Staff shortages leave 200 children without a legal guardian

More than 200 children whose parents have been stripped of parental rights by the courts have no permanent legal guardian because of staff shortages in the child protection system, according to research by investigative platform Investico and Trouw.

The children live with foster families or in care homes and should be given a named guardian from a child protection organisation who monitors their safety and takes key decisions on their behalf.

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” said Mariëlle Bruning, professor of child law at Leiden University. “There must always be someone keeping an eye on the child.”

Decisions on medical care, school choices and passports must instead be taken by stand-in staff without detailed knowledge of the child’s file, said associate professor Joost Huijer of Utrecht University.

Vlaardingen case
The Netherlands’ 14 child protection organisations hold guardianship over some 7,500 children. Six of them have waiting lists: five reported 133 children without a guardian on April 1, and one reported having had 90 alone in February, blaming high staff turnover, sickness and “administrative instability”.

Bruning pointed to the case of a foster girl in Vlaardingen, left permanently disabled by her foster parents’ abuse, as an illustration of what is at stake. She too had a succession of changing guardians, and social workers failed to speak to her one-on-one for long periods.

Around 1,500 children were waiting for some form of child protection worker in October 2025.