Children often not reunited with parents after out-of-home placement
Few children placed in care return home. Following publication of research by Leiden University, Mariëlle Bruning, Professor of Child Law, commented: ‘The system’s under so much pressure that too little can be done to provide proper support.’
Only four out of ten children who are forcibly placed in care will be reunited with their parents, according to interdiciplinary esearch by Leiden University commissioned by the Research and Data Centre (WODC), a Dutch agency in the field of Justice and Security. And one quarter of the children who do return home re-enter care within a few years. So only 30% of the total number of children placed in care are successfully reunited with their parents. Whether this is a high percentage depends on whom you ask, says Professor Bruning: ‘Parents will say, “I told you so… once they’ve been placed in care, children don’t usually return home.” But child protection workers may say this percentage is high. Bear in mind that all out-of-home placements involve very severe problems.'
Parents and children also often feel that youth protection workers do not do all they can to reunite the children with their families. The professionals emphasis that reunification is part of their task and they will always explore all possibilities and make all efforts. The explanation for the fact that not all children are reunified with their parents lies in staff shortages in the youth care system: ‘The system’s under so much pressure that little can be done to provide proper support to ensure children can return home quickly.'
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