The chapters in this book discuss the complexity immediately encountered when approaching the task of improving the lives of Looked After Children (LAC).

This article describes the Blueprints database of evidence-based programmes (EBPs) and its potential application in children's services in European countries.

This article describes the results of a meta-analytic review aimed at providing an estimate of the prevalence of physical and emotional neglect by integrating prevalence figures from the body of research reporting on neglect. It discusses and makes recommendations on the dearth of studies investigating the prevalence of child neglect, despite evidence of its severe consequences on millions of children, and a global prevalence estimated to be above 15%.

When orphans in Ukraine reach adulthood, some are deemed "incapacitated" - a label that consigns them to a life in institutions. But many of these young people may have nothing wrong with them at all. It is an official classification in Ukraine that critics say strips the bearer of basic human rights.

This paper presents findings from the first-ever study of kinship care in the UK using census micro data.

This report presents findings of a study on the childhood and family backgrounds of 1,435 participants who were newly incarcerated in 2005 and 2006 in the United Kingdom. The report has a special focus on the experiences of abuse and care placement in childhood.

This study aimed to establish the effect of brief, in-home intensive family preservation programs on prevention of out-of-home placement, family functioning, child behavior problems and social support.

TransMonEE is a database that captures a vast range of data on social and economic issues relevant to the situation and wellbeing of children, adolescents and women in 28 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States and the European Union. This document includes inter-country comparisons of data on several issues related to children’s care.

This article provides an update on a series of projects that have highlighted the issue of institutionalization of children in Europe, arguing that babies and small children aged less than 3 years old, with or without disability, should not be placed in residential care without a parent or primary caregiver.

This edition of Insights produced by UNICEF summarizes the findings and recommendations of studies on the impact and outreach of social protection systems in Albania, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine where high rates of child placement in formal care still persist. The research offers important insight into the weaknesses and challenges faced by social protection systems in the region, but also point to ways in which policy-makers might maximise the impact of social protection systems in order to ‘keep families together’.