European Union and national governments, the campaign bridges evidence with further actions to ensure sustainability of reforms, effective use of funds and better outcomes for children within and outside the EU.


Legal and policy context

In 2018, the Opening Doors campaign’s findings demonstrate that: 

    1. Comprehensive child protection reforms are currently being implemented in Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine with support of the national strategic frameworks on deinstitutionalisation (DI). Deinstitutionalisation frameworks in Hungary and Poland are not specifically dedicated to children and should be advanced along child-centred focus. There are no deinstitutionalisation strategies in Spain, Serbia, Belgium and Greece. We encourage national governments, the EU institutions and other donors to support countries to adopt comprehensive national deinstitutionalisation strategies and action plans for their implementation to proceed with sustainable reforms in child welfare and child protection.  
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    3. In 2018, countries across Europe continued to set the legislative and political priorities necessary to achieve deinstitutionalisation in a systemic and sustainable way. Bosnia and Herzegovina progressed with adoption of legislation on foster care and on the protection of families with children. In Greece, the long-awaited legislation on foster care and adoption came into force. The new Foster Care Act was adopted in Croatia. Ukraine adopted regulations on the provision of social services in the community, work of small group homes and allocation of public funds for inclusive education. Overall, these developments will enable better protection of children without parental care and help modernise child protection systems in Europe.
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    5. The lack of recent quantitative data on children without or at risk of losing parental care is a major impediment towards the implementation of national deinstitutionalisation strategies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Greece and Spain. The systematic collection of accurate data on the numbers and characteristics of children in care, the root causes of institutionalisation and the function of the child protection system as a whole is crucial and can help ensure better policies, improve the state’s ability to protect and promote children’s rights and lead to sustainable reforms.

 

Deinstitutionalisation in practice

  1. In 2018, family-based care[2] grew while institutions for children were in decline in the majority of the Opening Doors campaign countries. For example, in Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Serbia and Moldova, the number of children without parental care who grow up in foster and kinship families exceeded the number of children living in institutions. To support the development of family-based solutions, Bulgaria, Croatia and Estonia launched nationwide campaigns to promote foster care and to encourage recruitment of new foster carers for children without parental care. Austria is paving the way to improve the quality and access to family-based care for unaccompanied migrant children as alternative to reception centres. Regrettably, the dominant form of care for children in Greece and Ukraine is the use of institutions for children.   
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  3. Apart from the increase in the number of children in family-based care, the quality of family-based placements has also improved. For instance, according to a new law in Lithuania, each municipality has the duty to develop a network of care centres responsible for recruitment, training and support of professional foster carers. In Estonia, the national register of foster families ensures the quality of foster care across the country by assessing and monitoring the work of all foster carers. In Romania, in counties where DI projects are being implemented, there is a positive increase of foster care providers; foster care is seen as a viable option for children without parental care and is preferred by local authorities. In 2018, Bosnia and Herzegovina introduced mandatory training for foster carers and professionals in foster care.
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  5. Despite generally positive trend with the development of foster care in Europe[3], there is still an insufficient number of foster families in Croatia, Estonia, Romania and Greece. Our coordinators in Croatia, Hungary, Moldova and Ukraine report that support services for foster families are rare or insufficient. Often allowances provided for children are not covering even their basic needs. There is a lack of specialized foster care for children under the age of three and for children with disabilities. In Poland, the number of foster families in 2018 has dropped by 0.7% in comparison to 2016. This may be due to the lack of public awareness, inadequate professional support and low remuneration of foster families.
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  7. In 2018, we note that, in a handful of countries, there was a good uptake in the development and mainstreaming of community-based services to support families at risk/in need of social assistance or children with disabilities and to prevent children’s abandonment or institutionalisation. Countries such as Poland, Estonia, Bulgaria and Romania and Moldova have invested in preventative family support services[4]. However, their number, sustainability and outreach, particularly in less developed rural regions, is insufficient in Romania, Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine and Serbia.
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  9. There is a general concern in all 16 campaign countries that the child protection sector is underfinanced and lacks capacity to deal with transformation of welfare and protection services away from a reliance on institutions. There is an acute shortage of staff, poor material resources and high turnover of professionals who lack competency-based training and supervision to change the long-standing entrenched mindsets in child protection.

 

EU investments and support

    1. The process of deinstitutionalisation in EU Member States has been strongly supported by the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) including the European Social Fund, the European Regional Development Fund and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. Funding is allocated towards the closure of institutions, improving the quality and range of alternative care options, improvement of community-based services for children and young people ageing out of care, as well as families at risk. During current funding period, €76 million of structural funds have been allocated for the transition from institutional to family and community-based care in Lithuania. Both Bulgaria and Romania have allocated over €100 million, and over €90 million contributed to deinstitutionalisation reform in Latvia. Although EU structural funds have been allocated for deinstitutionalisation reforms in Greece, they have not been spent yet due to the lack of a national deinstitutionalisation strategy.
    2.  

