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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Constructing the Meaning of “Family” in the Context of Out-of-Home Care: An Exploratory Study on Residential Care Leavers in Harare, Zimbabwe

Getrude Dadirai Gwenzi - Emerging Adulthood, 19 Sep 2018

This article focuses on the concept of “family” and family membership from the perspective of care leavers in Zimbabwe.

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Early Caregiver-Child Interaction and Children's Development: Lessons from the St. Petersburg-USA Orphanage Intervention Research Project

McCall RB, Groark CJ, Hawk BN, Julian MM, Merz EC, Rosas JM, Muhamedrahimov RJ, Palmov OI, Nikiforova NV - Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 08 Sep 2018

This study reviews a series of interrelated studies on the development of children residing in institutions (i.e., orphanages) in the Russian Federation or placed with families in the USA and the Russian Federation.

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Lumos Stories: Together We Stared at the Moon

Lumos, 06 Sep 2018

This film from Lumos is about the people who know that there is an alternative to institutional care, and who are working hard to make it happen.

Young adults transitioning from institutional care to independent living: The role of aftercare support and services

Bhargava Rini, Chandrashekhar Riti, Kansal Shubhangi, Modi Kiran - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond, 06 Sep 2018

This study from the Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond Special Issue on Aftercare was conducted on 47 young adults who had grown up in various government and non-government child care institutions of New Delhi, India and the aftercare services they did or did not receive. The analysis revealed that the existing aftercare programmes are ill-equipped to prepare Out-of-Home Care (OHC) youth to transition from alternative care to independent living.

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Mental and emotional health needs of orphaned and separated youth in New Delhi, India during transition into adulthood

Atluri Namratha, Pogula Mounika, Chandrashekar Riti, Ariely Sumedha Gupta - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond, 06 Sep 2018

This study from the Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond Special Issue on Aftercare describes the mental health outcomes and transition experiences of a group of young adults who are currently transitioning (aftercare) or have already transitioned (alumni) out of a residential care organisation for orphaned and separated children (OSC) in New Delhi, India.

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Leaving alternative care: Building support systems for young people

Perera W.D.P. - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond, 06 Sep 2018

This article from the Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond Special Issue on Aftercare explores the outcomes for young people who have transitioned out of alternative care and into independent living in Sri Lanka and the need for policy changes to better meet their needs.

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Aftercare of children in alternative care: An analysis of the international and national legal framework from the prism of human rights

Khan Saif Rasul - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond, 06 Sep 2018

This study from the Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond Special Issue on Aftercare is aimed at studying the concept of aftercare from the prism of human rights and the international framework in context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN resolution, Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. Furthermore, the research is aimed at analysing the legal provisions and standards provided within the Indian legal system and how far it is attuned to the international standards.

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Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond: An International Journal on Alternative Care, Issue #10

Udayan Care, 01 Sep 2018

This 10th issue of the Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond (ICEB) journal, released in September 2018, is a Special Focus issue on ‘Aftercare.’

The Report of the Committee for Analysing Data of Mapping and Review Exercise of Child Care Institutions under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and Other Homes

Government of India, Ministry of Women and Child Development, 01 Sep 2018

This National Mapping Exercise covering all Child Care Institutions(CCIs)/Homes in the country, except 34 CCIs/Homes in Uttar Pradesh, sheds light on the functioning of CCIs/Homes across the country, in the context of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. The findings of this report are expected to provide necessary guidance to all stakeholders regarding improvements required in policy formulation and implementation in future.

Executive Summary: Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Children: A Formative Evaluation of UNICEF’S Child Protection Programme in Cambodia (Khmer Language)

UNICEF Cambodia, 01 Sep 2018

The objective of this evaluation was to provide evidence that can help strengthen performance and accountability with UNICEF’s work with the Royal Government of Cambodia and the myriad other authorities and organizations involved in child protection.