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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Institutional Care of Children and Young People in Malaysia: Searching for the'Right' Direction

Faizah Haji Mas’ud - Residential Child and Youth Care in a Developing World: Global Perspectives, 16 Jul 2018

This chapter from Residential Child and Youth Care in a Developing World: Global Perspectives focuses on the institutional care of children and young people deemed ‘at risk’ according to current Malaysian law on child welfare: Malaysian Child Act (2001).

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‘Hearts and heads’ – Good practice in children’s homes: Ending the criminalisation of children in residential care. Briefing three.

The Howard League for Penal Reform, 16 Jul 2018

This briefing paper is part of a series from the Howard League that explores some core principles to help protect children in residential care in the UK from criminalisation.

Dear Volunteer

Forget Me Not and The Umbrella Foundation, 16 Jul 2018

This animated video from Forget Me Not and The Umbrella Foundation, tells the story of a young child placed in an orphanage and highlights the pain and trauma of family separation, the impacts of a revolving door of volunteers on children in institutions, and the ways in which volunteering fuels the orphanage industry.

Menstrual hygiene: knowledge and practice among adolescent girls in orphanage

Savita Kumari, Poonam Sheoran, Adiba Siddiqui - International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, 13 Jul 2018

The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge and practices regarding menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls residing in selected orphanages of Haryana.

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Child abuse and neglect in orphanages in EAST JAVA Province (Study on forms of child abuse, anticipatory efforts developed children and the role of the orphanage)

Sutinah, Siti Aminah - Children and Youth Services Review, 03 Jul 2018

This study examines the forms of abuse and neglect experienced by children living in orphanages in East Java Province, efforts by children in orphanages to deal with the acts of abuse experienced, and the role of the orphanage or the Child Social Welfare Institution (LKSA) in providing protection and fulfillment of the rights of abandoned children.

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Country Care Review: Russian Federation

Better Care Network, 03 Jul 2018

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Adversity and intervention needs among girls in residential care with experiences of commercial sexual exploitation

Kristine Hickle & Dominique Roe-Sepowitz - Children and Youth Services Review, 02 Jul 2018

This paper will report on a study comparing case files for girls victimized (n = 73) and not victimized (n = 62) by commercial sexual exploitation who were living in a residential care setting in a large southwestern city in the United States.

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Compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction and work engagement in residential child care

Dr Kerry Audin, Dr Jolanta Burke, Dr Itai Ivtzan - Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care, 01 Jul 2018

This quantitative study investigated the relationship between compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction and work engagement in staff working in independent residential childcare organisations in England, Scotland and Wales.

Caregiver Sensitivity and Consistency and Children's Prior Family Experience as Contexts for Early Development within Institutions

Brandi N. Hawk, Robert B. Mccall, Christina J. Groark, Rifkat J. Muhamedrahimov, Oleg I. Palmov, Natalia V. Nikiforova - nfant Mental Health Journal, 28 Jun 2018

The current study from the Infant Mental Health Journal addressed whether two institution‐wide interventions in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, that increased caregiver sensitivity (Training Only: TO) or both caregiver sensitivity and consistency (Training plus Structural Changes: T+SC) promoted better socioemotional and cognitive development than did a No Intervention (NoI) institution during the first year of life for children who were placed soon after birth.

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Prevalence of Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress, Depression and Anxiety Among Abused and Neglected Adolescents in Charitable Children’s Institutions in Nairobi

Stella Kemuma Nyagwencha, Alice Munene, Naomi James, Ricarda Mewes, Antonia Barke - American Journal of Applied Psychology, 18 Jun 2018

The purpose of this study was to establish the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety disorder, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among adolescents with a history of abuse and neglect living in charitable children’s institutions (CCIs) in Nairobi County, Kenya.