Foster care shortage forces Dutch children far from home, splits siblings
A severe shortage of foster families in the Netherlands is forcing vulnerable children and infants to be placed far from their home regions, including hundreds of kilometers away, AD reports. Additionally, sibling groups are increasingly split, and crisis placements are rising sharply, according to child welfare professionals and foster care organizations. The crisis is being reported nationwide, with cases involving children from Amersfoort and other cities being placed as far as Groningen.
Child welfare officials say the shortage has reached a point where even babies cannot always be placed in suitable foster homes. Marieke Spijker, a crisis coordinator at De Rading in Midden-Nederland, said placements are increasingly distant from a child’s home environment. “We can’t always place babies at this moment,” she told AD. “And when we do succeed, Groningen is no exception. That is not exactly an ideal solution if the parents, for example, live in Amersfoort.”
Spijker said the system is also no longer able to keep siblings together in emergency situations. “We can’t do otherwise anymore. Recently, we had a family with five children who essentially raised each other. Now they have been divided across four different families. It is horrific. Their trust must be completely gone.”
She said most current referrals involve urgent removals from unsafe homes, including situations of domestic violence, severe neglect, confinement, honor-related violence, and extreme caregiving burdens placed on children.
National organization Jeugdzorg Nederland, which represents 29 foster care organizations, confirms that the shortage is occurring nationwide. Spokesperson Nina Immink linked the decline in foster families partly to reputational damage following a widely reported case involving a 10-year-old foster child in Vlaardingen.
“We are seeing this problem throughout the Netherlands. Foster care has really gotten a bad image because of what happened last year in Vlaardingen with a 10-year-old foster girl. It is simply a major problem,” she told AD. “Nobody wants a child to remain in an unsafe situation for too long or to be continuously moved because there is no suitable family. Both are extremely traumatic."
She added that authorities are working toward more home-like, small-scale youth care settings but warned this is also increasing demand for foster placements. “We cannot solve this alone. Together with foster care organizations, municipalities, and political leaders in The Hague, we really need to push hard on this,” she said.
Spijker said interest in becoming foster parents appears to have dropped significantly since mid-December. “Information evenings are barely attended, and there are hardly any new applications from foster families,” she told the newspaper.
She cited multiple contributing factors, including financial pressure, time constraints, and hesitation to take on complex care responsibilities. “Everything is becoming more expensive; people have to work more and therefore have less time. In addition, major decisions, such as taking a child with additional needs into your home, are being postponed,” she said.
At the same time, she said the number of children requiring emergency placement continues to rise. “The problems are often more severe because we try to keep children at home for as long as possible. That is a very good aim, but when it goes wrong, it really goes wrong,” she said. “We are currently receiving only crisis placements, meaning children must be removed from home immediately.”
