Deinstitutionalization Reform: Why “walls” will no longer receive money, and communities must overcome the “bureaucrat syndrome”

Ukraine is on the threshold of historic changes. The issue of joining the EU is not only about customs or borders. It is, first of all, about how the state treats the most vulnerable - children. Today, the deinstitutionalization (DI) reform has become one of the key conditions for European integration.

Tough EU conditionality: Ukraine Facility and the Child Rights Strategy

The European Union has clearly articulated its position in the Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2021–2024): no child should be deprived of family care. For Ukraine, this means a complete rethinking of the social system.

Financial aspect: There is a direct prohibition under the Ukraine Facility assistance program. Reconstruction funds cannot be used for major repairs or expansion of residential institutions.

The money is allocated exclusively for:

1. Development of inclusive services in communities.

2. Construction of small group homes (SGB).

3. Support for foster families and DBST (family-type children's homes).

Economic absurdity: Why are boarding schools expensive?

There is a myth that maintaining one large institution is cheaper than developing a network of services. Statistics and audits say the opposite.

Cost analysis:

• 80-85% of the boarding school's budget is spent on "walls and staff": heating huge half-empty buildings, salaries of administrative staff, security, and household needs.

• Only 15-20% of the funds go directly to the child's needs (food, clothing, development).

• Cost of maintenance: According to various estimates, maintaining one child in a boarding school costs the state from 15,000 to 30,000 UAH per month, but at the end we get a graduate who is often not adapted to independent life.

Instead, funding community services (day care, early intervention, social support) allows the child to remain in the biological family, which is many times cheaper for the budget and more effective for the child's future.

Sabotage on the ground: Why is the system resisting?

The main obstacle to reform is not a lack of funds, but a reluctance to change. Many officials and heads of institutions view boarding schools as a "city-forming enterprise" where the child is just a tool for obtaining budget allocations.

"We're used to it," "where will we put the staff?", "it's better for the children there"

— these are typical arguments of those who do not want to learn to work according to European standards.

Experts are increasingly calling Soviet-style boarding schools "concentration camps for children" because of the systemic degradation of personality, lack of privacy, and breakdown of social ties. Continuing discussions about their "improvement" is deliberately harming children.

Time to get modern

There will be money. And there will be enough of it. But it will only come to those communities that:

1. They will find the courage to admit: the old system is dead.

2. They will involve professionals: people who want to learn to be competent managers of social services, not "supervisors."

3. They will create conditions for inclusion: so that parents of children with disabilities do not send them to institutions out of desperation, but receive assistance close to home.

European integration is a test of humanity. And we will be able to pass it only when the interests of the child become more precious than the comfort of an official who does not want to retrain.

How can a community obtain funding from the EU?

European donors and the Ukraine Facility are ready to invest billions in recovery, but they will not finance the “past.” To receive funds for social development, the community must demonstrate a willingness to make real changes.

Step 1. Conduct a thorough audit and needs assessment

It is impossible to build something new without understanding the scale of the problem. The community must clearly know:

1. How many children from the community are in boarding schools (24/7).

2. What are the reasons for children being placed in institutions (poverty, disability, lack of kindergarten or school).

3. What services are families lacking in the area?

Step 2. Transforming budget thinking

The money should “follow the child.” Instead of maintaining huge, half-empty spaces, the community should redirect funds to:

1. Children's services and social workers (there should be enough of them and they should be mobile).

2. Creation of a Center for Social Services with a wide range of assistance (day care, psychologist, speech therapist).

Step 3. Training and retraining of personnel

This is the most difficult stage — overcoming the resistance of officials. The community must find people who want to work differently:

1. Train boarding school teachers to work as teaching assistants in inclusive classrooms.

2. Prepare social workers for case management (supporting a specific family in crisis).

3. Stop discussing the "advisability" of boarding schools and start studying the European experience of family upbringing.

Step 4. Development of family forms of upbringing and inclusion

EU funding is prioritized for:

1. Construction of small group homes (houses for 6-8 children, where conditions are as close as possible to family ones).

2. Support and creation of new Family-type Children's Homes (FCH).

3. Creating inclusive resource centers so that a child with a disability can live at home and receive assistance in the community.

Step 5. Developing a strategic plan and submitting an application

Donors (UNICEF, EU, World Bank) demand a clear strategy. The community must show a plan: how it plans to return children from orphanages in 2-3 years and what services it will create for this.

It is important to remember: Money will come where there is a will for change. If the community holds on to an outdated boarding school to save the jobs of three administrators, it loses. If the community chooses a child, it receives European investments and a future.