Deinstitutionalisation and child protection and care reform remain key priorities at European level and are emerging as a growing global movement. Deinstitutionalisation continues to present professionals and decision makers significant challenges. Broadly, we continue to debate its meaning and we struggle to define it in the wider context of child protection and care. We lack basic information on the number, capacity and funding streams for most institutions, not to mention, most significantly we are still doubtful of how many children are placed in institutions today. In some parts of the world government funding is made available to build new institutions as a response to child protection and care challenges and private and institutional donors continue to fund institutions for children. Perceptions of institutions for children are complex and reveal that significant work needs to be done to change paradigms which accept that poverty and poor parenting skills justify the use of institutions, which proclaim that family and community care is too complex to be implemented successfully and that governments lack accountability to be entrusted with the care of orphans and vulnerable children.

The workshop will explore the conditions which need to be in place to facilitate the implementation of deinstitutionalisation and reform the child protection and care systems at national level. The workshop will explore how achieving systemic change can be planned and measured, from mapping the baseline to using relevant indicators and tools to plan the implementation of the strategy. The workshop will look at available tools like the tracking tool for the implementation of the UNGAC and their importance for deinstitutionalisation and child protection and care reform