Residential Care

Residential care refers to any group living arrangement where children are looked after by paid staff in a specially designated facility. It covers a wide variety of settings ranging from emergency shelters and small group homes, to larger-scale institutions such as orphanages or children’s homes. As a general rule, residential care should only be provided on a temporary basis, for example while efforts are made to promote family reintegration or to identify family based care options for children. In some cases however, certain forms of residential care can operate as a longer-term care solution for children.

Residential care can be a positive alternative for some girls and boys when it is used appropriately and meets certain standards. For example, small group home living arrangements or supported independent living can work well in cases where children (often older teenagers) don’t feel comfortable in a family setting, or where large groups of siblings want to stay together. Similarly in cases where children have suffered trauma, severe abuse or neglect, have a severe disability or require specialised support, small group settings where trained staff can provide therapeutic care may be an appropriate care option. As much as possible, residential facilities should be small, community-based, organised to resemble a family-type or small-group situation and allow for sufficient staff to provide individualised attention to children.

It is important to distinguish between residential care and institutional care, which should only be used as a last and temporary resort for children. Institutional care refers to large-scale group care within big institutional facilities and has been associated with a wide range of problems for children including physical, social and emotional under-development - with babies and infants under the age of three especially vulnerable to lasting harm. Long periods in an institution can deprive children of positive individual attention from consistent caregivers, make it difficult for them to assimilate back into a family and community, and are often linked to increased risk of sexual and physical abuse, a lack of stimulation, and harsh discipline.

In recent years, deinstitutionalisation has been at the heart of national care reform efforts, which seek to reduce reliance on institutional care and to promote family and community based care options for children instead. This includes efforts to promote ethical volunteerism within residential care centres, educate donors and to avoid proliferation of orphanages and children’s homes after humanitarian emergencies.

The documents in this section outline residential care options for children, examine the damaging impact of institutions, explore family and community-based care alternatives and describe care reform efforts including initiatives around ethical volunteerism.

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Video: 5 years later and we don't need an orphanage

Child's i Foundation, 29 Jan 2016

Five years ago, Child's i Foundation founder Lucy Buck set up a 25-bed 'transitional facility' to prove it was possible to place children in need of care into permanent families. Childs' i Foundation piloted an 'emergency care pilot' to see i

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FairStart Foundation Invites You to Join its First Free International Online Education Class for NGO Caregiver Trainers

Fairstart Foundation, 16 Jan 2016

To meet the demand for high quality trainer's training programs in the group care sector, Fairstart Foundation designed an online education program for training groups of caregivers.

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Self-representation questionnaire for youths in residential care

Joana Nunes Patrício, Maria Manuela Calheiros, Ana Catarina Martins - Children and Youth Services Review, 11 Jan 2016

The objective of this study was to develop and test an instrument to measure self-representation of youths in residential care in Portugal.

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Alternative Child Care and Deinstitutionalisation: A Case Study of Indonesia

Claire O’Kane and Sofni Lubis - SOS Children's Villages, 10 Jan 2016

This report is a case study of alternative child care in Indonesia. Research was conducted that found that with an estimate of 8,000 institutional facilities servicing 500,000 children, Indonesia was overly reliant on institutional care.

Video: Don't Create More Orphans

ChildSafe, 2016

This short video by ChildSafe in Cambodia explains how donations to orphanages, rather than helping the situation, often cause the creation of more orphans. It is estimated that about 80% of the 8 million children living in institutions around the world are not actually orphans. Donations to orphanages only fuel the orphanage industry further, so the focus should instead be on supporting families.

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Child Protection and Residential Care in Greece: An Illuminative Case Study

Iro Mylonakou-Keke, Stefanos Alevizos, Pavlos Salichos, Fotine Konstantopoulou and Chara Grosdani - Global Perspectives, 2016

This chapter from Global Perspectives is a discussion of child protection, care, welfare, and residential care in Greece. This chapter covers a brief historical overview of the child protection and care situation in Greece, as well as a discussion of care and protection of children in contemporary Greece. There is a case study included of “The Smile of the Child” foundation.

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Kinnected: Keeping Children in Families

ACCI Relief, 2016

Kinnected is a program run in 10 countries by the organization ACCI Relief aimed at preserving and strengthening families and assisting children currently in residential care to achieve their right to be raised in a family. This report describes Kinnected’s programs and initiatives underway in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Lesotho and includes some individual case studies.

Institutional Care of Children and Young People in Malaysia: Searching for the ‘Right’ Direction

Faizah Haji Mas’ud - Residential Child and Youth Care in a Developing World: Global Perspectives, 2016

In this chapter from Residential Child and Youth Care in a Developing World: Global Perspectives, First Edition Faizah Haji Mas’ud discusses the state of residential care in Malaysia. Mas’ud covers Malaysia and welfare policy, types of children’s services, as well as challenges and issues Malaysia faces in providing residential care to children.

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Residential Care For Children in Ghana: Strengths and Challenges

Kwabena Frimpong-Manso - Residential child and youth care in a developing world: Global perspectives, First Edition, 2016

In this chapter of Residential child and youth care in a developing world: Global perspectives, First Edition, the reader is introduced to residential care in Ghana.

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Estonia: Country Fact Sheet

Opening Doors for Europe's Children, 2016

This Estonia Country Fact Sheet highlights the transformations made in deinstitutionalization in Estonia since 2004. By the end of 2015, there were 1,068 children in 38 residential care settings in Estonia.