    3. In pre-accession countries, €1,5 million was granted to Bosnia and Herzegovina under Instrument of Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) II to support the transformation of care institutions over the period of 2014-2017. Although IPA was used for DI reforms in Serbia in 2013, this commitment has not been reiterated recently, leaving the process of deinstitutionalisation reforms unfinished.
    4.  

    5. The Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) supported reception and integration of children in migration in Greece, Spain and Austria. However, more needs to be done to ensure that EU funds support the realization of national strategic policy frameworks aimed at protection and integration of children in migration rather than ad-hoc activities
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    7. There are challenges with the use of EU funds for deinstitutionalisation for children across EU Member States. Evidence from Croatia and Romania suggests that in 2018 there were considerable delays in launching EU calls for funding deinstitutionalisation reforms. Civil society in Hungary and Poland is concerned that EU funds are predominantly used to modernise existing facilities or to build small institutions. 

 

Looking ahead: Recommendations to the European and national stakeholders

 

While steady progress towards the transition to family and community-based care is being made, much remains to be done. Based on the evidence presented in 2018 country fact sheets, the Opening Doors for Europe’s Children campaign recommends the following further actions that will help achieve the end of institutional care for children and ensure sustainability of reforms, effective use of funds and better outcomes for more children.

European Commission

  • Support Member States to strengthen or develop national deinstitutionalisation strategies and action plans, in line with international human rights obligations including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), ratified by the EU; the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), ratified by all Member States, and the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children.
  • Provide effective oversight of how EU funds are supporting the implementation of the ex-ante conditionality 9.1 (called enabling condition in 2021-2027 programming period) on the National strategic policy framework for social inclusion and poverty reduction, including measures for the shift from institutional to community-based care.
  • Ensure that all EU funds including AMIF do not create parallel child protection systems for children on the move and are used in line with international human rights and humanitarian law and EU aquis.
  • Ensure that the strengthening of child protection systems and the promotion of transition from institutional to family- and community-based care remain as investment priorities in all internal and external EU funding regulations in the 2021-2027 programming period.
  • Ensure the effective application of the Partnership Principle and the European Code of Conduct throughout the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the EU-funded programmes.

Member states

  • Ensure that national deinstitutionalisation strategies and action plans are aligned with international human rights treaties including the UNCRPD, the UNCRC and the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children.
  • Ensure that EU funds are used in line with the ex-ante conditionality 9.1 (called enabling condition in 2021-2027 programming period) on the National strategic policy framework for social inclusion and poverty reduction.
  • Ensure that projects and newly developed services funded by the EU continue to be supported in the future through national funding and resources.
  • In line with the Partnership Principle, ensure that civil society and service users have an active and meaningful role in decision-making regarding policies and the use of EU funds for child protection reforms.
  • Channel EU funds and national budgets towards the strengthening of national child protection systems. Ensure that the strengthening of child protection systems and the promotion of transition from institutional to family- and community-based care remain as investment priorities in the 2021-2027 programming period.
  • Address the implementation of deinstitutionalisation as a complex process and not simply as closing institutions through a comprehensive approach including preventive social work with families and children, the development and provision of a whole range of quality alternative care options and efficient services for children ageing out of care as well as inclusive education.
  • Ensure that children in migration are not detained due to their legal status and have access to mainstream services and quality family- and community-based care as their peers.

Full list of latest Opening Doors country fact sheets is available here. For earlier versions please check 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 fact sheets.

The 2018 fact sheets were produced by: FICE Austria, FICE Croatia, FICE Spain, La Port Ouverte in Belgium, Hope and Homes for Children in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, and Ukraine, CCF/HHC in Moldova, National Network for Children in Bulgaria, in Estonia, Roots Research Center in Greece, Family Child Youth Association in Hungary, SOS Children’s Villages in Latvia and Lithuania, Child and Family Foundation in Poland and MODS in Serbia. They are updated by the National Coordinators of the Opening Doors campaign on an annual basis and are primarily sourced from the official state sources.

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[1] EU Member States include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Spain; EU pre-accession countries include Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia; EU neighbouring countries include Moldova and Ukraine.

[2] A form of alternative care in which the child is placed with a family other than the family of origin (e.g. kinship care, foster care).

[3] For example, in Bulgaria, the number of children in foster care have increased by 200% since 2007; in Moldova, the number of professional foster care families increased 9 times and the number of children in foster care increased 15 times since 2006.

[4] e.g. Family Assistants Programme, Infant+ Programme, Good Start Programme and Day Care Centers