Children Affected by Poverty and Social Exclusion

Around the world, poverty and social exclusion are driving factors behind the placement of children into alternative care. Families give up their children because they are too poor to care for them, or they feel that it is the best way to help them to access basic services such as education and health care. Discrimination and cultural taboos mean that girls, children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, children with HIV/AIDS and children born out of wedlock, make up a disproportionate number of children abandoned into alternative care.

Poor-quality alternative care leads to a vicious cycle of poverty and inequality. With limited family-based alternative care options in many countries, children often end up in institutional care. Already marginalized by poverty or stigmatization, they risk becoming further excluded from society, as they grow up separated from their families and communities. In the worst cases, inadequate or unsafe care standards expose them to neglect, violence and abuse. When they eventually leave institutional care, young adults may then struggle to reintegrate into their communities and face high rates of homelessness, unemployment, chronic poverty, depression and even suicide.

Greater political and financial commitment is needed to tackle the poverty and social exclusion that drives families to give up their children. This includes wide-ranging measures to combat poverty, discrimination and stigmatization, to change attitudes towards single parenthood and disability, and to adopt social policies promoting family empowerment and parenting skills. Greater priority must also be given to developing good-quality family-based care options, such as foster care and adoption, for the girls and boys who need alternative families.

The documents in this section examine the relationship between poverty, social exclusion and placement of children in alternative care.

Displaying 121 - 130 of 505

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Universal child benefits: Policy issues and options

ODI and UNICEF, 01 Jun 2020

This report from ODI and UNICEF critically reviews the case for universal child benefits (UCBs). It seeks to contribute to a burgeoning and lively debate on the (potential) role of UCBs as a policy instrument in the pursuit of child poverty reduction and universal social protection.

Not in Care, Not Counted - A legal loophole: homeless 16- and 17-year olds and unregulated accommodation

Kady Murphy & Natalie Williams - Just for Kids Law, 01 Jun 2020

This paper from Just for Kids Law (JfKL) explores an issue that the organization has come across through their work: cases of under 18s (mainly 16- and 17-year olds) in the UK who are facing homelessness and do not receive the support they are entitled to from local authority children’s services.

‘What is left…?’: The implications of losing Maintained Nursery Schools for vulnerable children and families in England

Carla Solvason, Rebecca Webb, Samantha Sutton‐Tsang - Children & Society, 24 May 2020

This TACTYC funded research highlights the role that Maintained Nursery Schools (MNS) play in supporting families within areas of extreme social deprivation in the UK.

Making the Transition: How Asset Building Services Can Promote Positive Adult Outcomes for Foster Youth

Melanie L. Nadon - Children and Youth Services Review, 15 May 2020

This paper examines the frequency with which transition-age foster youth receive asset building services and whether the youth who receive services experience improved outcomes compared to those who do not.

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Youth in Care: A Very High-Risk Population for Homelessness

Jimmy Wang & Eva Moore - Clinical Care for Homeless, Runaway and Refugee Youth, 06 May 2020

This article argues that the current system of care in most jurisdictions forces foster youth to be financially and socially independent at an earlier age, despite insufficient preparation, and notes that healthcare providers can be important advocates for youth in care by championing their medical and psychological needs and serving as a bridge that lasts beyond foster care.

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Rapid situation tracking for COVID-19 socioeconomic impacts (beta version)

UNICEF, 01 May 2020

This dashboard draws on periodic country office reporting against an evolving questionnaire, first initiated on 12 March 2020, representing important early indications of the impacts of COVID-19 on the disruption of essential services for children and families.

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Socioeconomic deprivation and social capital in kinship carers using a helpline service

Emily P. Taylor, Simona Di Folco, Melanie Dupin, Heather Mithen, Luis Wen, Lilian Rose, Kirsty Nisbet - Child & Family Social Work, 28 Apr 2020

Using routine data from a kinship care helpline service, this study employed a mixed‐method analysis of the association between socioeconomic deprivation and risk factors reported by kinship carers in the UK and explored social capital in kinship families.

Maternal AIDS Orphans and the Burden of Parenting in Youth-headed Households; Implications for Food Security in Impoverished Areas of South Africa

Ephodia Sebola, Busisiwe Ntuli, Sphiwe Madiba - The Open Public Health Journal, 24 Apr 2020

This study explored the parenting experiences of orphaned youth heading households in resource-constrainted environments.

Botswana children's needs: orphans and vulnerable children dominated child welfare system

Nankie M. Ramabu - Heliyon, 22 Apr 2020

This study sought to determine the needs of the general population of children in Botswana.

The role of decision making in the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the Australian child protection system

Paul H. Harnett & Gerald Featherstone - Children and Youth Services Review, 17 Apr 2020

The authors of this study draw on the decision-making ecology model of judgement and decision making in child protection to speculate on possible causes of false positive errors in decision making regarding the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.

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