When a child moves from an orphanage back to their birth family, into kinship care, foster care or adoption, a fair question follows: does it last?
In the UK, placement breakdown is a well-documented and serious issue — so it’s natural for supporters to ask whether the same risk applies to the children Hope and Homes for Children (HHC) supports on their journey
Hope and Homes for Children works to move children away from orphanages and Back to Family — but a placement isn’t a success the moment a child walks through a new front door. The real test is whether it lasts. Years of HHC’s own placement data give a clear, evidence-based answer.
The Short Answer: Breakdowns Are Rare
Across the various geographies HHC works in, and across every type of family-based placement — reunification with birth or extended family, kinship care, foster care, adoption and supported independent living — our average placement breakdown rate over an eight-year period was just 1.63%.
The numbers, in full
• 7,658 children and young adults were transitioned out of orphanages and into family-based care over the period studied.
• 125 placements broke down — 1.63% of the total.
• Only 39 placements (0.5% of all placements) resulted in a child returning to an orphanage, even temporarily, before alternative family care was secured.
Put another way: more than 98 children in every 100 remained safely and stably in a family placement. This is strong, consistent evidence that carefully planned, well-supported family placements can achieve lasting stability — even for children who have experienced trauma, neglect, separation or disability before their move.
Why Placements Last: It Starts Before the Move
Deinstitutionalisation is never simply a case of moving a child from one place to another. Every placement begins with a careful assessment of the child’s best interests and of the family environment most likely to provide long-term stability. That groundwork is a major reason breakdown is so rare.
Support Doesn’t Stop on Moving Day
Equally important is what happens afterwards. Children and families receive tailored support based on detailed assessments of strengths, needs and potential risks. Individual support plans are developed, and social workers regularly monitor children’s safety and wellbeing, family relationships, the quality of care, education, health and wider support systems.
This ongoing follow-up allows practitioners to spot emerging risks early, check that children continue to experience safe, protective family environments, and adapt support whenever extra help is needed. Families are never expected to manage alone, and support continues for as long as necessary — without creating dependency.
When Placements Do Break Down, Why?
The reasons have stayed remarkably consistent over the years HHC has tracked this data. Most reflect changes in family circumstances — including neglect, domestic violence, parental illness, substance misuse, imprisonment or deteriorating living conditions — rather than weaknesses in the placement process itself. Other cases reflect the lasting effects of childhood trauma, behavioural and emotional difficulties, or foster carers becoming unable to continue providing care.
Success Isn’t a Single Moment — It’s an Ongoing Process
Children who have experienced orphanages often need sustained emotional, practical and therapeutic support, and families may continue to face real challenges long after reunification. Identifying risk early is what allows HHC’s teams to intervene before difficulties escalate.
Quality assurance, in other words, isn’t about expecting every placement to succeed without challenge — it’s about building systems that identify risk, respond effectively when difficulties arise, and use evidence from everyday practice to keep improving. HHC also works alongside local authorities and partner organisations to strengthen wider child protection systems and build professional capacity, helping ensure children continue to receive safe, stable, nurturing care long after our direct involvement ends.
The Bigger Picture
This matters because at least 5.4 million children around the world are still separated from their families and living in orphanages — even though over 80% of them are not orphans. Orphanages expose children to abuse and trafficking, and to physical and psychological trauma that can last a lifetime. The data above is part of the evidence base showing there is a better way: helping children move Back to Family isn’t just the right thing to do — it works, and it lasts.
