2025 became a year of difficult decisions, compromises, and experiments in state policy on support for children. The full-scale war, now in its fourth year, continues to radically change the context of childhood in Ukraine: millions of children have experienced displacement, loss of parents, trauma, disruption of social ties, and problems with access to essential services. In these conditions, the state is forced to respond to acute humanitarian challenges while laying the groundwork for long-term transformation of the child protection system.
A key challenge of 2025 was the fragmentation of children’s needs. The policy could no longer be limited to universal solutions: deported and forcibly displaced children require one type of solutions, children with disabilities another, orphans a third, and families with children need financial stability amid inflation and income loss. In response, the state issued many targeted laws and bylaws, often launching experimental and pilot projects.
A second systemic challenge was limited institutional capacity. Guardianship authorities, child services, social services, and territorial communities operate under staffing shortages, overload, and parallel reforms ranging from digitalization to deinstitutionalization. This forced the legislature and government to seek models that distribute responsibilities among the central government, territorial communities, international partners, and non-governmental service providers.
A third important challenge was the need to rethink the role of the state — a shift from being a direct manager and owner of institutions to being a purchaser of services, a coordinator, and a guarantor of standards. Therefore, in 2025, a significant part of decisions focused on experimental mechanisms for procuring social services, competitive grants, new financial formulas, and digital registers.
Thus, legislation on support for children in 2025 was formed under conditions of multi-level crisis and without a single “ideal” model, but to prevent the collapse of the support system, protecting the most vulnerable groups, and gradually change approaches to care, support, and development of children.
In this digest, we review key legislative innovations of 2025 concerning support for children. We analyze their content, implementation progress, and potential impact on people’s lives. At the end, we present short conclusions about the shortcomings of policy implementation in 2025 and outline recommendations for the future.
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Children affected by war
Protection of the rights of deported and forcibly displaced children
Who is affected: deported and forcibly displaced children, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
Summary
- Defines the concepts of a child’s deportation and a child’s forced displacement.
- Grants the Cabinet the authority to establish rules for the return of children who were deported or forcibly taken from occupied territories. The Cabinet will determine how their return to territories controlled by Ukraine is to be organized, as well as how to facilitate their reintegration (reconnection with Ukrainian society) and adaptation (adjustment to life after return).
What happened
The status of a deported child and the status of a forcibly displaced child were introduced in the law. A legal basis was created for the Cabinet to make decisions regarding their return, reintegration, and adaptation.
Protection of children’s rights
Who is affected: deported and forcibly displaced children, local government bodies, guardianship authorities, and child services
Summary
- Provides that the status of a child who has suffered as a result of military actions or armed conflict is granted by guardianship and care authorities at the place of application or the place where the child is found by local executive authorities or local self-government bodies.
- The procedure and requirements for granting this status will be defined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
What happened
The legislator defined a regulatory framework for granting the status of a child who has suffered as a result of military actions or armed conflict.
Operation of the information system recording damages caused by the Russian aggression
Cabinet Resolution #450 of February 25, 2025
Who is affected: people who have suffered as a result of the Russian aggression, including deported and forcibly displaced children
Summary
- Establishes a system that automates the accounting and processing of data on:
- individuals (including deported or forcibly displaced children) whose personal non-property rights have been infringed;
- damages to personal non-property rights caused by the Russian aggression;
- support measures taken and related public spending (state and local budgets and social insurance funds).
- Covers all damages starting from February 19, 2014.
- Establishment and data population will be phased during 2025–2026.
What happened
The system enables proper documentation of violations of personal non-property rights caused by the Russian aggression, increases transparency and efficiency of social support for affected individuals, and creates legal preconditions for subsequent compensation of damages.
Deinstitutionalization and alternatives to orphanages
Family Home project
Cabinet resolution #1285 of October 1, 2025
Who is affected: orphans and children deprived of parental care (including children with disabilities), social security authorities, local self-government bodies, service providers, educational institutions, child services, guardianship authorities, and territorial communities
Summary
- Established the experimental project “Family Home” as a family-like alternative to institutional care.
- Provides co-funding from the government and local budgets.
