The objective of this analysis is to provide a better understanding of the government spending towards foster care and residential care services for children deprived of parental care, as well as to estimate the cost per child of such services. The analysis is intended to support advocacy efforts towards the closure of residential care institutions in Moldova.
Introduction
This analysis on the costs for family-type care and residential care was drafted by a team from Ecorys, under the project titled “Supporting the capacities of LPAs of the EU4Moldova focal regions on formulating, implementing and reporting on child-friendly budgets”. The project aims to improve the link between social policies for children and youth and public budgets and budgeting processes. The objective of this analysis is to provide a better understanding of the government spending towards foster care and residential care services for children deprived of parental care, as well as to estimate the cost per child of such services. The analysis is intended to support UNICEF advocacy efforts towards the closure of residential care institutions in Moldova.
Methodology
In developing this assessment, the team followed the UNICEF Guidelines for preparing budget briefs though this was not always possible, primarily due to data limitations which do not allow for analysis on all topics covered in a typical budget brief.
To achieve the objective of this analysis, the methodology consisted of the following activities:
- Data collection.
Data identified as needed for the purposes of this analysis consisted of the number of children in foster care and residential care, as well as government expenditure data broken down by type of care service. Data was collected for the time period covering 2017 to 2021. For the case study, information on the number of foster care and residential care beneficiaries, as well as the expenditure from the “Nufărul Alb” Community Centre in Glijeni/ Fălești was collected.
Statistics on the children deprived of parental care, those in foster care and in residential care were sourced from Report 103 – Statistical Information on the Children at Risk and Children Separated from their Parents, released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Protection and published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Financial data was retrieved from two BOOST Databases covering 2017-2020 and 2018-2021, published by the Ministry of Finance. In addition, information on the number of children cared for in “Nufărul Alb” Community Centre and related expenditure data was provided to the team by the Social Assistance Department in Fălești.
- Data curation.
Report 103 was only available in non-editable format on a yearly basis, so the relevant data was extracted and converted it into a format that allows manipulation. As the methodology for the compilation of this statistical report is not publicly available, the team confirmed verbally with MoHLSP staff what services and residential institutions are captured in the report. The relevant budget data was also extracted and selected budget lines were manually matched with the specific categories of service beneficiaries identified in Report 103. Data received from the Social Assistance Department in Fălești was validated with the information in the BOOST database.
- Analysis.
A quantitative data analysis was undertaken to examine trends and changes over the period under analysis and draw insights from them. Costs per child were calculated per type of service using the statistics on beneficiary children and the expenditure information which matched the respective beneficiary category in the budget.
