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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Capacity Development Plan for family support, foster care and adoption

Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, 2018

This Plan presents key findings and 23 recommendations, sub-divided into short-term, medium-term and long-term actions, for an effective and efficient implementation of foster care, adoption and family support in Cambodia.

Localising De-institutionalistion: The Potentials of Article 20 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Context of Rajasthan, India

Therese Boje Mortensen - Asia in Focus, 2018

This study contributes to a body of scholarship on ‘localising children’s rights’ by presenting findings from an ethnographic case study of an institution for HIV-infected/affected children in Rajasthan, India.

DOVCU Learning Brief 1: The effect of DOVCU’s integrated package of interventions on children and families at risk of separation

ChildFund International, 2018

This learning brief analyzes quantitative data from the first of the project’s stated objectives: examining the extent to which “Deinstitutionalization of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Uganda” (DOVCU) project interventions decrease vulnerabilities for households and children at risk of separation.

Deinstitutionalisation of Europe’s Children: Questions and Answers

Opening Doors for Europe's Children, 11 Dec 2017

This resource provides quick answers to some of the frequently asked questions about the transition from institutional to family- and community-based care for children, also known as deinstitutionalisation (DI).

Deinstitutionalisation of children in Europe: What do you know?

Opening Doors for Europe’s Children, 11 Dec 2017

To accompany the release of the learning guide “Deinstitutionalisation of Europe’s Children: Questions and Answers”, the Opening Doors for Europe’s Children has prepared an online quiz to test the knowledge and tackle some of the tricky questions on deinstitutionalisation (DI).

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Changing the Way We Care Final Presentation

MacArthur Foundation, 11 Dec 2017

In this video, Catholic Relief Services, Lumos, and Maestral International presented their project: Changing the Way We Care, a project aimed at ending the institutionalization of children.

Deinstitutionalisation of Child Care: Promoting the child's right to a safe family

SOS Children’s Villages Sri Lanka & Children’s Emergency Relief International, 05 Dec 2017

This outline of alternative care, both conceptually and in the Sri Lankan context, provides insight into both the current system and what efforts are yielding results.

Improving Child Welfare Outcomes Balancing Investments in Prevention and Treatment

Jeanne S. Ringel, Dana Schultz, Joshua Mendelsohn, Stephanie Brooks Holliday, Katharine Anne Sieck, Ifeanyi Edochie, Lauren Davis - RAND Corporation, 01 Dec 2017

This study is the first attempt to integrate maltreatment risk, detection, pathways through the child welfare system, and consequences in a comprehensive quantitative model that can be used to simulate the impact of policy changes.