Changes in the Child Protection System in Bihor County: Trends in Residential and Family-Based Services, 2011-2023

The reform of Romania’s child protection system has sought to reduce institutionalisation and develop family- and community-based services. This study analyses the evolution of the child protection system in Bihor County between 2011 and 2023, based on statistical series and administrative documents produced by the Bihor County General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection (DGASPC Bihor). The research examines public and private residential services, foster care, placement with substitute families or under guardianship, cases of abuse, neglect and exploitation, children abandoned in healthcare facilities, and adoptions. The number of children in residential placement centres fell from 182 in 2011 to 57 in 2023, while those in facilities for children with disabilities decreased from 276 to 49. Over the same period, the number of children placed with professional foster carers declined from 670 to 413, and the number placed with substitute families or under guardianship fell from 519 to 350. In the private system, family-based services served more beneficiaries than residential services. The number of children abandoned in healthcare facilities decreased from 86 cases in 2012 and 94 in 2013 to 16 in 2023, while adoptions reached the period’s highest value in 2021, with 146 children adopted. The county-level series describe a reduction in residential care, the continued importance of family-based services within special protection, and the development of interventions aimed at preventing the separation of children from their families.