A recent public forum in Bangkok highlighted growing momentum in Thailand to reduce reliance on institutional care and strengthen family-based alternatives for children.

On 26 August, Care for Children joined government leaders, child welfare professionals and organisations from across Thailand at a public forum focused on the impact of institutional care for children.

Organised by the Office of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, Mahidol University, UNICEF Thailand and the Alternative Care Thailand (ACT) Coalition, the forum brought together many of those working to improve Thailand's child welfare system. Care for Children is a member of the ACT Coalition.

A key message from the event was that institutional care should be a last resort for children. Participants highlighted the importance of children growing up in safe, nurturing families wherever possible, with family care and kinship care providing important alternatives when children cannot live with their biological families.

The forum also explored the impact of institutional care, including disrupted relationships and attachment, loss of family and community connections, and longer-term effects on children's wellbeing. Speakers emphasised the need to strengthen families and communities, reduce unnecessary placements in residential care, and ensure children receive care that reflects their individual needs.

These developments build on 14 years of Care for Children's work in Thailand, supporting the transition towards family-based care.

A pilot project supported by Care for Children at Ban Khaen Thong Children's Home and four shelters was highlighted during the forum as an example of this approach in practice. Working with partners including Sahathai Foundation and Step Ahead, the project is helping services change the way they work with children and families – reducing children's time in residential care, strengthening families and communities, and supporting safe family reintegration, foster care and kinship care.

Rather than residential care being the default destination for children who need support, the approach helps services consider how children can safely remain within, or return to, family and community settings wherever this is in their best interests.

The event was also an opportunity to reconnect with some of the people who have been part of Thailand's journey towards family-based care from the beginning. Several individuals involved in the forum have worked alongside Care for Children over the years, including government social workers and foster care leaders who received our training, contributed to the development of training materials or joined study visits to the UK.

After 14 years of partnership in Thailand, the forum provided an encouraging reminder of how far the conversation around family-based care has come – and of the many committed people continuing to work towards a better care system for Thailand's children.