SECTORAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

Children in child protection institutions

In practice, the results of the Government Strategy for the Protection of Child in Difficulty are

as follows:

? number of institutionalised children dropped from 57,181 in December 2001 to 27,188

in June 2006;

? number of alternative child protection services raised from 131 to 589, during 20012004;

? number of foster parents increased from 30,572 in December 2000 to 49,180 in June

2005;

? number of professional maternal assistance increased from 3,228 in December 2000 to

14,289 in March 2006;

? number of children in substitute families (professional maternal assistants, relatives

including up to 4 th grade) increased from 15,532 in 2000 to 23,847 in December 2006.

Moreover, 330 houses and 403 apartments have been opened where children benefit from a

family type form of protection. The number of large institutions with more than 100 children,

which was 205 at the beginning of 2001, decreased to 40 at the end of March 2006.

In its efforts to improve the quality of public care for children, the EU has financially

supported Romania with around 160 million Euro over the last 15 years (between 1999 and

2003 the amount was 59.5 million Euro). As a result, the majority of the large residential

establishments have been closed down and replaced with a selection of child protection

alternatives ranging from smaller homes to foster care. Since 2001, an extensive (EU

financed) public awareness campaign has taken place in order to inform the public at large

and those responsible for child protection in particular of the alternatives to

institutionalisation and the right of children to appropriate care.

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