Every child deserves to grow up in a safe, stable and nurturing family environment.
But around the world, many children are separated from their families not because they are alone or unloved, but because their families are under immense pressure. Conflict, poverty, poor health, disability, stigma, or a lack of access to essential services can all push families into crisis.
Care reform is about changing that. It means building systems that protect and support families before they break apart, so children are only separated from their parents or caregivers when it is truly unavoidable for their safety and wellbeing.
Keeping families together
We believe that supporting families early is one of the most effective ways to protect children.
This is why programmes that strengthen families are such an important part of our work. These help parents and caregivers access the practical, emotional and social support they need to care safely for their children.
That support can include parenting advice, counselling, mental health support, help with income and livelihoods, and links to essential services such as healthcare, education, nutrition, clean water and sanitation.
The aim is simple: to help families stay together wherever it is safe and possible.
When children cannot stay at home
There are times when a child cannot safely remain with their parents. In these situations, the priority must always be the child’s safety, wellbeing and voice.
Wherever possible, children should be supported to stay with relatives, trusted caregivers, foster families or other safe, family-based care within their own community.
Family can look different in different places. It may include grandparents, aunts and uncles, kinship networks, foster carers or community-based caregiving arrangements. What matters most is that children are known, loved, listened to, and able to grow up with stable relationships and a sense of belonging.
Reform must be safe and gradual
Care reform must be gradual, well-resourced and rooted in local realities. That means investing in the recruitment and training of foster families, in building a competent and supported social care workforce, and in strengthening national and community-based child protection systems.
Care reform is sometimes described as moving away from institutions or orphanages. But it is about much more than closing buildings.
Changing the way children are cared for must always be done carefully, with each child’s safety and wellbeing at the centre. Before any child moves from one form of care to another, there must be trusted adults, services and support in place around them. Real change takes time, planning and a deep understanding of what children and families need in each local context.
That means investing in social workers, foster and kinship care, mental health support, systems that protect children, and the people and services which families rely on every day.
It also means listening to children and young people with experience of care. Their voices must help shape the systems designed to support them.
A global moment for change
Last year, we contributed to and endorsed the Global Charter on Children’s Care Reform, launched at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The Charter reflects growing global momentum behind a simple but powerful idea: children should grow up in families and communities, wherever this can be done safely.
This approach sits at the heart of our evolving work.
We are committed to helping build care systems that keep families together, protect children from harm, and ensure that every child grows up with the love, stability and support they need to thrive.