One of the main directions of the public spending policy in Republic of Moldova is the social protection of the population. A group of population that is, especially, vulnerable to the difficult social and economic conditions is the children in difficulty – children who have insufficient parental support or lack it, due to parents’ negligence, violence, death or other unfavorable conditions of familial environment. A widespread measure of support of these children is their separation from the difficult familial environment and the subsequent institutionalization. On the one hand, the need to make the use of public spending more efficient in supporting this category of children, on the other hand, numerous researches that demonstrate the negative effects of institutionalization on children have determined the government of the Republic of Moldova to orient itself towards deinstitutionalization measures in the last decade. In this paper we try to determine the main aspects of the public spending policy on the social protection of children in difficulty in the Republic of Moldova of the last decade in the light of deinstitutionalization efforts.