Decreasing reliance on residential care
Despite a substantial body of research highlighting the harm caused by residential care it remains to be a predominant care arrangement for children without parental care in Moldova. Although national gatekeeping legislation was passed in 2008, decision-making regarding the entry of individual children into residential care is often poorly managed, with limited assessment regarding the necessity of parental separation and the appropriateness of residential care. We have supported local and central authorities to assess a number of large-scale institutions to establish and implement transformation or closure plans. In the recent years we have supported the closure of 6 institutions and transformation of one institution into a community-based social services centre.
The need for improvements in the management of the use of residential care is further highlighted by an increasingly sophisticated evidence base, which suggests that the impacts of residential care vary greatly depending on factors such as the age of the child, the quality of care on offer, the size of the facility, and the extent to which children are able to integrate with wider communities. We promote better decision making regarding the use of residential care amongst policy makers and child welfare practitioners, we help to ensure that the unchecked expansion of residential care is stemmed.
We have supported a number of local authorities to develop small group homes and leaving care social apartments for children and young people for whom reintegration with parents or placement in family-based care were not possible. We have ensured that these residential facilities are of high quality, part of a wider range of alternative care options, and only used when appropriate to the needs of an individual child.