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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Transitioning to Family Care for Children Online Training

Faith to Action Initiative, 28 Jan 2019

The Transitioning to Family Care for Children Online Training provides an overview of the key concepts and steps that are important to a successful transition process.

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Comparison of Institutionally Reared and Maltreated Children on Socioemotional and Biological Functioning

Nicole B. Perry, Carrie E. DePasquale, Philip H. Fisher, Megan R. Gunnar - Child Maltreatment, 27 Jan 2019

The current study compared behavioral and adrenocortical functioning of maltreated and comparably aged (1.5–3 years) institutionally-reared children soon after (1.5–2.5 months) placement in foster care or adoptive homes, respectively.

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Experiences of Young People Early in the Transition From Residential Care in Lagos State, Nigeria

Belema Sekibo - Emerging Adulthood, 27 Jan 2019

This article examines the aftercare experiences of young people who have recently left a residential care institution in Lagos State, Nigeria.

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Empowering children with disabilities for the enjoyment of their human rights, including through inclusive education: Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights , 22 Jan 2019

In the present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 37/20, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights provides an overview of the legal framework and practical measures to empower children with disabilities.

Effects of early adversity on the brain: Larger-volume anterior cingulate cortex in AIDS orphans

Peiying Zuo , Yinan Wang , Jia Liu, Siyuan Hu, Guoxiang Zhao, Lijie Huang, Danhua Lin - PLoS One, 14 Jan 2019

This study used magnetic resonance imaging to compare adolescent AIDS orphans reared in institutions with a sex- and age-matched group of healthy adolescents reared in families in China using a voxel-based morphometry analysis.

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Mental health screening for children in care using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Brief Assessment Checklists: Guidance from three national studies

Michael Tarren-Sweeney, Anouk Goemans, Anna Sophie Hahne, and Matthew Gieve - Developmental Child Welfare, 12 Jan 2019

The present article proposes a first-stage mental health screening procedure (calibrated for high sensitivity) for children and adolescents (ages 4–17) in alternative care, which children’s agencies can implement without clinical oversight using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Brief Assessment Checklists (BAC).

Rights of persons with disabilities: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities

UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, 11 Jan 2019

In her report, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities provides an overview of the activities undertaken in 2018 and a thematic study on disability-specific forms of deprivation of liberty, in the light of the standards set forth in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The neglect–enrichment continuum: Characterizing variation in early caregiving environments

Lucy S. King, Kathryn L. Humphreys, Ian H. Gotlib - Developmental Review, 09 Jan 2019

In this paper, the authors advance a framework for examining the nature and consequences of neglect, which they posit can be represented as variations along a continuum from severe psychosocial neglect to environmental enrichment.

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“A child who is hidden has no rights”: Responses to violence against children with disabilities

Janet Njelesani - Child Abuse & Neglect, 08 Jan 2019

Guided by social-ecological theory, this study explores responses to violence against children with disabilities, including preventative measures and treatment of victims in the West African countries of Guinea, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

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Empowering Residential Carers of Looked After Young People: The Impact of the Emotional Warmth Model of Professional Childcare

Robert John Seán Cameron & Ravi K Das - The British Journal of Social Work, 03 Jan 2019

This study examined the impact of the model of professional childcare in a three-year project involving fifty-three children and young people and their carers in local-authority children’s homes on two UK areas (Northern and Southern England).

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