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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Fatherhood Initiatives: Connecting Fathers to Their Children

Carmen Solomon-Fears, Specialist in Social Policy - Congressional Research Service, 16 Jan 2015

This paper from the US Congressional Research Service provides an overview of fatherhood initiatives in the United States and includes brief evaluations of five of these initiatives.

The Foster Care Systems are Failing Foster Children: The Implications and Practical Solutions for Better Outcomes of Youth in Care

Mary Ramsay-Irving - Canadian Journal of Family and Youth Vol. 7, No. 1 , 2015

This paper reviews the literature on foster care and explains the issues that foster children in Canada experience.

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The Place of Foster Care in the Continuum of Care Choices: A Review of the Evidence for Policymakers

Ghazal Keshavarzian, Family for Every Child , 2015

This report from Family for Every Child explores rising concerns about the expansion of foster care services in low and middle income countries, it begins to fill the gap in understanding, and aims to assist in both states’ and NGOs’ decisions on whether to invest in foster care, and in the kinds of supportive services needed to make foster care safe and effective.

Protect children, screen your employees

Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice , 2015

The Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice has developed this flyer, along with ECPAT Netherlands, Better Care Network Netherlands and Terre des Hommes Netherlands, to motivate foreign organizations working with children to ask for a Certificate of Conduct when recruiting Dutch volunteers or employees.

Family and Parenting Support: Policy and Provision in a Global Context

Mary Daly, Rachel Bray, Zlata Bruckauf, Jasmina Byrne, Alice Margaria, Ninoslava Pecnik, Maureen Samms-Vaughan , 2015

This report examines and analyses policies and provision for family support and parenting support based on general literature searches and evidence gathered from 33 UNICEF national offices and detailed case studies of nine countries.

Country Care Profile: Liberia

Better Care Network, UNICEF, PEPFAR, USAID, 2015

This country care profile provides an overview of key lessons learned in the children’s care reform process in Liberia, including successes, challenges and areas for progress, and gaps in learning and best practice.

The Application of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption of 1993 in Brazil

Marcos Vinicius Torres Pereira & Lara Oliveira Gonçalves - Panorama of Brazilian Law, 2015

This article talks about the application of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption of 1993 in Brazil.

Building a Holistic Child Protection System, Step by Step, in the United Republic of Tanzania

UNICEF , 2015

This case study of the child protection system in the United Republic of Tanzania is part of a UNICEF global initiative, undertaken in collaboration with Global Affairs Canada to document national child protection frameworks to gain an understanding of the country, the response of government and other actors, as well as other factors contributing to success in protecting children from violence, exploitation and abuse.

Migrant Children and Adolescents Returned: An Analysis of the Contexts and Responses of the Services and Policies of Protection in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico (Spanish)

RELAF, Save the Children, and UNICEF, 2015

Esta evaluación rápida, conducida por RELAF in colaboración con Save the Children y UNICEF, revisa las políticas públicas y servicios desarrollados por instituciones gubernamentales y no-gubernamentales perteneciendo al "Sistema de Protección Integral" para hacer frente a las cuestiones problemáticas que afectan los niños migrantes y sus familias en el Triángulo del Norte (El Salvador, Guatemala, y Honduras) y México.

Model Guidelines for Foster Care, 2015 - India

Ministry of Women and Child Development, India, 2015

These Guidelines for Foster care aim to protect the well-being of children in India who are deprived of family care or who are at risk of being so.