- Defines selection mechanisms for participating communities and providers, staffing and premises requirements, service standards, and monitoring procedures.
- Defines financing, reporting, quality control, and coordination between central and local authorities.
- Planned in: Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Kyiv, Lviv, Poltava, Sumy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv, Khmelnytskyi, and Kharkiv oblasts.
What happened
The Cabinet officially launched a pilot model of care in a family-like environment to replace or significantly substitute institutional care. The project will be implemented in 12 oblasts and co-funded by state and local budgets, with territorial communities and independent service providers involved.
Changes in the operation of children’s homes before their re-profiling or termination
Cabinet resolution #886 of July 16, 2025
Who is affected: orphans and children deprived of parental care, children in difficult life circumstances, social security authorities, guardianship authorities, oblast administrations, and local administrations
Summary
- Defines transitional rules for placement, stay, and transfer of children while children’s homes are re-profiled or terminated as institutional facilities.
- Placement is carried out strictly under the procedure for guardianship and care authorities.
- Recommends cooperation with the Coordination Centre for Family Upbringing for comprehensive needs assessment.
- Instructs the Ministry of Social Policy to develop a procedure for social security for children temporarily placed and preparation for return to family-like care/adoption by September 1, 2025.
What happened
The Cabinet provided a legal basis for the transitional operation of children’s homes during re-profiling or termination, defining organizational rules to support children while transferring them to other forms of care.
Changes to the allocation and payment of state social assistance for orphans and children deprived of parental care
Cabinet resolution #1241 of October 1, 2025
Who is affected: orphans and children deprived of parental care (including children with disabilities), foster parents and adoptive parents, social security authorities, local self-government bodies, the Pension Fund of Ukraine, and social service providers
Summary
- Updates the procedure for allocating and paying state social assistance, including for children with disabilities.
- Clarifies payments to foster/adoptive parents based on the “money follows the child” principle.
- Introduces a new formula based on number of children (including children with disabilities) to reflect caregiver burden.
- Automates processes via the Single Information System of the Social Sector.
- Transfers calculation and payment administration to the Pension Fund from 2026.
What happened
The mechanism of state social support was updated; a new formula and digital administration were introduced. From 2026, payments will be administered by the Pension Fund to improve stability and timeliness.
Social services and early intervention
Joint project with UNICEF on micro-grants for social services to families with children and/or early intervention services
Cabinet resolution #40 of January 17, 2025
Who is affected: families with children, children with disabilities or additional needs, local self-government bodies, providers of social services, the Fund for Social Protection of People with Disabilities, and the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine
Summary
- Approves a joint UNICEF project to fund social services and/or early intervention through micro-grants.
- Defines the procedure for selecting participating communities and providers, and sets quality and competition requirements.
- The Fund for Social Protection of People with Disabilities publishes calls and projected beneficiary numbers; local authorities may provide premises.
- Eligible providers include legal entities and private entrepreneurs meeting service and quality assessment requirements.
- One micro-grant: up to USD 60,000.
- Implementation: Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi oblast and Kyiv city.
What happened
The Cabinet launches the UNICEF-supported micro-grants mechanism for developing social services and/or early intervention, with defined selection procedures, funding rules, and quality control criteria.
Experimental project for the procurement of a comprehensive social service for the development and care of children with disabilities
Cabinet resolution #764 of June 25, 2025
Who is affected: children with disabilities, their parents/guardians, local self-government bodies, social service providers, the Fund for Social Protection of People with Disabilities, the National Social Service, the State Service for Children, and the Ministry of Education and Science
Summary
- Launches a 2-year experimental project for state procurement of a comprehensive service (development + care) for children with disabilities.
- Services are provided individually and may include development/social integration, professional orientation, caregiver counseling, day care, self-care and meals support, leisure/outdoor activities, first aid (if needed), support with medical prescriptions, habilitation services, and psychological support.
- The Fund for Social Protection of People with Disabilities acts as the purchaser and selects participating communities and providers.
- The State Service for Children monitors implementation and provides methodological support.
- The Ministry of Education and Science coordinates involvement of educational establishments to support the right to education.
- Local authorities may voluntarily join, provide premises, arrange transport, inform communities, monitor quality, and report outcomes.
