This manual is the main outcome of the European Commission Daphne III programme, Prevent and Combat Child Abuse: What works? Involving regional exchanges and research from five countries (Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands), this manual brings together knowledge on what works in tackling child abuse. The manual suggests evidence and practice-based prevention and response strategies against child abuse and neglect, including programs and services that have been shown to be successful in strengthening family care.

This presentation to the 2012 Sofia Conference introduces social services available in Belarus for the identification, intervention, care, and rehabilitation of children under the age of 3 with disabilities, in order to prevent their abandonment and placement in institutions.

This presentation to the 2012 Sofia Conference by Danica Kramarić, Head of Sector for the Promotion and Protection of Health, Croatian Ministry of Health, introduces how positive communication and engaged parenting are key deterrants of the placement of children with disabilities in institutions.

This presentation to the 2012 Sofia Conference by Darinka Yankova, Deputy Chairperson of the State Agency for Child Protection addresses the challenges and the new vision for the deinstitutionalization of children in the Republic of Bulgaria.

The Common European Guidelines on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care (‘the Guidelines’) provide practical advice about how to make a sustained transition from institutional care to family-based and community-based alternatives for individuals (including children) currently living in institutions and those living in the community, often without adequate support. 

This report gives an overview of the documentary reality TV series, “Life as it is-foster families,” which UNICEF in Bulgaria launched in 2010 as a part of its agenda to stop children under 3 years of age from being placed in institutions and to close the infant homes for institutional care.

This summary report describes the project UNICEF has undertaken with the government of Bulgaria to establish a nationwide regional approach to foster care development based on its pilot experience. The project included a national public awareness campaign, establishment of specialized foster care services, and capacity building of the statutory child protection bodies.

The Training, Support and Development (TSD) standards form part of a foster carer's induction into the role. They provide a national minimum benchmark that sets out what foster carers should know, understand and be able to do within the first 12-18 months after being approved.

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

This paper evaluates a program started by International Social Service for social and professional realisation of young people leaving care (Care Leavers Integration Programme, CLIP), ten years after the program began.