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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Maintain, Strengthen, Expand - How the EU Can Support the Transition from Institutional to Family- and Community-Based Care in the Next Multiannual Financial Framework

Opening Doors for Europe's Children, 01 Mar 2018

This publication from Opening Doors for Europe's Children calls upon the EU to maintain, strengthen and expand the use of funds so they make a greater impact and go further to eliminate institutions for children across Europe and beyond.

Evaluation of Ghana's Child Protection System Strengthening Initiatives at the District Level: Final Report

Government of Ghana, UNICEF, 01 Mar 2018

The objective of this evaluation is to document and assess how the capacity of the child protection system in Ghana—in particular the practices of the Social Welfare Actors (SWA)—has changed to enable the provision of quality services to children and families with support of the workforce strengthening (WFS) initiative.

Ending legalised violence against children by 2030: Progress towards prohibition and elimination of corporal punishment in Pathfinder countries

Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, 14 Feb 2018

Prepared for the Agenda 2030 for Children: End Violence Solutions Summit, held in Stockholm, Sweden, on 14-15 February 2018, this report tracks progress towards prohibition and elimination of corporal punishment of children in Pathfinding countries.

Strengthening Families, Ending Institutional Care: Recommendations to the European Union on Post-2020 Multi-Annual Financial Framework

Opening Doors for Europe's Children, 01 Feb 2018

This report from Opening Doors for Europe's Children presents recommendations to the EU on how best to include deinstitutionalization and children's care as a part of the next multiannual financial framework.

Opening Doors Country Fact Sheets

Opening Doors for Europe's Children, 01 Feb 2018

The 2017 country factsheets provide an update on the status of child protection and care reforms from 16 European countries that are the focus of Opening Doors for Europe’s Children campaign in Phase II.

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Prepare for Leaving Care – A Child Protection System that Works for Professionals and Young People

SOS Children’s Villages, CELCIS, EuroChild, 2018

‘Prepare for Leaving Care – A Child Protection System that Works for Professionals and Young People’, a two-year project co-funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union (2017-2018), aims to ensure that the rights of young people in alternative care are respected and that they are prepared for an independent life.

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MEASURE Evaluation: Uganda

Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (MGLSD), USAID Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF), MEASURE Evaluation, 2018

In 2017, the USAID Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) engaged the USAID-funded MEASURE Evaluation to build on and reinforce progress in advancing national efforts on behalf of children who lack adequate family-based care in Uganda.

Reconsidering Recent Developments in Japanese Residential Care and the Road to FICE Japan

Shigeyuki Mori, Satoru Nishizawa, Arimi Kimura - International Journal of Child, Youth & Family Studies, 2018

This paper offers an overview of residential care for children in Japan and its ongoing development.

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Capacity Development Plan for family support, foster care and adoption (Khmer Language)

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.

Integration of Children from Institutional Care into Society

Veronika Blažková & Daniela Nováková - Street Children: An International Perspective, 2018

This article describes the changes in institutional care in the Czech Republic that were ushered in with the acceptance of the law on the execution of institutional or protective upbringing in 2002.