This report from Save the Children outlines the rapid development that takes place in the brain in the early years of life and the crucial role that caregivers play in supporting this development. 

This article presents an overview of the Polish system of foster welfare, its regulations by law and directions for further transformation. 

La question spécifique de l’entourage familial des enfants placés dans le cadre de la protection de l’enfance apparaît tout particulièrement complexe et intéressante. Les questions relatives aux trajectoires individuelles des membres de l’entourage familial des enfants placés dans le cadre de la protection de l’enfance sont rarement pas analysées et méritent une attention particulière. 

25 experts ont accepté de partager le fruit de leur réflexion afin de questionner l’effectivité des droits des enfants en France, en 2015. La seule réflexion qui doit guider pouvoirs publics comme société civile est finalement bien celle qui conduit à mesurer les écarts entre les droits formels et les droits réels des enfants

This report describes the situation and experience of families during the economic crisis and examines how family-focused policies have changed since 2010 in the European Union.

A group of activists who were formerly raised in Romania's communist-era orphanages have created an association called Federeii. The group is pushing Romanian authorities to recognize and apologize for a variety of abuses committed against an estimated 500,000 children in the country's orphanages that existed before the end of the Cold War. The abuse and neglect, including physical and sexual abuse, are discussed in the article. 

Professor Robbie Gilligan discusses a “policy blind spot” in Ireland resulting from a lack of data collection on the education of children in the care system, including the percentage of those children who go on to university. Ireland recently launched a new National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2015-2019 to improve access to education for disadvantaged groups, but the new plan is silent on the educational needs for children in care. 

Published jointly with UNICEF, this new BCN Working Paper focuses on the role of gatekeeping in strengthening family-based care and reforming alternative care systems. This Working Paper reviews different approaches to gatekeeping in five countries--Brazil, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Moldova, and Rwanda--to consider what has and has not worked, to analyze lessons learned from practice, and to reflect on the implications for improving policy and programs in this area.

The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) examined the outcomes for children who were originally placed in institutions; these children were randomized into two groups and followed longitudinally, with some being moved into foster care and others remaining in institutional care. This study reports on the brain electrical activity (electroencephalogram, or “EEG”) of 12-year-old children in this study, in order to examine the impact of movement to foster care after early psychological deprivation as a result of institutionalization. 

In this article, a Human Rights Watch researcher describes her personal experiences meeting adults and children in the Western Balkans who have spent their lives hidden away in institutions because they have a disability.