In Estonia, there are almost no more large care institutions, and most children who have lost parental care live in foster families or in regular homes. Larger children’s homes house only children with severe disabilities who need constant care.
Although the reorganisation of institutions in Estonia is often considered a success, some experts emphasise that homes are not about buildings, but about people in them.
Someone must help children grow up
I’m going to an area further away from the centre of Tallinn. In a modern, cosy house, one of the so-called family homes, a total of six children live: from eight to fifteen years old. On the first floor, there’s a kitchen and living room, on the second floor, the children’s and staff rooms.
In Lithuania, similar homes are usually referred to as community-based children’s homes. When visiting here, two girls are picked up by their biological mother and go to an organ concert. They are escorted out by one of the educators, Jelena, who is caring for the children today.
“I understand perfectly that when the children grow up and leave this house, they will return to their relatives. It’s good that they stay in touch with their parents. We are trying to maintain a warm relationship. At first, it was difficult for the parents after the court decision, but now it’s easier and we’ve become friends. Some of them are great people, they help us out,” says Jelena, adding that she herself does not have the time to take the children to a concert.
The educator also tells us about the daily schedule, when the children wake up at 06:00, get ready for school, and have breakfast. While the children are in classes, Elena replies to emails, cleans the house, buys groceries, and cooks. When the children return, everyone talks about their day, have dinner, and the children do their homework.
“If I’m not in a hurry and have time, for example, on weekends, we can cook together. It’s a great time. I usually cook everything myself on weekdays. Although the children do help me clean up, they wash the dishes themselves,” says the educator.
We talk at a large dining table, having tea and biscuits. Fifteen-year-old Sasha sits in front of us. She really loves to cook. Later, she and other kids show us their rooms, some of them gift me their drawings.
“I love to sing, listen to music, sometimes I draw. I have lots of drawings for my friends. I also love to cook. My friends often ask me to make something, and I really like to do so. The other kids eat here everything first, sometimes there’s nothing left over for my friends,” says the girl, who plans to study confectionery.
Jelena praises Sasha’s biscuit the most. Jelena has been working as a teacher for five years. She lives with the children for five days or more, and then has a few days off.
When asked why she chose this job, she replies: “To be honest, I have no answer, I don’t know why I work here. I think someone should help these children grow up if it is not possible in their own family. I myself am amazed that I work here.”
No more large children’s homes in Estonia
The family home I’m visiting is part of the Tallinn Children’s Home. There are 27 such families in the organisation. Some of them live in similar homes in regular neighbourhoods, others in simple apartments. There is also a so-called children’s village — when a few houses are built in one place for children deprived of parental care. However, some children with severe disabilities still live in larger care homes and need constant care.
According to the latest data provided by the Ministry of Social Affairs, in 2021, almost 800 children lived in family homes and similar so-called “substitute homes”, comparable to the ones in Lithuania. In Lithuania, up to eight children can live in such a home, but no more than six children in Estonia. Although it was expected that by 2020 there would be no more large childcare facilities in Lithuania, almost half a thousand children still live there.
Andres Aru, Chancellor of Justice and Head of the Children and Youth’s Rights Department, says that significant progress has been made in the reform of childcare facilities in Estonia. According to him, the Ministry of Social Affairs played the greatest role, and the model of the international organisation SOS Children’s Villages was used as an example.
“I think living in a family home makes it possible to have a more individual approach towards every child if compared to larger institutions where the child-employee relationship is more formal. Here the environment is as much as possible more like a family. This individual attention is essential for children who have been separated from their families,” says Aru.
Margit Sarv, Senior Adviser at the Children's Rights Department of the Chancellor of Justice, notes that it is important that children are taught independent living in such family homes.
“We have a home and try to build relationships between the caretaker and the children. But this should require even more effort. So that people who care for children understand the importance of strengthening children’s autonomy and teaching them life skills. For example, we can check together how much electricity we used this week or month, how big the utilities bill is. They should also do the grocery shopping together,” says Sarv.
Children live in normal neighbourhoods but don’t become part of the community
Most of the experts interviewed in Estonia agree that the closure of larger care facilities and the creation of new homes closer to a family environment is successful. However, challenges remain in the care system.
