Data collection on children in residential care: Protocol and tools for a national census and survey on children in residential care

UNICEF

A child’s care status impacts his or her health, developmental outcomes and general well-being, both during childhood and later in life. Children outside of a family setting are more likely than their family-based peers to experience abuse, neglect, exploitation, lack of stimulation, poor nutrition and toxic stress. In fact, the lifelong physical and psychological harm that institutionalization or lack of quality family-based care can cause is well  documented, with numerous studies revealing that children who remain in institutions after the age of 6 months often face severe developmental impairments. Moreover, children living in institutional settings are frequently missing from available statistics since reporting for many indicators, particularly those that comprise global monitoring frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), rely heavily on data collected through household surveys. This lack of data, particularly high-quality and robust data, on the well-being of these children impedes efforts to include the most vulnerable in the SDG agenda to ensure that no one is left behind.

In response to the need for accurate and reliable statistics on children in residential care, UNICEF has developed the first-ever comprehensive methodology to collect data on children living in residential care settings by applying a number of preexisting tools from international survey programmes, such as the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and other validated instruments, to an institutional population. By using previously tested measures of child well-being that are being used to generate data for SDG reporting at the national level, countries that implement the data collection will be able to report on a number of key child-related SDG indicators for the population of children living in residential care.

The protocol outlines the recommended steps to conduct a:

  • Census and mapping of all residential care facilities in a country
  • Thorough enumeration of child populations living in such facilities
  • Survey on a representative sample of children living in residential care.

These objectives are achieved through two phases of data collection: Phase 1 is the census of facilities and enumeration of children and Phase 2 is the follow-up survey on a representative sample of children living in residential care to collect data on selected measures of well-being.

Available documentation currently includes a concept note and a webinar recording of the virtual launch event. The full protocol and package of implementation tools - including the complete set of questionnaires (in English) for Phase 1 and Phase 2 - are currently been finalized and will be posted online as they become available. A package of implementation tools to support country uptake of the protocol is also under development.