Overhauling Russia’s Child Welfare System: Ideas, Institutions & Agents of Policy Change

This paper analyses the cardinal overhaul of the child welfare system recently announced by the Russian government.  Reforms seek to promote family-like support for children out of parental care and thus radically reduce the use of residential institutions.  In tracing both the ideas and actors involved in the reforms, we highlight the fundamental ‘paradigm change’ in child welfare policy represented by the move to close most residential homes and reform remaining ones.  We emphasise the significant role of NGOs and non-state in development of the policy, due largely to consensus with key officials of the overall need for deinstitutionalization.  Yet, the final reforms very much represented compromise due to institutional institutional pressure and some ideational differences between actors despite the common understanding about the priority of the care in family as the ideal form of care.  The article closes by drawing attention to institutional and ideational barriers to implementation.