Growing up in institutional care violates children’s rights. Over 80 years of international research has demonstrated that it can severely harm children’s physical and cognitive development and expose them to a heightened risk of abuse and neglect.

We’ve helped prove that institutions are not only harmful, but are also costly to maintain. 

These resources could be better invested in services that strengthen and support families, and tackle the causes of separation. By building the know-how and incentives to transform care systems around the world, many more children could safely return home with the right family and community support in place. For those who can’t, there are still better alternatives – including living with relatives or a loving foster family. Building on our heritage and direct experience of systems reform, our new strategy focuses on sharing learning with others to reach more children and amplify the impacts of our work on children’s lives. 

The strategy is available to read as a 12, 4 and single page document.