This report provides an in-depth analysis of the situation of children in alternative care and in adoption in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) based on available data from TransMonEE, as well as other sources such as MICS, DataCare and the Conference of European Statisticians (CES). It marks the first analysis of data on children in alternative care by the UNICEF ECA Regional Office since the publication of the ‘At home or in a home’ report in 2010, highlighting the developments and challenges in collecting and reporting data on children in alternative care and adoption and summarises recommendations derived from recent data review initiatives.
Main findings, conclusions and recommendations
Children in alternative care and adoption
According to UNICEF estimates based on data from national surveys and social service administrative records, there are still nearly half a million children (around 456,000) living in residential care in the Europe and Central Asia region. This is equivalent to a rate of 232 per 100,000 children aged 0-17 years and is the highest rate of all regions worldwide and is higher than the global average of 105 per 100,000 children.
- The rates of children in formal alternative care have reduced since 2010, but the rates have not changed substantially in many countries since 2015.
- The composition of the types of care available in the formal alternative care system has changed substantially.
- Formal guardianship and kinship care account for around two-thirds of formal family-based care provision, while formal foster care represents around onethird across the countries reporting data to TransMonEE, for which there are data in 2021.
- Children with disabilities are over-represented in formal alternative care, particularly in residential care.
- Young children appear to no longer be at greater risk of being in formal alternative care than older children and are more likely to be in family-based care than residential care.
- Young adults are being left behind in residential care.
- Children in informal care and in boarding schools are technically in alternative care but are not monitored by the system of formal alternative care in many countries.
Data and indicators on children in alternative care
- TransMonEE has shown that it can coordinate data collection and validate data using a common set of indicators across 27 countries.
- Consistent application of agreed definitions and quality standards for data management for core indicators is required to enable cross-country comparability.
Recommendations for improved data comparability
- Continue efforts to develop and adopt a global set of core indicators and standard disaggregation variables and improve data comparability.
- UNICEF can develop an annual report card system for all countries in the ECA region using the three core indicators recommended by CES and disaggregation by sex, age, and disability.
- A more comprehensive and in-depth analysis should be conducted every 3-5 years using the full set of 26 TransMonEE alternative care and four child disability indicators.
- Continue to invest in the TransMonEE approach.
- Further work is needed to define indicators and address monitoring children in boarding schools and in informal care.
