News Item

Child protection gaps put children at risk

Sad and lonely girl with gray grunge wall background
Petr Bonek / Adobestock, 2025
Child protection in the EU has improved over the years, but significant gaps remain, finds a report from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Fragmented laws and policies, split responsibilities and limited resources are impediments to fully integrated child protection systems that safeguard children's rights.

The ‘Towards Integrated Child Protection Systems’ report compares systems across the EU. It offers guidance and ways forward for EU Members States. It also outlines promising practices that are in use today that could lead to better integrated child protection systems.

The report recommends:

  • Dedicated laws and policies - all Member States have child protection laws. But only 10 have a single legal child protection instrument that mainstreams child rights across laws, policies and programmes. Only seven have national digital strategies that protect children online. All Member States should ensure that there is an integrated legal framework and strategy protecting children, both in real life and online.
  • More effective governance and coordination - 20 Member States have a primary child protection institution. This institution serves as a central hub for coordinating and allocating resources among government agencies, NGOs, law enforcement and healthcare providers. Those that do not have such an institution should create one. It should have a clear mandate and sufficient resources.
  • Providing sufficient resources - dividing child protection funding across different sectors – like education, social welfare, healthcare and justice – creates resource and coordination challenges. Staff shortages are also often an issue due to high workloads, poor pay and the lack of respect for childcare work. To improve child protection, Member States should provide sustained, adequate and targeted funding. Member States should also better support child protection institutions in offering more technical assistance, knowledge sharing and training, and better pay and working conditions for staff.
  • Evidence-based decision making – the lack of data on child welfare and protection, particularly data that can be broken down by age or by vulnerability, hampers efforts to design appropriate policies.Member States should regularly and systematically collect reliable and comparable data to monitor and assess the impact of their child protection measures.
  • Rights awareness and involving children in matters that affect them – parents and children often have limited awareness of child rights. Many Member States consult with children and their parents or guardians when developing, implementing and evaluating child protection policies and laws, often with the help of NGOs or human rights institutions. In some, it is a legal obligation. This practice could be further improved by working with the EU Children’s Participation Platform.
  • Higher quality care – prevention and early intervention programmes such as family support and mental health services are still limited across the EU. There is also a lack of foster families, especially those who can welcome children with additional needs. Member States should invest more in providing better quality support and care for children and families.

This report builds on the 2023 update of FRA’s 2014 mapping of child protection systems across the EU.