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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Impact of COVID-19 on Privately Run and Funded Residential Care Institutions: Briefing Note for Volunteers and Volunteer Sending Organisations

Better Care Network, Law Futures Centre - Griffith Law School, World Childhood Foundation, Eriks Development Partner, 2021

This briefing paper draws on data and findings from the report: Impact of COVID-19 on Privately Run Residential Care Institutions: Insights and Implications for Advocacy and Awareness Raising.

Thai version

Child care institutions in India: Investigating issues and challenges in children’s rehabilitation and social integration

Evergreat Wanglar - Children and Youth Services Review, 31 Dec 2020

This study aimed to unravel the different issues and challenges that hinder the effective rehabilitation of children in child care institutions in India.

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What does research tell us about young people’s participation in decision making in residential care? A systematic scoping review

Lynne McPherson, Meaghan Vosz, Kathomi Gatwiri, Natalie Parmenter, Noel Macnamara, Janise Mitchell, Joe Tucci - Children and Youth Services Review, 29 Dec 2020

This article reports on a systematic scoping review which investigated research publications on participation in making life-impacting decisions by young people.

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Community-based participatory research with at-risk youth: lessons learned from a Photovoice project in Taiwan

Victor Hsiao, Sunya Chen, Mellissa Withers - Journal of Health and Caring Sciences, 18 Dec 2020

Thirteen youth from a group home in Taiwan for teenage boys in the foster care and juvenile justice systems participated in this yearlong study which utilized a strengths-based approach to examine resiliency, their needs, and sources of support. This article describes nine key lessons learned to keep at-risk youth at the center of future similar research studies through protecting, representing, and empowering them.

Orphanage Trafficking and Child Protection in Emergencies in Nepal: A Comparative Analysis of the 2015 Earthquake and the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

Martin Punaks and Samjyor Lama - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond, 15 Dec 2020

This article compares and contrasts two humanitarian emergencies and their impact on Nepal: these are the Nepal earthquake in 2015 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Education Opportunities and Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Bagamoyo District Tanzania

Bertha Erasto Losioki - East African Journal of Education Studies, 14 Dec 2020

This study assessed educational opportunities and the support available to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Bagamoyo District to determine socioeconomic and psychological factors that limit access to education.

‘My dark heaven’: Hidden voices in orphanage tourism

Esther Bott - Annals of Tourism Research, 14 Dec 2020

This article draws on original empirical data to explore the narratives of young Nepali adults who lived in Kathmandu orphanages as children. Through these narratives, the article explores the diverse complexities of the residents' experiences of volunteer tourism and NGO ‘rescue’, and the shortcomings of recent ‘neoabolitionist’ frameworks.

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Restructuring Institutional Care: Challenges and Coping Measures for Children and Caregivers in Post COVID-19 Era

Sudeshna Roy - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond, 10 Dec 2020

This article explores the dynamics of the institutional care of the out-of-home care (OHC) children, adolescents and children who are residing in alternative care homes, childcare institutes (CCIs), foster homes and who are in conflict with law like refugees or in juvenile correctional centres.

Sibling Support: The Reports of Israeli Adolescents in Residential Care

Shalhevet Attar-Schwartz - Brothers and Sisters, 10 Dec 2020

This study examined the self-reports of youth in Israeli residential care settings designed for youth from underprivileged backgrounds on the extent of perceived availability of support from their siblings among other sources of support, and the contribution of sibling support to various positive and negative measures of well-being and functioning.

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Linking Up Again: Views of Barnardo’s Elders on Being Separated from Their Siblings and How They Reconnected in Old Age

Ann Buchanan - Brothers and Sisters, 10 Dec 2020

This chapter will record the views of a small sample of elders (now in their 70s, 80s and 90s), who grew up in Barnardo’s facilities in the UK, on being separated from their siblings and how they re-connected with their brothers and sisters in old age.

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