Leaving Alternative Care and Reintegration

It is important to support children who are preparing to leave care.  This includes helping young people as they ‘age out’ of the care system and transition to independent living, as well as children planning to return home and reintegrate with their families.  In either case, leaving care should be a gradual and supervised process that involves careful preparation and follow-up support to children and families.

Displaying 1 - 10 of 969

Maria Groinig, Martina Pokoj,

This article presents the Care Leaver Statistics (CLS) study, the first nationwide panel study in Germany focused on young people leaving out-of-home care, like foster or residential care. It follows about 1,500 youth aged 16–19 over several years to understand their life transitions, including education, employment, housing, health, social networks, and societal participation. The study also emphasizes ethical research practices, diversity sensitivity, and participatory methods that can empower care-experienced youth.

B. J. Newton, Paul Gray, Kathleen Falster, Ilan Katz, Kyllie Cripps,

This article examines why reunification rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care in New South Wales, Australia remain so low, despite being the preferred permanency option. Drawing on insights from practitioners, it highlights the need for culturally grounded approaches and a redefinition of reunification that centers ongoing family and community connections.

Sarah Elizabeth Neville, Joanna Wakia, John Hembling, Beth Bradford, Martin Kiandiko, et. al,

This study examined how disability status affects the well-being of children in Kenya who were reunified with families after living in residential care. It found that children with disabilities reported lower well-being and life satisfaction compared to their peers without disabilities, highlighting the need for targeted support during reunification.

Richmond Opoku, Natasha Judd, Katie Cresswell, Michael Parker,

Out-of-home care entry can have profound effects on families, society, and a child’s development and wellbeing. This review synthesised evidence on the factors contributing to initial entry and re-entry into out-of-home care during childhood (<18 years), as well as those that protect against these outcomes.

U.K. House of Commons Education Committee,

This report makes a series of recommendations on issues affecting all types of care, including foster care, adoption, kinship care, children’s homes, and support for disabled children in the UK.

Changing the Way We Care,

This one-page English-language synopsis of the full report in Romanian titled, “Ce putem învăța de la tinerii cu experiență trăită în sistemul de îngrijire din Republica Moldova?” (What can we learn from young people with lived experience in Moldova's care system?), offers a compelling peer-to-peer perspective from 56 young people who transitioned out of Moldova’s care system.

Changing the Way We Care Moldova and Youth & Experience,

Acest raport prezintă rezultatele unui studiu participativ realizat de rețeaua Youth & Experience (Y&E), fondată de tineri cu experiență trăită în sistemul de îngrijire din Republica Moldova, realizat în perioada septembrie - decembrie 2024 cu participarea a 56 de tineri.

Ayoub Eslamian, Rojan Afrouz, Amir Moghanibashi-Mansourieh,

This research aimed to explore the lived experiences of young care leavers in Iran and their perceptions and views of their transitioning to the world outside of home care.

Shivani Bhardwaj, Sudeshna Roy, Aditya Charegaonkar,

This article holds the State as responsible for the wellbeing of those it has taken the responsibility of protecting. These include people who have suffered violence, indignity, hunger and life-threatening circumstances. The five-year planning of state and district plans have utilised more resources than produced outcomes and output. In this article we put together a learning from strategies that can facilitate duty holders to emerge as more responsible actors during the pandemic that continues.

Adrian D. van Breda,

This South Africa-based paper aims to provide practice guidelines for leaving care that would be useful in real-world settings.