Non-Formal Mechanisms for Children's Care and Protection

In many countries children without adequate family care are supported within non-formal care arrangements. This typically involves the care of a child by a relative (kinship care), or someone close to the family (informal foster care), without any legal proceedings or regulation by the State. In some cases, children may also live on their own without adult carers within a child-headed household.

Informal care arrangements often build on traditional, cultural practices or religious practices and can provide a safe and caring environment for children close to their families and communities. Some arrangements however, may put children at risk of inadequate care, abuse or exploitation – particularly when caregivers are unrelated (or only distantly related), children are moved far away from their communities, or when a child heads the household. In kinship or informal foster care arrangements children may be treated differently than their caretakers’ own children, denied access to education and health and unfairly burdened with household labour.

Moves to formalize traditional alternative care arrangements have met with debate. While there is a need to monitor children’s care situations to prevent their discrimination and mistreatment - as well as to help caregivers to access support services - there are concerns that placing formal requirements on traditional caretaking practices (such as registration with the authorities) might disrupt or even curtail them.

In many countries efforts are underway to strengthen community-based and traditional practices for protecting vulnerable children. This includes supporting child protection committees and community based structures such as faith based groups, volunteer associations, traditional and religious leaders, and neighbourhood committees, to play an increased role in monitoring and supporting informal care arrangements. This can range from conducting home visits, counselling caregivers or children, encouraging children to attend school, providing life skills instruction and linking children to social assistance (cash transfers, feeding schemes, legal services). Awareness raising efforts can also help to educate communities about children’s rights and reduce discrimination against children in alternative care.

The resources in this section outline non-formal and traditional practices for caring and protecting children without adequate family care, which typically operate outside of the formal care and protection systems at the community level.

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ChildFund Deinstitutionalization of Vulnerable Children in Uganda (DOVCU) Final Report

ChildFund, 01 Mar 2018

This final report on the “Deinstitutionalization of Vulnerable Children in Uganda” (DOVCU) project identifies its successes as well as some shortcomings and key learning that is directly relevant to other projects working to support family care for children.

DOVCU Learning Brief 3: Examining the effects of DOVCU through a gender lens

ChildFund International, 2018

This learning brief analyzes quantitative data from both households at risk of separation and reintegrating households to understand how the “Deinstitutionalization of Orphans and Vulnerable Children Project in Uganda” (DOVCU) package of integrated social and economic interventions affects children and households differently depending on the sex of the child, caregiver, and/or household head.

Youth Initiated Mentors: Do They Offer an Alternative for Out-of-Home Placement in Youth Care?

Levi van Dam et al. - British Journal of Social Work , 12 Sep 2017

This study evaluates the Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM) program, which allows youth with complex needs to nominate a mentor from their own social network to collaborate with care professionals and their families as an alternative to out-of-home placement.

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Placement Stability of Children in Informal Kinship Care: Age, Poverty and Involvement in the Child Welfare System

Eunju Lee, Mi Jin Choi, Yeonggeul Lee and Catherine Kramer - Child Welfare Journal, 01 Sep 2017

This study from the Special Issue on Kinship Care of the Child Welfare Journal examines the characteristics of children and their caregivers, the extent of children’s prior involvement in the child welfare system and the factors associated with placement instability in informal kinship care.

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Using Kinship Navigation Services to Support the Family Resource Needs, Caregiver Self-Efficacy, and Placement Stability of Children in Informal and Formal Kinship Care

Michele Cranwell Schmidt and Julie Treinen - Child Welfare Journal, 01 Jul 2017

This study from the Special Issue on Kinship Care of the Child Welfare Journal examined if kinship navigation services can improve family needs, caregiver self-efficacy and placement stability of children in the care of their grandparents or other relatives.

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Care Reform within Ghana’s Child Protection system

Emelia Allan - UNICEF , 21 Jun 2017

This presentation provides an overview of child protection issues and care reform in Ghana.

New Directions for Kinship Care Policy and Practice: A Position Paper from the Kinship Summit at Albany, New York, September 2016

Kerry Littlewood - Child Welfare Journal, 01 May 2017

University at Albany, New York State Kinship Navigator, and the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) formed a collaborative partnership to plan and host a Kinship Care Summit in Albany, New York in September 2016. The Summit included presentations by authors of kinship manuscripts that were accepted for this Special Issue on Kinship Care of the Child Welfare Journal.

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From the Editor: The Apple Tree Has Many Healthy Apples: Kinship Caregiving

Gary Mallon - Child Welfare Journal, 01 May 2017

This special issue focuses on the much larger number of kinship caregivers, who either intervene on their own or accept the assistance of child protective authorities that facilitate informal arrangements without taking legal custody.

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Introduction: Kinship Care Policy and Practice: (First Issue)

Mark F. Testa - Child Welfare Journal, 01 May 2017

The purpose of this introduction of the Special Issue on Kinship Care of the Child Welfare Journal is to offer a conceptual framework for addressing the challenges involved in developing a coherent set of policies and practices with respect to kinship care in the US.

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Using Family Group Decision Making to Assist Informal Kinship Families

Leonard H. Feldman - Child Welfare Journal, 01 May 2017

This paper from the Special Issue on Kinship Care of the Child Welfare Journal discusses a three-phased service model assessed using Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) conferences with informal kinship caregivers and their families.

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