Ministry of Social Policy: More than 650 young children have avoided orphanages during a year and a half thanks to the foster care

Since the beginning of 2024, the foster care has been actively developing in Ukraine. Currently, 518 foster care families work in communities. They temporarily raise 1,019 children whose parents cannot provide them with care for various reasons. Foster care is an alternative to institutionalization that meets the best interests of the child. A child stays in a caring family while his or her parents solve problems or look for a new permanent family.

From January 2024 to early June this year, 2,228 children were or continue to be in foster care. 658 of them are children from birth to four years old who avoided orphanages thanks to foster care.

"The lack of a stable family environment has negative consequences for every child. For young children, these consequences can be catastrophic. Therefore, the state is working to develop a system of care and support for children and families with children that ensures the right of children to grow up in a safe and caring family environment. A sufficient number of foster families is one of the key factors in ensuring this right. Therefore, I urge communities to actively introduce this service," said Oksana Zholnovych, Minister of Social Policy.

Every year, about 7,000 children need temporary alternative care. Over the past year and a half, the number of foster families has increased rapidly: from about 300 to more than 500. This was facilitated by changes in the working conditions of foster caregivers introduced by the Ministry of Social Policy and the project “Family for Every Child: Development of Family Patronage”, which is being implemented directly in communities. However, even this number of families is still not enough to fully meet the needs of children.

The leaders in terms of the share of communities where child patronage services have been introduced are Kharkiv (48% of communities in the region), Cherkasy (39%), and Kirovohrad (37%). The smallest number of communities is still covered by patronage in Volyn (7%) and Zakarpattia (6%).

An example of a region that is actively developing foster care services and has many newly created families is Khmelnytskyi. At the beginning of 2024, there were only two foster families in the region. Now there are thirty of them.

Statistics show that foster families really do save children from institutionalization: over the past year and a half, 43% of children after foster care have returned to their biological families, and 44% have been placed in family-based care. Therefore, the Ministry of Social Policy calls on communities to work on the development of foster care services, as it is one of the important components of ensuring the right of every child in Ukraine to grow up in a family environment.