This paper examines and compares the cost of maintaining and caring for a child in an internat with the cost of providing social support services to a child living in the community. It examines residential institutions and community services and comments upon their respective impacts upon and outcomes for children. The paper illustrates that residential care provides poor outcomes for children, such as poor psychosocial development and educational under achievement. It also demonstrates that the management of residential care is of its nature self serving and undermining of the principal objective of serving the best interest of the child, in compliance with UN Convention on Children’s Rights, ratified by the Republic of Moldova in 1993. A lack of adequate assessment of childrens’ needs in the process of deciding placement is also discussed.
©European Union, Moldovan Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, and EveryChild Consortium