Development of adoption, family-based care and foster care: how it works in the regions of Ukraine

Development of adoption, family-based care and foster care: how it works in the regions of Ukraine

Kyiv  •  UNN

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The Cabinet of Ministers approved the Strategy for Ensuring Children's Right to Family Upbringing until 2028. A Coordination Center and an online platform to support adoption and family-based care have been created.

Ukraine continues to reform its child care and support system. It is aimed at strengthening families and preventing the separation of children from their families, as well as providing children in need with family-based forms of education, UNN reports.

On November 26, 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the Strategy for Ensuring the Right of Every Child to Grow Up in a Family Environment until 2028 and the Operational Plan for its Implementation for 2024-2026. The document is a roadmap for the Reform, takes into account the challenges of the full-scale invasion and aims to Strengthen families, prevent children from being separated from their families; provide children in need with family-based care; facilitate family reunification or placement in family-based care for children who have returned from deportation, forced displacement or evacuation; create conditions for family-based care for children who are most affected by institutional care - young children and those with complex disabilities; ensure the socialization and integration of young people with experience of institutional care.

In order to unite state and local authorities, the public sector and international partners around the implementation of the Strategy, the Coordination Center for the Development of Family Education and Child Care was established in 2023. The platform "Ukraine for Every Child" was also created, where you can get a step-by-step algorithm of actions to take a child into your family, learn about adoption, family-based care and patronage, and find the right expert in a single place.  

We spoke with Olena Remen, head of the expert group on family-based forms of upbringing and adoption at the Coordination Center for the Development of Family-Based Care and Education, to understand how Ukraine is implementing the reform of the child care and support system, what are the peculiarities of its implementation in different regions, and how Ukrainians feel about family-based care.

What motivates families in different regions to take in children?  

There are two main motives for taking a child into a family. The first is the desire to help the child, and the second is the opportunity to realize oneself as a parent.  They often complement each other. Many Ukrainians think about taking in an orphan or a child deprived of parental care, but not all of them decide to do so. It happens that people want to take a child in, but they don't know where to start, they don't understand what forms of family care exist, how they differ, and which form is best for their family. They start looking for information on the Internet, but the information is scattered, sometimes contradictory or outdated, because the legislation is constantly changing. If they don't get the information they need in time, they stop because they think it's a very complicated process. In other cases, they postpone the decision, so to speak, "until better times": when they have a stable job, when they get their own apartment, when their children grow up, when the war ends.

Can the Coordination Center for the Development of Family Education and Child Care somehow help in this process?  

To  help people move from dream to action,  the Coordination Center  together with the Ministry of Social Policy have developed an online educational and awareness-raising platform "Ukraine for Every Child", where you can find information about all forms of family-based childcare, adoption and foster care, take an online training course and test to determine your readiness to adopt a child, and get legal or psychological advice.

What kind of support from the state or local authorities is most effective for families who take in children?

It is important to support families not only at the stage of placement of a child, but also in the future - during the period of adaptation and growth of the child in the family. To this end, the state provides monthly social assistance for orphans and children deprived of parental care and financial support for foster parents, foster parents, and foster caregivers at the expense of the state budget. Local governments should organize high-quality social support and provide children and families with social, medical, educational and other services.

What do the forms of support for children in different communities depend on? Can such forms differ?  

Thus, the forms of support for families in the community vary and depend on the needs of the family and the resources available to the community. It can be assistance with housing arrangements, purchasing furniture, household appliances, clothes, shoes, toys and other necessary items. Or the services of specialists: psychologists, lawyers, doctors. This work is better organized in those communities where there is a sufficient number of social work professionals and where they implement their own programs and strategies to develop and support family-based care.

And if we talk about substance, what exactly can communities offer to make people more willing to take children into their families and create a safe environment for them?

People are more willing to take on children when they are confident that they can provide them with good living conditions,  development, education, and other needs. It is important to develop services in communities to support families with children. This includes creating a sufficient number of places in kindergartens and day care centers, organizing meals, transportation to school, developing extracurricular education and access to medical and rehabilitation services, and organizing leisure activities. Support at the community level is the key to the development and successful functioning of family-based care.

What social problems of the region can be at least partially solved by promoting family-based forms of upbringing, adoption and patronage?

The main objective of adoption and family-based care is to ensure that every child has a family where he or she is cared for, developed, supported and prepared for independent living.  Children who grow up in such families grow up socialized, they acquire a profession, work, create their own families  and  and benefit society.  Therefore, family-based forms of upbringing, adoption and foster care are of great social importance. Adoption is the adoption of a child into a family for life. Adoptive parents become the child's dad and mom and continue to take care of the child on their own.

Foster families and family-type children's homes are families in which orphans and children deprived of parental care can live for a long period of time: until they reach the age of majority, and in case they continue their education in a vocational or higher education institution, until they graduate. Thanks to such families, a child grows up in a family environment, not an institutionalized setting. Child foster care is a service for the temporary care, upbringing and rehabilitation of a child in the family of a foster caregiver for the period of overcoming difficult life circumstances by the child, his or her parents or other legal representatives. Children live in such families for up to 3 months, and in some cases this period can be extended to 6 months. Foster care helps to preserve a family for a child or prepare him or her for a longer-term placement.