What happened
The Cabinet launches an experimental mechanism for procuring a comprehensive service that combines development and care, with shared responsibilities among state institutions and active involvement of communities.
Schoolchild’s Package
Cabinet resolution #809 of July 7, 2025
Who is affected: parents or legal representatives of schoolchildren, schoolchildren, social security authorities, the Pension Fund of Ukraine, educational establishments, and local self-government bodies
Summary
- Introduces a one-time payment of 5000 UAH for first-grade students to buy school supplies, clothing, footwear, and books.
- Recipient: one parent/legal representative of a child enrolled in first grade for the school year, regardless of place of residence.
- Payment can be delivered via an electronic Diia.Card with restricted spending to eligible goods for first-graders.
- Not included in family income for the calculation of other social benefits.
- Funded from the state budget under the Social Protection of Children and Family program via the Pension Fund.
What happened
The Cabinet launched a one-time “start-up school kit” in monetary form to reduce the financial burden on families at the beginning of the school year amid economic challenges and rising prices.
Standard program to prevent violence and cruelty to children
Cabinet resolution #886 of July 16, 2025
Who is affected: institutions in education, culture, healthcare, social security, sports, recreation and leisure, youth centers, NGOs working with children and youth, and local self-government bodies and officials
Summary
- Approves a Standard Program to Prevent Violence and Cruel Treatment of Children (prevention, detection, response, monitoring).
- Mandatory for organizations working with children, including schools, healthcare, social services, cultural/sports facilities, recreation/leisure centers, youth centers, and NGOs.
- The State Service for Children provides information support for developing and implementing required procedures and measures.
What happened
The Cabinet created a universal legal framework intended to become a standard for all organizations working with children and youth, including response protocols, risk assessment, staff training, monitoring, and evaluation.
Conclusions
Laws and government resolutions concerning the policy on support for children in 2025 demonstrate a clear shift in focus and a move toward reforming the child protection system under war conditions. For the first time, issues of deported and forcibly displaced children were comprehensively addressed in legislation, and legal grounds were laid for their return, reintegration, and documentation of harm. This is critically important not only for social policy but also for international legal accountability of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, many regulations are still only procedural and framework-oriented. Many mechanisms for implementing new social services depend on bylaws, pilots, or future years. This creates a risk of slow implementation and unequal access depending on the capacity of individual territorial communities.
A positive trend is the active use of experimental projects. The Cabinet chose a cautious but flexible model to test new approaches (comprehensive services for children with disabilities; Family Homes; UNICEF-supported grant mechanisms) without breaking the system all at once. This strategy requires clear success criteria; otherwise, experiments risk remaining isolated practices.
Policy integration remains unresolved. Protection against violence, financial support for families, deinstitutionalization, and social services are often developed in parallel without a single strategic framework tying these decisions into a cohesive childhood policy. Likewise, the transition of deported and forcibly displaced children into education, healthcare, and social security systems has not been adequately addressed, including continued support and access to services.
2026 will likely be a year to test the viability of the adopted decisions: whether the state can scale up experimental models, ensure stable funding, and move from crisis management to systemic policy development in child protection.
Recommendations
In 2025, the state made a groundbreaking step by recognizing deportation and forced displacement of children as separate legal categories and laying the foundation for the return and reintegration of children. At the same time, the adopted resolutions are mostly framework-oriented and do not address a key practical issue: what happens to a child after the return.
For 2026, it is critical:
- to develop a single interagency route for the returned child combining social, educational, psychological, and legal support;
- to establish mandatory long-term support rather than one-time assistance on return;
- to integrate harm-detection mechanisms with clearly defined tools for restoring the child’s rights (education, health, documents, social services, etc.).
If these steps are not taken, there will be a high risk of re-traumatization, and the state will be unable to properly follow the child’s fate after the return.
In addition, policies in the areas of protection against violence, social services, education, and deinstitutionalization are mostly implemented separately, without a unified coordinated approach.
The state should consider moving toward an integrated model for supporting children with complex needs, ensuring interoperability of registers, and clearly defining a coordinator responsible for overseeing children at the level of territorial communities.