This article discusses the use of institutional care for children in Europe and shows that it remains common place despite the evidence of harm for children, including attachment disorder and developmental delay.

Advocates for the right of children with disabilities to live in the community. Provides recommendations on how to ensure a successful transition from institutional to community-based care. Focuses on the importance of family support and the right to education.

This report presents the survey Kevin Browne and colleagues conducted in 33 European countries to identify the number and characteristics of children less than three placed in residential care without their parents for more than three months during the year ending December 31, 2003. The purpose was to assess the rate and cost of residential care as a response to children in adversity.

A comparative analysis of protection and care systems across Europe, focusing on the use of institutions, alternative forms of care placements, family support services, and the role of social workers in the process of child placement.

This report contains an overview of alternative care in Europe, the effects of institutions on children, statistical information and the different approaches of child protection systems within Europe. It includes reforming institutional care, foster care, post-care support, and the role of the social worker.

A document consisting of the policies and practices that will guarantee the promotion and protection of the rights of separated children in Europe. The Statement works as a framework for action and advocacy and makes references to relevant international and regional laws as well as policy and guidelines regarding progression of human rights protection and issues particularly affecting separated children.

This 15-month project aimed to map the number and characteristics of children under three placed in European institutions for more than three months without a parent as this information was previously unknown.

This publication provides an account of historical processes in Spain and Italy which have led to a transformation of social child protection policies and an abandonment of the most widely-used mechanism of social exclusion, namely institutionalization.

La question du placement en France a semblé avoir perdu de son intensité dans les années 1990 sans doute en raison de la baisse progressive du nombre de ceux-ci et des importantes réformes législatives intervenues depuis 1983. Elle est aujourd’hui à nouveau posée par des associations, des mouvements de défense des droits de l’homme et par le gouvernement. 

First published in 1999, this work draws together a multi-national collection of papers, and aims to stimulate the development of policy and practice in this often neglected area.