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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Going Home: 8 Years Lost in Kathmandu

Forget Me Not, 12 Dec 2014

This video, from Forget Me Not, features the story of Alisha, a young girl in Nepal who was separated from her family and taken to a children’s home in Kathmandu.

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International Volunteering in Residential Care Centres: An Overview

Anna McKeon , 11 Dec 2014

Anna McKeon, consultant for the Better Volunteering Better Care initiative, presented at a launch event of a new report on orphanage volunteering from Next Generation Nepal.

Treated Worse than Animals: Abuses against Women and Girls with Psychosocial or Intellectual Disabilities in Institutions in India

Human Rights Watch , 03 Dec 2014

This report documents the involuntary admission and arbitrary detention of women and girls with mental health disabilities in mental hospitals and residential care institutions across India.

Unsettled youth: Examining the life experiences of resettled youth raised under institutional care in Uganda

Fredrick Luboyera - The Hague, 01 Dec 2014

This study is purposely looking at issues around institutionalization and the experiences of resettled youth resulting from the social and economic challenges that affect them in independent living, tackling how they are negotiating and overcoming them.

Experiences of sexual victimization by peers among adolescents in residential care settings

Shalhevet Attar-Schwartz, 01 Dec 2014

This study explores the prevalence and multilevel risk factors of 1,309 Israeli Arab and Jewish adolescents’ experiences of unwelcome sexual behaviors by peers in residential care settings (RCSs) for at-risk children.

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Sexual abuse of children and youth in residential care: An international review

Margaretha C. Timmerman, Pauline R. Schreuder - Aggression and Violent Behavior, 01 Dec 2014

This paper reports the results of an international review of academic literature on sexual abuse in residential child and youth care, 1945–2011.

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‘Staying Put’ for Young People in Residential Care: A Scoping Exercise

National Children’s Bureau, The Who Cares? Trust, Action for Children, Barnardo’s, Together Trust and the Centre for Child and Family Research , 01 Dec 2014

This report explores options for young people aging out of residential care (“care leavers”) and the potential challenges and costs of effective implementation of those options.

Meeting Report of the Rwanda Learning and Consultation Workshop

National Commission for Children, Save the Children, Better Care Network, 27 Nov 2014

As part of the work of the BCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Initiative, the National Commission for Children in partnership with BCN, and Save the Children convened a national consultative workshop in Kigali, Rwanda on 26 and 27 November 2014. This report presents a summary of the main priority outcomes which were identified by participants during the meeting, including: evidence building and sharing, strengthening advocacy, and strengthening capacity.