This study explores how children living in children’s homes in Luxembourg experience their daily lives, revealing that while many feel sad or worried, they also demonstrate resilience and the ability to find joy. The findings highlight that children feel better when adults listen and take them seriously, and that additional support with school and caring relationships can improve their well-being.

This article presents a comparative analysis of the Czech Republic and Colombia’s implementation of the United Nations Guidelines for Alternative Family Care. Based on secondary data, it identifies a shared adherence to the UN framework; a strong Czech system for alternative caregivers’ selection, training and support; a deep ethical commitment of Colombian foster families to ensure children’s well-being, despite limited resources; and the relevance of supporting parents at risk of having their children removed from their care and integrating the effects of unplanned migration into alternative care strategies.

This study examines Norwegian birth parents’ perspectives on the support they need for successful family reunification, revealing significant gaps in guidance, financial assistance, and help mobilizing social networks. The findings underscore that low trust in child welfare services can hinder parents’ willingness to accept support, highlighting the need for stronger institutional collaboration and tailored assistance before, during, and after reunification.

The Children’s Commissioner’s report “The Criminalisation of Children in Care” reveals a deeply concerning pattern: children in care in the UK are disproportionately drawn into the criminal justice system, often for low-level incidents that, in a family setting, would be handled without police involvement. To address this, the Commissioner calls for a strengthened, statutory protocol among police, local authorities, and youth services; better diversion pathways; a more child-friendly prosecution process; increased legal aid and training; more stable, high-quality care placements; and improved data sharing to monitor and prevent harmful police involvement.

This article examines how care leavers navigate their relationships with biological mothers and fathers. It is based on a qualitative study from Austria, which focused on social networks and family relationships of 18-to 27-year-old care-experienced youth.

This study, based on vignette-based focus group discussions with social workers in Norway and Sweden, examines how they balance children’s cultural, ethnic, religious, and linguistic continuity with other needs when matching migrant-background children with foster families, revealing a complex process shaped by the child’s and parents’ wishes, foster carers’ capacities, and organizational constraints. While social workers value cultural continuity, they often prioritize more urgent care needs—especially amid a significant shortage of foster families—creating a risk that children’s rights and needs related to their cultural background may not be fully met.

This article reviews how ‘success’ is defined for young adults, comparing academic and care-experienced perspectives with the narrow statutory outcome measures currently used for care leavers in England. It finds that existing measures are limited and advocates for a more comprehensive approach that centers care leavers’ own definitions of success.

This article examines the socialization and education of orphaned children in Ukraine amid the war, highlighting the psychological trauma, deprivation, and social challenges they face. It calls for reforms in caregiver training, trauma-informed education, and the adoption of a personal paradigm approach that supports each child’s development, resilience, and self-realization.

This report from the UK Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, reviews progress and challenges in children’s social care since she began her term in 2021. It highlights persistent failures to uphold children’s rights and presents a vision for transformative reform centered on those rights.

The report is an attempt to capture the complex and difficult situation faced by unaccompanied children seeking international protection at the Polish-Belarusian border. It describes the legal and factual state of affairs in 2024.