Child Care and Protection Policies

Child care and protection policies regulate the care of children, including the type of support and assistance to be offered, good practice guidelines for the implementation of services, standards for care, and adequate provisions for implementation. They relate to the care a child receives at and away from home.

States and all organisations with child care programmes should have child care policies which are in line with national legislation and international law, e.g. the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In line with the CRC, emphasis should be placed on the child’s best interests, with support to families prioritised in order to prevent family separation. Good gatekeeping mechanisms are essential in ensuring families receive the services they need and are entitled to, and to guard against inappropriate placement into poor care arrangements.

Home-based care, day care, and other family support services are mechanisms for assisting families in providing for the child’s development and, when used appropriately, can prevent child separation. When a child is unable to remain at home, alternative forms of community based care should be prioritised, such as formal kinship care or foster care. The use of institutions should be highlighted as a last and temporary measure. All support and care provisions should outline the referral and admission process, the use of care plans, regular reviews, rehabilitation, and aftercare procedures.

Child protection legislation which recognises that abuse can be physical, emotional, sexual, or neglect, and may be carried out by parents, caretakers, children and other adults is required. All agencies working with children should have written child protection policies which respect the rights of the child. Policies should outline behaviours and actions which are unacceptable, provide standards for the appropriate care of children, and clear guidelines on what procedures to follow and by whom, including reporting mechanisms for suspected abuse to an assigned authority for investigation.

Child care and protection policies require resources and monitoring of standards to ensure their appropriate implementation. Adequate provision and training of child care and social work staff is required to deliver family support services and alternatives forms of child care. All staff working with children should be trained and supervised in providing appropriate care for children, identifying abuse, and responding appropriately.

The literature in this section contains country reports and examples of national and organisational child care and protection policies.

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Kenya National Care System Assessment: A participatory self-assessment of the formal care system of children living outside of family care and for the prevention of unnecessary separation of children from families

National Council for Children's Services - Republic of Kenya, 01 Jul 2020

This care system assessment is intended to support the Government of Kenya to assess and strengthen the national, formal care system.

Thirty years of the CRC: Child protection progress, challenges and opportunities

John Tobin & Judy Cashmore - Child Abuse & Neglect, 01 Jul 2020

In this article, the authors outline some of the issues in the implementation and understanding of the Convention and highlight three major international developments over the last decade: the adoption of General Comment No 13, the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence Against Children, and the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the UN General Assembly in 2005.

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Global status report on preventing violence against children 2020

WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Violence against Children, and the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children, 18 Jun 2020

The Global status report on preventing violence against children 2020 charts countries’ progress towards the SDGs aimed at ending violence against children.

The national child protection alert system in New Zealand: A prospective multi-centre study of inter-rater agreement

Patrick Kelly, Carol Chan, Peter Reed, Miranda Ritchie - Children and Youth Services Review, 17 Jun 2020

The purpose of this study was to examine whether eliminating variation in information presented to multi-disciplinary teams eliminates variation in the proportion accepted for a child protection alert.

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Indigenous ontology, international law and the application of the Convention to the over-representation of Indigenous children in out of home care in Canada and Australia

Cindy Blackstock, Muriel Bamblett, Carlina Black - Child Abuse & Neglect, 15 Jun 2020

This paper explores the efficacy of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Convention, UN General Assembly, 1989) through the lens of the over-representation of First Nations children placed in out-of-home care in Canada and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Australia.

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Transnational agency and domestic policies: The case of childcare deinstitutionalization in Georgia

Olga Ulybina - Global Social Policy, 09 Jun 2020

This article describes a policy adoption case study about deinstitutionalization of childcare in Georgia since independence. It highlights the evolving and non-homogeneous nature of transnational agency in the area of childcare deinstitutionalization, and offers insights into the complex relationship between transnational agency and national policymaking.

Te Kuku O Te Manawa: Ka puta te riri, ka momori te ngākau, ka heke ngā roimata mo tōku pēpi

Office of the Children’s Commissioner, 01 Jun 2020

The Children’s Commissioner of New Zealand undertook a thematic review of the policies, processes and practices of Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children relating to care and protection issues for pēpi Māori (Māori infants) aged 0-3 months. This first report presents the insights gained from interviews with mums and whānau (family) who had experience with pēpi (aged 0-3 months) who had either been removed, or were at risk of being removed, from their whānau by Oranga Tamariki or its predecessor Child, Youth and Family.

Annual Report of the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection 2020

Dr Conor O’Mahony, 01 Jun 2020

This report reviews specific national and international legal developments for the protection of children in Ireland; examines the scope and application of specific existing or proposed legislative provisions and to make comments/recommendations as appropriate; and reports on specific developments in legislation or litigation in relevant jurisdictions.

National Prevention and Response Plan on Violence against Children in Kenya 2019-2023

The Government of Kenya, 01 Jun 2020

The vision of the National Prevention and Response Plan is to foster a society where all children live free of all forms of violence. Its goal is for all children in Kenya to be protected from physical, sexual and emotional violence, and for those children who experience violence to have access to care, support and services. It aims to reduce the prevalence of childhood violence – that is, a child experiencing at least one form of physical, emotional and sexual violence – by 40 per cent by 2024.

A Systems Model of Repeat Court-Ordered Removals: Responding to Child Protection Challenges Using a Systems Approach

Sarah Wise - The British Journal of Social Work, 20 May 2020

In this study, a transdisciplinary group of key stakeholders in Australia jointly constructed a causal loop diagram to bring forth the systemic structure underlying the issue of repeat child removals (where parents lose successive infants and children to out-of-home care) and identify system conditions that need to be altered.

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