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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Minimum Standards of Care for Child Care Facilities: Regulations and Procedures

Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health, Republic of Zambia, Department of Social Welfare, 01 Jul 2014

This document contains a set of regulations and procedures which the Zambian Government has established as the “Minimum Standards of Care for Child Care Facilities.”

Niños, Orfanatos y Familias

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

El presente resumen de investigaciones se ofrece a iglesias, organizaciones religiosas y personas de fe que buscan información basada en pruebas sobre la mejor manera de cuidar a huérfanos y niños separados del cuidado parental.

Children, Orphanages, and Families: a Summary of Research to Help Guide Faith-based Action

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

This Summary of Research provides a concise overview of a range of studies and findings that can inform approaches to caring for children who, through orphanhood, abandonment, or other causes, have been separated from parental care.

Les enfants, les orphelinats et les familles

Kelley Bunkers, Amanda Cox, Sarah Gesiriech, and Kerry Olson, Faith to Action Initiative, 12 Jun 2014

Ce résumé sur les recherches est offert aux églises, aux organisations confessionnelles et aux personnes de foi qui cherchent des informations factuelles sur les meilleures façons de venir en aide aux orphelins et aux enfants privés de la protecti

Deinstitutionalization of Children in Bulgaria: How Far and Whereto?

UNICEF, 01 Jun 2014

This Review, commissioned by UNICEF Bulgaria, is aimed at informing the recommendations for the Bulgarian Government’s Action Plan for the implementation of the National Strategy ‘Vision for Deinstitutionalisation of Children in Bulgaria.’

Life satisfaction in the transition from care to adulthood: the contribution of readiness to leave care and social support

Tamar Dinisman, 23 May 2014

Many young people rely on their parents when they transition into adulthood. Young people transitioning out of alternative care rarely have that option.

Without Dreams: Children in Alternative Care in Japan

Human Rights Watch, 08 May 2014

This report by Human Rights Watch examines Japan’s alternative care system for children. It describes its organization and processes, presents current data on the use of different forms of alternative care and highlights the problems found in the institutionalization of most children (including infants), as well as abuses that take place in the system.

National Multisectoral Child Protection Strategy, Plan of Action (Lesotho)

Kingdom of Lesotho, 01 May 2014

This document presents the Kingdom of Lesotho's National Multisectoral Child Protection Strategy 2014–2018 and a Costed Plan of Action for 2014-2016. The document is a more detailed operational document, setting out a road map for actions from July 2014 through to March 2017.

Consensus Statement on Group Care for Children and Adolescents: A Statement of Policy of the American Orthopsychiatric Association

Mary Dozier, Roger Kobak, Abraham Sagi-Schwartz, Carole Shauffer, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, Joan Kaufman, Thomas G. O’Connor, Stephen Scott, Judith Smetana, Charles H. Zeanah, 01 May 2014

This statement of policy of by American Orthopsychiatric Association reviews the evidence on the use of congregate or group care for children and adolescents and concludes that institutional care is nonoptimal for children of all ages, including teenagers, and that even smaller group care settings can be detrimental to the growth and well-being of youth.

Understanding Vulnerability: a Study on Situations that Affect Family Separation and the Lives of Children in and out of Family Care

Irwanto & Santi Kusumaningrum, Center on Child Protection University of Indonesia PUSKAPA UI , 01 May 2014

This report presents analysis and key findings from a study aimed at fully understanding the situations of children in Indonesia that may lead to family separation.