This background paper was developed as part of a regional study which gathered relevant data and information on family support and alternative care in the eleven Member States of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS).

Government representatives, experts and professionals from the Baltic Sea Region including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, Sweden and wider Europe gathered at a two-day expert meeting in Tallinn, Estonia and, together, endorsed a set of recommendations and action plan on alternative care and family support on 6 May 2015.

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and comorbidity of mental disorders applying diagnostic interviews in an entire population of adolescents living in residential youth care (RYC) in Norway.

This article provides an overview of the current situation in the out-of-home care in Norway and Sweden. Development in later years is described and discussed, including the trends towards privatization of the welfare system in both countries and the role of private, commercial actors within the care sector including out-of-home care for children and young people.

This systematic review published by the Campbell Collaboration reviewed controlled experimental and quasi experimental studies in which children removed from the home for maltreatment and subsequently placed in kinship care were compared with children placed in non-kinship foster care for child welfare outcomes in the domains of well-being, permanency, or safety.

This report from SOS Children’s Villages and the University of Bedfordshire provides reviews and assessments of the implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in 21 countries around the world.

The aim of this article is two-fold. Firstly, to present a critical discursive analysis of young people's accounts of themselves in the transition from care. Secondly, to shed light on three different ways of making the transition from care; transition through a break with the past after moving out, transition through continuing change and transition as a way of dealing with the risk of further problems in their lives.

This paper presents the historical background for the development of child care in the Nordic countries, it presents some basic figures on child care take and take up of leave schemes as well as figures on child poverty in the Nordic countries.

In this meta-analysis of 75 studies on more than 3,888 children in 19 different countries, the intellectual development of children living in children's homes (orphanages) was compared with that of children living with their (foster) families.

The third newsletter of the European Coalition for Community Living. Articles focus on good practices in providing care for children with disabilities.