This report reflects on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on children. It compiles information gathered from 25 countries across Europe, and provides recommendations for improving public policies in the short and long-term to support better outcomes for children and families, including children in alternative care or at risk of separation.

"An adoptee identity rights organisation has called on the Government to commit to a national apology for the 'decades-long practice of concealing and obstructing access to records pertaining to mother and baby homes,'" according to this article from the Irish Examiner.

"According to new figures, 295 children who are in care do not have an up-to-date care plan," says this article from the Irish Examiner.

This letter, published in the Irish Times, calls for "a high-level national working group to address the cross-departmental responsibilities of the State to children in care, with a specific focus on meeting their holistic educational needs in a coordinated way, across all age levels."

"There has been slow but consistent growth in private foster care placements [in Ireland] and an increase in the number of companies in this market," writes Patrick Costello in this opinion piece for TheJournal.ie. "While these companies plug a gap in services, a gap that can leave children at risk, ultimately they lead to negative outcomes across the system," Costello argues.

A new Tusla-commissioned report reveals that "almost one-quarter of youths in care, or known to child protection services, who died over the last decade died as a result of suicide," according to this article from the Irish Times.

This article describes some of the findings from a new report on childcare law matters in Ireland, which has revealed many of the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on families of children in state care.

"The Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions have had a particularly heavy impact on vulnerable and marginalised children, none more so than those who require the protection of the State through the child care courts," says the Irish Times in this opinion piece.

"Concerns have been raised about how children in the Irish care system are coping during the coronavirus pandemic," says this article from the Irish Examiner.

This book examines how child protection law has been shaped by the transition to late modernity and how it copes with the ever-changing concept of risk.