The purpose of substitute care is to ensure the long- or short-term well-being and rights of a child, to provide the child with family-like living conditions so as to meet their basic needs, to create a safe and development-friendly living environment and to prepare the child for adulthood.

The substitute home service can be provided to a child:

• whose parent(s) is (are) deceased, wanted or missing
• whose parent(s) has (have) been appointed a guardian due to their restricted active legal capacity whose parent(s) has (have) had custody of their child suspended, restricted or withdrawn altogether
• who has been separated from their parent(s)
• whose parent(s) is (are) in provisional custody or prison
• who is an unaccompanied minor foreign national

When referring a child to the service, a foster family should be preferred, and the child may be placed in a family home or foster home only as an exception, bearing in mind the child’s needs. Any family who is willing and able to provide care, support and love to a child born in another family is very welcome to submit an application to become a foster family to the Social Insurance Board. The Social Insurance Board will assess the family’s suitability and help them become a foster family by providing training, among other things. Families who have completed these preparations are added to the register of social services and benefits on the list of foster families, from which local governments can choose a family suitable for a child in need of the substitute care service. The foster family is offered financial support as well as counselling and assistance in raising the child.

Family home

A child in substitute care lives in a family home with up to three family parents and up to six children. In a family home, the children are cared for by a parent who lives with the children in the family home. In the case of a single-parent family home, the parent lives with the children round the clock.

Substitute home

In a substitute home, the child lives in a family with educators and up to six children. In a substitute home, the children are cared for by educators who work under an employment contract. There are more people caring for children in a substitute home family, and compared to a family home, they rotate more often according to schedule.

Tallinn Children’s Home, SOS Lasteküla Eesti Ühing and SA Haapsalu Hoolekandekeskus provide substitute care services in family and substitute homes for children living in Tallinn.