Ingrid Sindi, Associate Professor of Social Work at Tallinn University, stresses that although children live in regular neighbourhoods, they often remain excluded from the communities themselves.
“Very often, the children are not part of the community in which their home is built. Employees also, for example, live within 50 kilometres of the home. This is not the community in which they grew up and lived. They don’t have connections here. So, in this situation, greater efforts by the state or local authorities would be needed to maintain the children’s and community ties — to make group children’s homes more integrated into the community and for the children to feel part of the communities,” says Sindi.
According to the professor, studies show that a child who has lost parental care and lives in a family home in Estonia often feels lonely, which could have a negative impact on their psychological health. Therefore, according to her, it is important to maintain children’s ties with relatives.
Margit Randaru, Head of Quality and Development at Tallinn Children’s Home, says that the family home which I’m visiting was built in 2015. She notes that the surrounding residents protested against children deprived of parental care moving to live here.
“If it’s an apartment, the neighbours don’t know who’s going to live in it. But if a new house is being built, you need to have a project and people can see what the house will be, they can express their opinion. More often than not, they don’t want a house like this in the vicinity,” says Randaru.
However, the public’s reaction to children has changed. In recent years, there have been no conflicts with neighbours, they are more welcoming to the children.
Andres Aru notes that while some prejudice against these children persists, public attitudes are changing for the better.
“Social campaigns were organised to find carer families and people ready to take such children into their homes. I think it created a more positive picture of these children. People in the media have also shared their experiences and stories about their experiences being a carer family and how they all grow together. There has also been a lot of talk about the traumas that children experience before they get into alternative care,” says Aru.
Too much focus on physical environment
Margit Randaru, Head of Quality and Development at Tallinn Children’s Home, adds that the challenge now is to find good employees. According to her, taking care of children who have lost parental care is not so much a job as a way of life. Not all people who worked in the field of childcare wanted to switch to working such long shifts, some of them simply changed their jobs.
“I think in Estonia, when the reorganisation of the children’s homes began, we paid too much attention to the physical environment of the home — how many children should live in one group and how. Of course, that’s important. However, we should pay more attention to the people who work with these children and the service they provide,” she says.
According to Randaru, the care transition must focus on ensuring children’s needs. “Home is not the building itself, but the people in it,” says Randaru. She believes that in order to improve the conditions of staff caring for children it is important not only to raise their salaries but also to be able to accept them better.
Most of the interviewees emphasise that if a child is no longer able to grow up in their biological family, it is best to live with caregivers. However, people willing to take care of such children in their own families, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs spokesperson Helen Jõks, are also lacking.
“Although we would like to see all our children live in families, we need to be realistic. It’s clear that the process takes a long time. One of the biggest challenges is that we don’t have enough families to raise, for example, four or five brothers and sisters, children with disabilities, or teenagers. We still need a lot of work to bring such families into the system,” says Jõks.
The Ministry’s spokesperson predicts that in a few decades, most children will be accommodated in families, but institutions will remain. However, according to her, it is important to reorganise them in such a way that there is specialised care for children with special needs.
Support for families needs to be strengthened
Another aspect that everyone agrees on is the need to strengthen support for families so that children can grow up with biological parents. Although, according to Andres Aru, the state is working in this area, more can be done.
“What are the main reasons why children are taken from their families? Psychological health issues with the parents, abuse of alcohol and drugs, or sometimes poor social conditions, when parents cannot take care of themselves and their children. I think there should be more staff to really help families manage their daily lives. So that they can start helping early on, not when the problems are already too complicated and deep,” says Aru.
His colleague, Margit Sarv, stresses the need for a more rational distribution of workload among staff dealing with families.
“In our last report to the United Nations, we mentioned that one of the main reasons why children are separated from their parents is alcoholism. But at the same time, the chances of getting help with alcohol issues are very low. I think we also need more child protection staff, or their workload should be more rational so that they have more time to pay attention to every family,” says Margit Sarv, Senior Adviser at the Children's Rights Department of the Chancellor of Justice.
She adds that the funding system has also been changed in the country, and now alternative care is being funded by the local government. It should be more motivated to help families and thus save money because caring through alternative care for children separated from families is much more expensive.
The story was produced in collaboration with Transitions as part of a programme to support Solutions Journalism. This did not affect the content of the article.
