Child Care and Protection System Reforms

Social welfare sector reform is increasingly common, particularly in transitional countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Increasing attention has been paid to the development of preventive community based child and family welfare programs that would, in coordination with health and education programs and social assistance, provide a range of support for vulnerable families.

Recognition of the damaging effects of institutional care on children and its high cost has influenced governments to redirect resources towards alternative family and community-based care practices such as kinship care, fostering, and adoption. Redirecting resources in the context of social welfare reforms requires a commitment from governments to provide adequate financing for effective policy implementation.

Funding availability raises a variety of issues regarding the level and type of support to be provided, the private or public management of services, and the entitlement process. Social welfare should protect the rights of children and their caretakers via fair and clear criteria of support provisions, with transparent procedures for the effective allocation of services.

Social welfare reforms to protect and support children and families need to be built on legal protections and child care policies which reflect the same child centred goals. Alternative forms of community based care, combined with social reintegration programmes and family support services, must be developed to reduce the use of institutions and enable children leaving institutions to rejoin their communities.

The resources in this section focus on country initiatives in reforming their social welfare sector to finance community based care developments.

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Webinar Recording: More Than Our Stories - Strategies for how to meaningfully engage care leavers in care reform

The Kenya Society of Care Leavers (KESCA), the Uganda Care Leavers (UCL), Better Care Network, and Changing the Way We Care, 30 Oct 2019

This webinar - presented by the Kenya Society of Care Leavers (KESCA), the Uganda Care Leavers (UCL), The Better Care Network and Changing the Way We Care - offered policy makers, practitioners, advocates and careleavers a unique opportunity to listen and learn from two leaders of careleaver associations who highlighted two recent documents that illustrate the careleaver experience within and outside of care.

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Analysis of the child protection system in Bulgaria: Final Report (English)

UNICEF, 01 Oct 2019

This research is based on a stock-taking of the current situation. It is based on a comprehensive literature review and a genuine primary research with service users as well as policy makers, service providers, children and families.

Reforming a System that Cannot Reform Itself: Child Welfare Reform by Class Action Lawsuits

Joyce Y Lee, Terri Gilbert, Shawna J Lee, Karen M Staller - Social Work, 30 Sep 2019

The purpose of this article is to provide an introduction to social workers of child welfare reform by class action lawsuits and subsequent consent decrees in the United States.

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Country Care Review: India

Better Care Network, 20 Sep 2019

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as part of the Committees' examinations of the periodic reports of India.

Children Without Parental Care and Need for Integrated Alternative Childcare Centres

Murli Desai - Rights-based Integrated Child Protection Service Delivery Systems, 18 Sep 2019

The aim of this module is to learn about children without parental care and the need for rights-based Integrated Alternative Childcare Centres.

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Youth participation in policy advocacy: Examination of a multi-state former and current foster care youth coalition

Astraea Augsberger, Julie Sweeney Springwater, Grace Hilliard Koshinsky, Kelsey Barber, Linda Sprague Martinez - Children and Youth Services Review, 09 Sep 2019

This study examined stakeholder views on the key elements and challenges of youth participation in policy advocacy in the context of a US multi-state current and former foster care youth coalition.

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Poner Fin al Encierro para el Cumplimiento del derecho a la vida familiar de niñas y niños: Avances y Desafíos Identificados en el Seminario Internacional de RELAF

Sara Josefna González y María Soledad Gomez - RELAF, 01 Sep 2019

Este informe de RELAF resume las presentaciones y discusiones del Seminario Internacional 2019 de RELAF.

Deinstitutionalization of OVC In Ghana’s Central Region Factors That Impact Alternative Care In Bawjiase And Surroundings

Beugre, Anita Princia W. - Leiden University, 01 Sep 2019

Set in Central Region Ghana, using Country-Side Children’s Welfare Home (CCWH) as the main case study, this thesis investigates the underlying factors that are preventing families in the Bawjiase and surroundings from opening their homes and hearts to vulnerable children.

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Putting an End to the Confinement of Children to Fulfill their Right to Family and Community Life: Breakthroughs and Challenges Identified at the RELAF International Seminar 2019

Sara Josefna González and María Soledad Gomez - RELAF, 01 Sep 2019

This report from RELAF summarizes the presentations and discussions from RELAF's 2019 International Seminar, "For the right to family and community life. Putting an end to the confinement of children deprived of parental care."

Rethinking institutional care using family-based alternative child care system for orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria

Chinwe U Nnama-Okechukwu & Uzoma O Okoye - Journal of Social Work in Developing Societies, 16 Aug 2019

This paper is based on field work experience, review of relevant literature and studies on alternative child care system in Nigeria.