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EveryChild responds to BBC’s ‘Caged Czech children’ report
17th January 2008 - The shocking scenes of life for children in some of the Czech Republic’s social care homes, as depicted in the BBC’s 10 O’clock News report, were a stark reminder that reform of institutional child care within some EU states still has a long way to go. Whilst the Czech Government must be held accountable to its commitments to improve conditions in homes with measures like the banning of caged beds, this alone is not enough. A lack of support for vulnerable families, and an over-reliance on Soviet era style institutions is still resulting in too many children being placed in institutional care homes in many parts of Eastern Europe.
The reason institutions like the ones depicted in the BBC report still exist despite states, including the Czech Republic, investing in family based alternatives like fostering is that there is still a lack of support for many vulnerable families. Especially those who feel unable to cope when their children have disabilities.
EveryChild has been campaigning for over twenty years for much more support to be given to vulnerable families to prevent children being abandoned in the first place. We are also currently contributing to the development of a set of UN Standards on childcare. The international community must continue the campaign to end this system altogether so that every child has the chance to grow up in a family environment whatever their circumstances.
For more information on the BBC report click here.