SOS Children’s Villages UK has been operating as part of a membership-based Federation structure since our inception. Over the years, this international structure has allowed us to support children across the world in a variety of ways.
However, since this international Federation was established over 75 years ago, the world has greatly changed, and best practice for caring for and protecting children has evolved. We now believe that the existing structures we have been operating under as an independent UK entity are no longer best placed to serve our work, the direction we want to take in the future, and ultimately the children and young people we are here for.
Our work in the UK has developed to focus more on helping families around the world stay together, and ensuring children are well supported within their families and communities – rather than providing direct care to children through the historic ‘Villages’ model of family-like care. This also follows developments in childcare policy and practice.
We therefore believe that taking sole ownership of our existing and future work will empower us to best represent the children we are here for. That’s why we have taken a decision to withdraw our membership from this international Federation, and over the coming months transition to a fully independent organisation, with our own identity.
This move is a continuation of the direction in which our charity has been heading, and is a natural progression towards supporting more community-based programmes which benefit greater numbers of children. We remain fully committed to the children, young people, and families we are here for.
Our partnerships are already locally led, and in the UK, we hold ourselves to the highest possible standards when it comes to our safeguarding and due diligence processes.
We will therefore carry on working closely with our local overseas partners to ensure children continue to get the very best support possible, and will maintain and build on our current network of strong partnerships and relationships across the world.
We are excited and proud to take our supporters on this journey with us, and will continue to share updates as our voice as a champion of children without or at risk of losing parental care grows in the UK.
