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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A Better Way to Protect ALL Children: The Theory and Practice of Child Protection Systems, Conference Report

UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children and World Vision, 15 Sep 2013

This report of a major conference held in New Delhi in November 2012 entitled “A Better Way to Protect ALL Children: The Theory and Practice of Child Protection Systems”, encapsulates the substantive content of the presentations and related discussion; provides an analysis and documents the journey; and suggest an agenda, or at least direction, for future work on Child Protection systems.

Performance Audit Report of the Auditor General on the Regulation of Residential Homes for Children (Orphanages) by the Department of Social Welfare (DSW)

Ghana Audit Service, Republic of Ghana, 26 Aug 2013

This audit was conducted to determine whether the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana was sufficiently regulating the operations of Residential Homes for Children (orphanages) to ensure the care and protection of children living in institutions.

Severe punishment of children by staff in Romanian placement centers for school-aged children: Effects of child and institutional characteristics

Adrian V. Rus, Ecaterina Stativa, Jacquelyn S. Pennings, David R. Cross, Naomi Ekas, Karyn B. Purvis, Sheri R. Parris - Child Abuse & Neglect, 07 Aug 2013

The objective of this study was to determine whether children's characteristics and/or institutional characteristics were predictors of severe punishments (including beatings) and/or frequency of punishments that children received from staff in Romanian institutions.

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Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children to the UN General Assembly 68th Session

Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children , 05 Aug 2013

In her annual report to the UN General Assembly, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General highlights the results of an expert consultation on violence in early childhood. The consultation highlighted the urgency of supporting families and caregivers in their child-rearing responsibilities and securing a responsive national child protection system to strengthen families’ capacity to raise young children in safe environments and prevent child abandonment and placement in residential care.

Residential childcare: the experiences of young people in Bangladesh

Islam, Md. Tuhinul - Edinburgh Research Archive, 02 Jul 2013

The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of residential care from the perspectives of a group of young people who had lived in residential childcare institutions in Bangladesh with a view to making improvements in residential childcare in the future.

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“As Long as They Let Us Stay in Class”: Barriers to Education for Persons with Disabilities in China

Human Rights Watch, 01 Jul 2013

Across China, children and young people with disabilities confront discrimination in schools.

Causal Framework of Child Institutionalization in Moldova

Partnerships for Every Child Moldova, 24 Jun 2013

This graphic provides a visual representation of the causal framework of children’s institutionalization in Moldova. It was developed as part of the USAID/DCOF-funded project “Protecting children in Moldova from family separation, violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.”

Children without parental care in Poland: Foster care, institutionalization and adoption

Sandra Knuiman, Catharina HAM Rijk, René AC Hoksbergen and Anneloes L Van Baar, 05 Jun 2013

This article describes the historical background and current situation of the child welfare system for children without parental care in Poland.

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The Prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse in Out-of-Home Care: A Comparison Between Abuse in Residential and in Foster Care

Saskia Euser, Lenneke R. A. Alink, Anne Tharner, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, and Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg - Child Maltreatment - Sage, 13 May 2013

Researchers investigated the prevalence of child sexual abuse in foster care and residential care facilities and found that 3.5 children per 1,000 had been victims of child sexual abuse.

Discriminación en las instituciones de cuidado de niñas, niños y adolescentes

Alberto Celesia, Marta Pesenti, Mónica Tarducci y Mara Tissera Luna - Relaf y Unicef, 01 May 2013

El presente informe refleja distintos aspectos del fenómeno de discriminación que sufren las niñas, niños y adolescentes sin cuidado parental que residen en instituciones de América Latina y el Caribe.