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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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.

Transitioning to a Government-Run Refugee and Migrant Response in Greece

Inter-Agency Group, 01 Dec 2017

This report presents a joint NGO roadmap for more fair and humane policies for refugee and migrant youth in Greece.

Substitute Child Care as a Current Problem of Social Care in the Czech Republic

Viera Vavrecková, Michaela Tichá, & Zlata Ondrúšová - DANUBE: Law, Economics and Social Issues Review, 01 Dec 2017

The objective of this essay is to determine how substitute child care in the Czech Republic has changed in the last ten years.

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Achieving positive change for children? Reducing the length of child protection proceedings: lessons from England and Wales

Judith Masson, Jonathan Dickens, and Kay Bader - Adoption and Fostering, 24 Nov 2017

This article will discuss the impact of reforms on time limits in decision-making for children, questioning whether they achieve both good decisions for children and justice for families.

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Implementation of deinstitutionalization of child care institutions in post-soviet countries: The case of Azerbaijan

Aytakin Huseynli - Child Abuse & Neglect, 04 Nov 2017

This study examined the status of the State Program on Deinstitutionalization and Alternative Care (SPDAC), a public policy aimed at transforming 55 institutions covering 14,500 children during 2006–2016 in Azerbaijan.

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Implementation of deinstitutionalization of child care institutions in post-soviet countries: The case of Azerbaijan

Huseynli A - Child Abuse & Neglect, 03 Nov 2017

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Resetting the pendulum: Balanced, effective, accountable child protection systems and adoption reform In Australia

Jeremy Sammut - The Centre for Independent Studies, 01 Nov 2017

This research report reviews the child protection and adoption policies in Australia and the long-term plan of the New South Wales (NSW) government "to restructure the operation of the child protection system to increase sustainability and improve performance by achieving permanency for more children."

Care Reform Workshop Report

MEASURE Evaluation, 01 Nov 2017

This report outlines the sessions of a workshop help in London with representatives from four countries participating in a USAID/DCOF-funded activity aimed at intensifying country leadership in advancing national efforts on behalf of children who lack adequate family care, and provides highlights, key discussion points, and action items.

Opening up communities, closing down institutions: Harnessing the European Structural and Investment Funds

Neil Crowther, Gerard Quinn & Alexandra Hillen-Moore - Community Living for Europe: Structural Funds Watch, 01 Nov 2017

This report from Community Living for Europe: Structural Funds Watch reviews findings of an examination of the EU financial framework as it relates to the promotion of community-based care of children and adults and offers key recommendations for the EU and Member States to facilitate the transition from institutional to community-based care.