Recommendation 13

HM Government Accepted in Part

HMG position: Partially Agree. The FCDO recognises that children with disabilities are at a particularly high risk of institutionalisation, including children with psychosocial disabilities. We further recognise the harm of institutionalisation to children’s wellbeing and development. This is why we made a commitment at the 2018 Global Disability Summit to work towards the long-term process of de-institutionalisation. This commitment was subsequently reaffirmed in our Disability Inclusion and Rights strategy, which advocates the shift from institutional care of children to community and family-based care. We see the institutionalisation of children as being a direct result of broader development challenges and failures in national child protection systems, such as shortages of social workers, lack of effective referral systems and lack of safe, family-based alternative care. De-institutionalisation is therefore a long-term process that requires the structures and services to be in place at both government and community levels to provide viable and safe alternatives. The FCDO continues to work towards the goal of progressively ending the mass institutionalisation of children, including those with disabilities. We do this by focusing on the underlying drivers of institutionalisation and working to strengthen protective systems for children with disabilities, including through our social protection, education and health programming. For example, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2022, the UK was instrumental in ensuring the ‘Kigali Declaration on Child Care and Protection Reform’ both recognised the impact of institutionalisation on children with disabilities and contained strong language on de-institutionalisation. In Ukraine, through our £10 million Civil Society Fund (2022–24), we have provided eight grants to organisations of persons with disabilities, or organisations focused on disability rights, which includes those working on de-institutionalisation and the rights of children with disabilities. In Moldova we have just assigned a small grant to a local organisation that supports children in care and foster families. The FCDO also publishes guidance on our Travel Advice pages aimed at preventing exploitative ‘voluntourism’, for example with orphanages and other children’s facilities. There is a lack of current, robust global data on the number of children with disabilities living in institutions. This presents challenges when setting performance metrics. Recognising however the need to improve monitoring and evaluation of our work on de-institutionalisation, the FCDO will consult on related actions for inclusion in future iterations of the delivery plan. The FCDO will also explore further advocacy, policy and programme work to support de-institutionalisation and children’s social care reform globally.