Few children are taken from their families
Only 8 out of 10,000 children in the city of Zurich have to be taken from their families every year. No increase can be seen in child protection measures either.
The City of Zurich’s Child and Adult Protection Authority (KESB) is tasked with protecting and supporting children and adults when they or their families are unable or no longer adequately able to do so. Out-of-home placements of children and young people are rare: in the city of Zurich, around 8 out of every 10,000 minors are affected each year. Most third-party placements are not ordered by the KESB, but are sought voluntarily.
For the small number of children and young people and their parents, however, being placed in an out-of-home environment always means a serious intervention. It is all the more important to include them in all decisions. The aim is to support parents in enabling their children to live with them again. From the age of six, all children and young people are always heard personally.
Child advocates are regularly deployed to support them. A placement is only made if the protection of the child or young person cannot be guaranteed in any other way. Every placement decision is very individual, taking into account the specific circumstances and history of each individual case.
Specific case numbers in the city of Zurich in 2021
The rearrangement of child protection measures is consistent compared to the previous year (2020: 460; 2021: 461). In contrast, significantly more adult protection measures were ordered in 2021 than in the previous year (2020: 474; 2021: 530).
However, this increase is not exceptional, since the number of newly ordered adult protection measures is always subject to conscientious fluctuations. If you look at the period from 2016 to 2021, the increase is 5.2 percent – with a population growth of 4.3 percent.