Prioritizing foster care over residential facilities

Some 16,000 children and adolescents are currently being housed in reception facilities in Italy. They have arrived in the country alone, without their parents or legal guardians, and have been in grave danger of abuse and exploitation at every stage of their journey.

The central Mediterranean migration route from North Africa to Italy is one of the most dangerous globally. Between April 2015 and April 2025, approximately 3,500 children died or disappeared as they attempted to reach Europe via the central Mediterranean, according to UNICEF estimates. Children who survive the journey often arrive in need of urgent medical attention, psychosocial support, legal guidance and language support.

Foster care is a crucial, child-focused approach for children who have arrived in Italy on their own. It is established by law as the primary option for alternative care for refugee and migrant children arriving in Italy without their parents or legal guardians. However, just 4 per cent of unaccompanied and separated children who arrive each year – with the exception of children from Ukraine – are placed in family-based care such as fostering. This means that the remaining 96 per cent are housed in institutions.

This is a missed opportunity. Unlike residential care, foster care upholds the right of every child and adolescents to grow up in a welcoming and loving family environment where they have the nurture and safety that are essential for their personal development. It promotes a broader sense of community for families while ensuring that the children and adolescents welcomed into these settings have stability and support. It leads to improved health, better educational outcomes, and greater social participation in adulthood.

Foster care is not only far more beneficial for children and societies than residential care: it is more economical. According to UNICEF’s financial planning tool, foster care offers a relationship-based and inclusive solution for both families and the children placed with them, who receive greater support, and provides a net saving for institutions in comparison to the costs of residential care.

Since 2017, the Terreferme project – supported by UNICEF in collaboration with Coordinamento Nazionale Comunità Accoglienti (CNCA) – has demonstrated that the average daily cost of a foster care placement for a municipality was €37 in the first year and €23 in the second. In contrast, municipalities report spending up to €100 per day for each child living in a residential facility – and these costs could be even higher.¹ Residential care costs are continually rising, placing a burden on the entire welfare system, and residential institutions often fail to provide adequate care for children, who are often left in under-resourced facilities that struggle to cover all of their necessary expenses.

In contrast, the bulk of the costs associated with foster care – around 70 per cent – covers the work of professionals engaged in training, promotion, matching children with families, and managing foster care placements, including case monitoring and family support.

This investment strengthens the social work force system and service – which helps to sustain the model – compared to public spending on residential care that also needs to cover fragmented costs as well as the costs of room and board.

Finally, evidence-based models of family-based care offer returns that are up to 10 times higher than the costs of residential care as a result of reduced inequalities, greater inclusion, and stronger social protection systems.

1. The reference to the €100 daily limit, as the maximum eligible expense – not applicable to Extraordinary Reception Centres (CAS) – is based on the expenditure thresholds established for centres funded through the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) of the Ministry of the Interior, designated for the reception of unaccompanied and separated children. 

The costs related to both residential reception and foster care are largely covered by the National Fund for Asylum Policies and Services (FNPSA), also managed by the Ministry of the Interior. This fund represents the main instrument through which the Italian State financially supports reception measures, with the aim of ensuring protection, inclusion, and pathways to independence for beneficiaries