Lumos Foundation

EU Legislative Interests

Lumos is a children’s rights organisation working to end the institutionalisation of children, and ensure that children around the world can live in safe, loving families. We work in partnership with governments, professionals and carers, communities, families and children, to move from outdated systems of institutional based care to systems that support children to live in families, in the community. The EU plays a pivotal role in changing attitudes and shifting systems of care and support from institutional to community-based services inside its borders, in candidate and potential candidate countries, as well as through its external action. EU funding in particular has strong potential to facilitate this transition, if used well. While historically, EU funds were used to renovate existing institutions and build new ones, in recent decades EU funding has significantly helped to advance reform – particularly in Member States and in countries in the process of acceding to the EU. Nonetheless, this process is far from complete, and continued EU support is crucial to support countries to deliver on reforming their child protection and care systems so that no child has to live in an institution. Lumos therefore has and continues to lobby for changes in legislation and policy which will ensure that EU funds support the reform of child protection and care systems, instead of being used to maintain outdated and harmful institutional models of care. In this regard, Lumos has lobbied the European Institutions to ensure that all EU internal and external funding contributes to this goal of dismantling institutional care systems and replacing them with community-based services supporting children to live in family care. This includes European Cohesion Policy Instruments, notably the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and External Instruments such as the NDICI, IPA III, Ukraine Facility and Moldova Growth Facility. In the future, Lumos intends to continue influencing these funds, and their successors in the next MFF, with the same intention. Lumos also lobbies and intends to continue to advocate towards the European Institutions on policy initiatives that may accelerate, threaten or otherwise influence the shift from institutional to family and community-based care inside and outside its borders. As we have programme offices in Ukraine and Moldova, we take a particular interest in legislation, funding instruments and policies that affect child protection and care systems reform in these countries specifically.

Communication Activities

During 2025 we plan to organise events at the European Parliament linked to supporting child protection and care system reform in EU candidate countries, and specifically on Ukraine and Moldova. We are also involved in events organised by the European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community Based Care (EEG), of which we are a founding member. We will likely engage in more public communication activities linked to the legislative proposals for the next multiannual financial framework, and will respond to EU consultations where these concern the abovementioned funding instruments, policies affecting the transition from institutional to family and community based care, and policies and law affecting children’s rights, the rights of persons with disabilities and child protection more generally.

Interests Represented

Does not represent commercial interests

Member Of

We are a founding member of the European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community Based Care (EEG). We have recently applied for membership of Inclusion Europe, a membership organisation for organsations working for the rights of people with intellectual disabilities – but have not yet had a response as of the date of submission. Lumos has special consultative status with ECOSOC of the United Nations. We are members of the informal “Transforming Children’s Care Collaborative,” whose Secretariat is provided by the Better Care Network. This is a community of organisations and actors engaged in child protection and care reform to leverage and build on one another’s work, agree on common principles and approaches, secure greater and more sustainable impact, contribute to a shared learning agenda and undertake joint advocacy. Lumos is a co-convenor of the following Working Groups: the Global Policy and Advocacy Working Group; the Global Campaign on Care Reform Working Group; and the Ukraine International Advocacy Task Force, which is a group of civil society organisations united by our support for holistic, sustainable and inclusive child protection and care system reform in Ukraine. We are members of regional networks outside Europe: in Africa, Lumos currently acts as the Secretariat for “FAFICA,” a working group of CSOs focused on children without parental care. In the Latin America and Caribbean region, we sit on MMI-LAC (Global Movement for Children) – a coalition comprised of organisations and networks focused on fighting for children’s rights. Lumos is an active member of the Right to Live with a Family Sub-Working Group. In 2021, this Working Group established the Latin American HUB-LAC, which includes organizations such as UNICEF Regional, Doncel, IIN, Relaf, Aldeas SOS, Save the Children, the youth network and Lumos. We are in the process of finalising a partnership agreement with Family for Every Child, a likeminded non-governmental organisation that also works on issues linked to children without parental care. We are currently, through a sub-grant, funding Better Care Network to undertake international advocacy and policy work relating to supporting child care and protection system reform in Ukraine.

Additional Information

Total budget above and amounts received were converted from GBP to EUR.