‘An unstoppable movement has started in the Dutch youth welfare services.' This is the opening sentence of a 1983 pamphlet with which an initiative of young professionals, involved in the 24-hour care for juveniles in various residential facilities, introduced themselves. Their aim was small-scale care with common characteristics: 'small, uncluttered, unobtrusive, close'.
The Op Kleine Schaal foundation (OKS) is relatively unknown, but the impact of its activities is not. The Foundation had direct connections with the development of family-like alternative care, the improvement of the quality of foster care, the development of a new focus on family decision making in (youth) care and the development of restorative practices in the Netherlands and in other European countries.