UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy launched a landmark global campaign to advocate for family-based care for all children across the globe. Lammy announced a Global Charter to work with governments around the world to progressively end the use of children’s institutions.
The Foreign Secretary and UK actor Barry Keoghan will push for every child across the globe to have the right to a safe and loving family environment on a visit to Bulgaria today (Friday 17 January).
As part of the campaign, the UK will lead a new global alliance to advocate for sustainable, lasting reform of children’s social care around the world. Six countries across four continents have already signed up to this alliance and are committed to driving forward progress on this issue. Partners include UNICEF, the UN Special Representative on Violence against Children, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, Paraguay, Philippines and Rwanda.
This includes strengthening families to prevent child separation and championing alternative forms of family-based care, such as kinship care, where a child is cared for by a family member, relative or friend. The alliance marks the first step in the Foreign Secretary’s campaign to progressively end the institutionalisation of children, which is up to five times more costly than family-based care. This will be followed by the launch of a Global Charter later this year.
Children brought up in family-based care are given better starts in life – breaking down the barriers to opportunity and giving them the chance to prosper within their local economies. The Foreign Secretary and Barry Keoghan will see how transformative this support can be at two children centres in Sofia who use education and extracurricular activities to accelerate vulnerable children’s development.