Do you notice the demographics of families that take in children more often? What factors influence their choice to take in a child?

The decision to take a child into a family depends on many factors. For example, the presence and age of one's own children, place and living conditions, standard of living, income stability, work schedule, health status, marital status, and support from family or friends. People who do not have their own children or have one child are more likely to choose adoption. Foster families and family-type children's homes are more likely to be formed by families with experience of raising their own children, including large families. Children are mostly taken under the care of their relatives: grandparents, aunts, uncles. The choice of the form of placement is also influenced by the number of children  the family is ready to take on. If we are talking about one child, it is usually  adoption. There are cases of adoption of two or more children to one family, but they are not very common. If a family is ready to take on more children, it is more likely to form a foster family or a family-type children's home. A foster family can accommodate up to 4 orphans and children deprived of parental care, and a family-type children's home can accommodate 5 to 10 children, including relatives. 

What changes are needed now to make family-based foster care, adoption, and patronage services more accessible in different regions?

The system of training and support for families raising orphans and children deprived of parental care needs to be comprehensively revised. To adopt a child or create a foster family, candidates must undergo a special training course. Currently, only regional centers of social services provide such training. Sometimes you have to wait up to two months to get into the training. The situation can be changed by expanding the range of entities that provide training for candidates. These may well be municipal centers of social services and non-governmental organizations that have the relevant experience and  specialists and meet the established criteria. Another problem is that foster parents and foster caregivers do their work without days off, vacations, or sick leave. They get tired, exhausted and, like any person, need periodic rest, which should be provided for at the legislative level. It is advisable to introduce a family assistant service for single foster parents and foster parents, as well as families raising a large number of children. A professional person who could help with childcare and family life organization.  

What other changes should be implemented as part of the reform of the child care and support system to ensure that every child finds a family?

Among the children in need of family placement, a significant number have disabilities, in particular subgroup A, or complex developmental disorders. Such children need special conditions for upbringing and care and currently have difficulty finding a family. As part of the reform , it is planned to introduce the specialization of foster families, which will provide in-depth training for parents, taking into account the needs of the child, as well as a greater level of support for such families according to their needs. These and other changes will be developed and implemented as part of the reform of the child care and support system with the participation of Ukrainian and international experts, taking into account the practices existing in Ukraine and other countries. 

“Ukraine for every child": what forms of family education exist and how many children need it26.11.24, 11:52 • 147409 views

INDICATORS OF REFORM IMPLEMENTATION IN THE DEMONSTRATION REGIONS

The Coordination Center for the Development of Family-Based Child Care and Education directly cooperates with 10 demonstration regions of Ukraine that receive support in implementing the reform of the child care and support system. Several regions shared their current indicators of the Reform implementation. 

For example, Dnipropetrovs'k region is the leader in Ukraine in terms of the number of children: taking into account internally displaced families with children who came from the temporarily occupied territories and active combat zones, the child population today exceeds 600,000 children. There are 107 services for children in the region.  

The Reform has already collected data on the situation of children and families with children and conducted a situational analysis at the regional and local levels in each of the 86 communities. They are working together on the Regional Plan for the implementation of the Reform.

"A hotline has now been launched in the region to provide advice and support to people who want to adopt a child or need additional information, based on the Dnipro Regional Center for Social Services (550 incoming calls as of early December)," the regional authorities said.

As for the development of alternative forms of education, positive dynamics are recorded in the region. In general, during ten months of 2024 (as of early November):

-      96 orphans and children deprived of parental care were adopted, including those evacuated from abroad (73 children were adopted in 2023; 68 children were adopted in 2022);

-      692 orphans and children deprived of parental care were placed under guardianship and care (in 2023, guardianship and care were established over 918 children; in 2022, over 734 children);

-      36 foster families and 11 family-type children's homes were created, with 206 orphans and children deprived of parental care (in 2023, 25 foster families and 11 family-type children's homes were created, with 205 children placed there; in 2022, 17 foster families and 12 family-type children's homes were created, with 131 children placed there);

-      5 foster care families were created, with whom 15 children in difficult life circumstances were placed.   "Dnipropetrovska oblast was the first in Ukraine to start creating family-based forms of care, and to this day we are the leader in their number. Currently, there are 302 foster families (raising 595 children) and 184 FTOs (raising 1279 children) in the region. It is worth noting that 28 families are already patronizing 77 children in difficult life circumstances," the Dnipropetrovs'k Regional State Administration said.

In the Chernivtsi region, which is also a demonstration region and receives assistance to reform the child care and support system: 988 children are registered as children without parental care, orphans and children deprived of parental care (as of the end of October 2024). Of the total number of such children, 717 are being raised in families of guardians and caregivers. During the third quarters of 2024, guardianship and custody were established over 39 children.

"Currently, there are 14 family-type orphanages in Chernivtsi Oblast with 105 children in them, and 54 foster families with 111 children in them, and 31 children have been adopted. There are 11 families of foster caregivers in the region, where 16 children are placed," the administration provides data.

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All statistics provided are  as of the beginning of November 2024.