Impact of UN Guidelines on Foster Care and Institutional Care of young children in Europe and Central Asia Professor Kevin Browne & Dr Shihning CHOU Centre for Forensic & family psychology, Division of Psychiatry and Applied Psychology School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK. Kevin.browne@nottingham.ac.uk

Institutional care without a parent causes physical harm and neural damage to all young children.

Infants my be imprisoned behind their cot bars for up to 18 hours a day

United Nations General Assembly Report of the Human Rights Council on its 11th Session (A/HRC/11/37, Section 11/7, p.23) – Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (2010) – Related Publications

Country with children under 3 In Residential Care - 2013 Proportion per 10,000 Change since 2003 per 10,000 Change 2003 per 10,000 Bosnia & Herz* 9 +2 Sweden* 7 -1 Latvia 54 Germany 6 Lithuania 45 Montenegro -5 Bulgaria 43 -7 Turkmenistan* 5 Czech Republic 38 -22 Italy* -3 Malta 32 +5 Netherlands -11 Belarus 27 -18 Kyrgyzstan* 4 -2 Belgium* 26 -30 Tajikistan* Russia* 24 -15 Georgia 3 Moldova 16 +4 Kosova No Info. Albania* 15 +7 Serbia* 2 Kazakhstan* Turkey Romania 14 -20 Spain* -21 FYR Macedonia Uzbekistan* Hungary 12 -32 Azerbaijan 1 -4 Slovak Republic* 10 Denmark -6 Estonia -16 Norway <1 Croatia Ireland Poland +1 Cyprus Austria UK Armenia No info. Slovenia Finland -19 Iceland Total (45 countries) 12.8 -1.6

Young Children under 3 years in Care 2013: % residential care, % foster care and total number

Reasons for institutionalisation “Other” may be in prison or severe health problems of parent Major change for eu accession is turkey – said 49% are biological orphans (maternal mortality rate was 70 in 100,000) – previously similar percentage to EU

SOCIAL REASONS FOR RESIDENTIAL CARE Lack of community nurses and social workers Lack of home based assessments of children in need and their families Lack of free universal prevention services to reduce child abuse, neglect and abandonment (eg; positive parenting & counselling programs and community mental health and addiction services) Weak targeted interventions with families high risk of child abuse, neglect and abandonment. Slow development of therapeutic foster care. The health sector must be involved to prevent separation and sustain reunification of children with their parent(s)

From Kevin.browne@nottingham.ac.uk OR www.crin.org/bcn Manual on the Better Care Network: Mulheir, G., Browne, K. and Associates (2007). De-Institutionalising And Transforming Children’s Services: A Guide To Good Practice. From Kevin.browne@nottingham.ac.uk OR www.crin.org/bcn

Mother-Baby Units to replace Baby Homes No child under three in residential care without a parent

Further Reading Browne, K.D., Hamilton-Giachritis, C.E., Johnson, R. and Ostergren, M. (2006). Overuse of institutional care for children in Europe. British Medical Journal. 332 : 485-487 (25/02/06). Chou, S. and Browne, K.D. (2008). The Relationship between Institutional Care and International Adoption of Children in European. Adoption & Fostering, 32(1): 40-48.  Browne, K.D. and Chou, S. (2008). Child Rights and International Adoption: A Response to Critics. Adoption & Fostering, 32(2): 69-74.   Chou, S. and Browne, K.D. (2015). The relationship over time between international adoption and institutional care in Romania and Lithuania. Child Abuse Review. DOI: 10.1002/car.2395 (in press) Browne, K. (2009) The risk of harm to young children in institutional care. London: Save the Children/UNICEF Better Care Network. UNICEF (2010) Ending placing children under three years in institutions: A call to action. NY;Unicef Hamilton-Giachritsis, C and Browne, K.D. (2012) Forgotten children? An update on young children in institutions across Europe, Early Human Development 88: 911-914. Browne, K.D, Chou, S. Whitfield, K. and associates (2012). Child Abandonment and its Prevention in Europe. Sociologie Si Asistenta Sociala. 5 (2); p197-204. Iasi, Romania.