Over the last 30 years, there has been a growing understanding of the critical importance of the family and a family environment for children in terms of their development and well-being. This realization is at the core of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989 (UN General Assembly 1989), and more recently of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, welcomed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2009 (UN General Assembly 2010). A major body of empirical research in psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated the importance of investment in children’s early years to support this critical period of child development (Shonkoff and Phillips 2010).