This study examines factors associated with unplanned placement changes among children living in children’s homes in England. Using national administrative data, it explores how child characteristics and provider-level factors influence placement stability and breakdown.

This brief describes how UNICEF works with the Government of Ukraine and partners, including civil society, across three mutually reinforcing pillars to improve the protection and wellbeing of children returning and reintegrating.

Children in Europe and Central Asia who are at risk of, in, or transitioning from alternative care face significantly higher rates of mental health challenges, which can contribute to family separation, placement instability, and poor reintegration outcomes. This paper highlights the urgent need to integrate mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) across the continuum of care and provides practical, evidence-based guidance for governments and practitioners to embed mental health promotion, prevention, and care into child protection systems.

This webinar, held March 27, 2026 by the Care Leaders Council, provided an international exchange among people with lived experience in care, aimed at analyzing regulatory progress, best

This study of adolescents in residential care in Portugal found that perceptions of psychological adjustment differ significantly between adolescents and their caregivers, with adolescents consistently reporting more emotional, behavioral, and peer-related difficulties. The findings highlight low agreement between informants and emphasize the need for multi-informant, developmentally sensitive assessments, greater inclusion of adolescents’ perspectives, and improved caregiver training and tailored mental health support.

This article reports on a new cross-party committee report urging the UK government to apologise to the thousands of people forcibly adopted as infants between 1949 and 1976. At least 185,000 children were taken from their mothers without consent, a practice survivors describe as traumatic and life-altering.

This article from MaltaToday offers a behind-the-scenes look at the realities of foster care in Malta, using the example of urgent, late-night placements to illustrate the system’s challenges. It follows the work of child protection services, where professionals may receive emergency calls—sometimes in the middle of the night—to quickly find safe homes for young children removed from their families due to neglect, abuse, or other complex circumstances.

This study examines foster parents’ perspectives on Albania’s foster care system to identify policy and implementation gaps in family-based alternative care. Findings highlight legal inconsistencies, resource constraints, and coordination challenges, underscoring the need for stronger support systems and more coherent implementation to ensure effective child protection and deinstitutionalization efforts.

This article explores the experiences of non-Roma foster parents who raise Roma children in the Czech Republic, where Roma children persistently remain over-represented in institutional care. Drawing on the Critical Race Theory and thematic narrative analysis, the study examines how foster parents navigate issues of ethnicity, stigma and institutional bias.

This BBC News article reports that the forced deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia has been classified by the United Nations as a crime against humanity.