The European Expert Group on the transition from institutional to community-based
care (EEG) welcomes the initiative of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union to host the knowledge-sharing Conference “European Child Guarantee: from engagement to reality” on 2 and 3 May 2024. The EEG welcomes that many National Action Plans (NAPs) include measures in the area of deinstitutionalisation (DI) for children but calls for increased emphasis on prevention and early intervention, including Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) and support to parents and carers, to be monitored at national and EU level and addressed in the updated versions of NAPs.

Nevertheless, almost three years after its adoption, across Europe hundreds of thousands of children still live in institutions, isolated from their families, their peers
and local communities. Growing up in an institution can severely damage children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development as well as autonomy. Deinstitutionalisation requires a structural transformation of the social-care and child-protection systems.

The EEG calls on Member States to:

1. Place measures towards deinstitutionalisation at the heart of their NAPs starting from prevention, through the development of community-based and family-based services, including systems of family-centred Early Childhood Intervention, financial support to families, and of foster care programmes.
2. Put the necessary measures in place to ensure that social welfare, social protection, and social services prioritise the strengthening of families and communities, taking proactive measures to prevent unnecessary separation of children from their families.
3. Advocate for the social and human rights model of disability, focusing on dismantling barriers faced by children or caregivers with disabilities when accessing services, and ensuring that children with disabilities receive adequate support within their family environments and to ensure they can access their right to inclusive education.
4. Support safe family reunification and transition to independent living based on individual needs and circumstances. Provide ongoing support for families and care leavers to facilitate their full inclusion into the community, as well as for young people with personal experience of care. This includes access to personal assistance for children and young people with disabilities in need of such support.
5. Ensure meaningful participation of children, caregivers, parents, persons with disabilities, and civil society organisations, including organisations of persons with disabilities, in the implementation, revision and monitoring of the NAPs.
6. Address and combat stigma and discrimination within the system, including challenging ableism, gender norms and discriminatory social attitudes towards marginalised communities that could lead to child institutionalisation.
7. Implement a systematic approach to disaggregating data across all sectors, including housing, parental or child disabilities, living arrangements, and social protection programmes. This approach should enable regular assessments of progress in transitioning to community-based support services.
8. Align national monitoring and evaluation frameworks, including the indicators, with the EU Monitoring and Evaluation framework on children in alternative care. Improve data collection of children and families at risk, on the one hand, and of
   the available services, on the other hand.

We hope that this Presidency event will be used as an opportunity for Member States to plan coordinated efforts towards the inclusion of all children and ensure that children receive care in a family and community-based environment.

You can find the full statement here.