As many as 27,000 children under the age of three are institutionalised in residential care across Europe

As many as 27,000 children under the age of three are institutionalised in residential care across Europe, and there is no difference in numbers between Western and Eastern Europe, according to a survey of 31 countries carried out by researchers at the Centre of Forensic and Family Psychology at Birmingham University. They found that just over two-thirds (69 per cent) of the children institutionalised in Western Europe were placed in care because of abuse and neglect, while in Eastern Europe children in residential care either had been abandoned or had a disability. Professor Kevin Browne, director of the centre, said that while the UK and some European countries had a policy to provide foster homes for children under three, 13 countries had more than two children in every 1,000 under three in residential care. Dr Catherine Hamilton-Giachritis, the project's lead investigator, said, 'It is worrying that there is such a significant number of children under three in care, when it has been proved that depriving a child of a parent, and the neglect and damage this causes, is equivalent to violence against a young child.'