Social Protection Policies and Programmes

Poverty affects both the quality and length of children’s lives, reduces the ability of families to adequately provide for their children, and is a significant cause of family breakdown and child separation. Social assistance programmes aim to reduce child poverty and act as a safety net for families with minimal resources.

Such programmes include in-kind and in-cash transfers, and food for work initiatives. Social assistance programmes are a part of social welfare and must include clear child care policies that protect children and strengthen family and community capacities to access services and provide care.

Cash transfers are a means of financially supporting the most vulnerable households to improve the child’s access to essential goods and services, such as health and education. They include the use of child support grants, child and family allowances and targeted and conditional cash transfers. They may be combined with investment in child education and health services, and redistributive tax policies.

In-kind transfers provide access to essential goods and services instead of cash payments. Conditional cash transfers provide money to poor families on achieving certain actions, such as sending children to school.

Social assistance programmes may struggle to target those most in need, and provide sustainable support. Economic policies, including social assistance, and household economic strengthening, require substantial research, monitoring, and gatekeeping to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable are reached and that long term benefits can be achieved for families, including child headed households.

The literature in this section provides country examples and analyses of social assistance programs, focusing primarily on cash transfer schemes.

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Care Reform in Uganda: Timeline of System Achievements

MEASURE Evaluation and USAID , 15 Sep 2017

This infographic provides a historical timeline of the alternative care reform process in Uganda, marking key achievements in the establishment of policies, guidelines, procedures, and programs to improve the quality of care and protection for children without adequate family care.

Care Reform in Ghana: Timeline of System Achievements

MEASURE Evaluation and USAID, 15 Sep 2017

This infographic provides a historical timeline of the alternative care reform process in Ghana, marking key achievements in the establishment of policies, guidelines, procedures, and programs to improve the quality of care and protection for children without adequate family care.

Care Reform in Armenia: Timeline of System Achievements

MEASURE Evaluation and USAID, 15 Sep 2017

This infographic provides a historical timeline of the alternative care reform process in Armenia, marking key achievements in the establishment of policies, strategies, guidelines, procedures, and programs to improve the quality of care and protection for children without adequate family care.

Starting with the end in view: Designing OVC programs with responsible exit planning for families, programs and national systems

4Children/OVCsupport.org, 12 Sep 2017

In this webinar recording, 4Children and KIDSS share learning about how to prepare and plan, at the family and programmatic level, for exiting out of OVC programs.

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The Effects of Socioeconomic Vulnerability, Psychosocial Services, and Social Service Spending on Family Reunification: A Multilevel Longitudinal Analysis

Tonino Esposito, Ashleigh Delaye, Martin Chabot, Nico Trocmé, David Rothwell, Sonia Hélie and Marie-Joelle Robichaud - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 09 Sep 2017

This paper examines the extent to which socioeconomic vulnerability, psychosocial service consultations, and preventative social services spending impacts the reunification for children placed in out-of-home care.

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The Effects of Socioeconomic Vulnerability, Psychosocial Services, and Social Service Spending on Family Reunification: A Multilevel Longitudinal Analysis

Tonino Esposito et al. - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 09 Sep 2017

Today's Children are Tomorrow's Parents: Children Deprived of Liberty

Philip D. Jaffé & Snejana Sulima - The Center of Research in Child-Parent Interaction (CICOP) , 31 Aug 2017

This special issue of the journal Today's Children are Tomorrow's Parents explores the issue of children deprived of liberty, or the detention of children, around the globe from the perspective of experts from various disciplines.

Cut off from Justice: The impact of excluding separated and migrant children from legal aid

Helen Connolly, Richard Crellin and Rupinder Parhar - University of Bedfordshire & The Children's Society, 21 Aug 2017

This updated report presents the findings and recommendations from a study investigating the situation and experience of unaccompanied children in the UK's legal system.

Modern slavery and global supply chains: Interim report of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade's inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia

Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade - Commonwealth of Australia, 17 Aug 2017

This interim report from the Parliament of Australia's Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade presents its recommendations on the adoption of a Modern Slavery Act in Australia, with consideration to the trafficking, forced labor and child exploitation through orphanage tourism.

Care-criminalisation: The involvement of children in out-of-home care in the New South Wales criminal justice system

Kath McFarlane - Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 08 Aug 2017

This article describes the findings of a four-year study with a cohort of children in out-of-home care in New South Wales and their experiences with the criminal justice system.

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