The presentation discusses a major child welfare reform which is undergoing now in Russia. Following a long period of nation-wide, system-level policy inaction, activist campaigning and international criticism, the Russian government is now radically reforming the care system for children in substitute care. The reorganization of the child welfare system has been given high priority on the government’s agenda. Now new ideas and organisational principles have been introduced to a system that shapes the lives of over 600,000 children. The on-going reform strives to dismantle the massive system of residential care by promoting domestic adoptions, developing foster family system and creating preventive support services for families at risk.
The on-going reform is based on the idea of every child’s right to grow in a family. Hence, the reform drastically changes the ‘ideal of care’ (cf. Kremer 2007) for children in out-of-home care. The ideational change shifts the ideal of care from collective, institutional care to attachment-theory rooted parental care in biological, adoptive or foster families or in family-like institutions. Thus, the ideational change thus ideally leads to institutional change.
The presentation gives a brief overview of the main features of the old, Soviet type child welfare system and then introduces the new ideas and institutional design brought by the on-going reform. Challenges and best practices of the implementation of the reform will be discussed.
