Sir Roger Singleton’s Reflections on 20 Years of Care Reform
18.11.2025
Pictured: Sir Roger Singleton CBE.
Sir Roger Singleton CBE reflects on his involvement with Lumos over the past 20 years and the extraordinary change he has witnessed.
When Lumos began in 2005, internationally we were facing a crisis in children’s care. We were dealing with the aftermath of the fall of Romanian dictator Ceausescu, which had exposed hundreds of thousands of children in Romania living in institutions (often called orphanages) where neglect and abuse were widespread. The Times newspaper exposed similar horrors in the Czech Republic, sparking Jo Rowling to establish Lumos. I joined Lumos first as a trustee and was interim Chief Executive Officer twice.
The challenge was immense. I had more than twenty years of working in children’s services, including leading the closure of children’s homes when I was Chief Executive of Barnardo’s, but Lumos was working across countries with very different cultures and systems. We were trying to convince ministers, civil servants, local officials and some professionals that institutions were not places for children to grow up. Instead, we needed family-based care. I was shocked that in so many countries a child would lose a parent, maybe due to an accident, conflict, imprisonment or abandonment but there was no system of financial and practical support for the surviving parent that would allow them to raise them alone. We’d speak to ministers to propose care reform and some would dismiss family-based care as a “Western idea” or insist, “we don’t do foster care it’s contrary to our culture”.
But we were undeterred. Lumos launched projects in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Moldova, recruiting local professionals who worked in institutional care but were sympathetic to care reform. We created practical models of reform and published guidance for others to follow. One landmark paper was our Ten Elements of Deinstitutionalisation, a framework for countries embarking on reform. It covered everything from raising awareness and reviewing laws, to shifting funds from institutions into community services, and planning each child’s transition either back to their own family or to kinship or foster care.
At the time, the EU was investing heavily in member and accession states. We fought to ensure those funds supported family-based care rather than propping up institutions by repairing them or building new ones. We spoke at global conferences, held high-level meetings, and organised study visits so decision-makers could see the benefits of family care in action.
Looking back, I am deeply proud of what Lumos has achieved and is achieving. In Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, the number of children in institutions has fallen dramatically, replaced by systems of family care and early intervention. Across nearly a dozen countries, more than a quarter of a million children have been supported to flourish outside institutions in family care.
Moldova has been a remarkable success. Winning the Charity Award in 2015 for our work there was a career highlight. Lumos has built a reputation as a credible, impactful organisation, persuading ministers and senior officials, and attracting dedicated staff. Most importantly, we have always placed children’s voices at the heart of our work, enabling children and young people with lived experience to speak to ministers and decision makers and shape reform. This is a profound shift from the old belief that “professionals know best.” We have also distinguished ourselves from other organisations pushing for care reform by demonstrating how change can be achieved and having a particular focus on preventing disabled children being placed in or being left in institutions and finding suitable families for them.
Of course, there have been challenges: countries where reform proved impossible, politicians who were reluctant to engage with issues they considered to be complex, costly, and controversial. The pandemic also hit our funding, curbing ambitions. Yet we persevered, and have created real change for thousands of children.
Though I am no longer working for Lumos, I will continue cheering it on. Over the next decade, I believe Lumos will meet its ambitions to transform care systems for half a million more children across even more countries—giving them the loving families they deserve.
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