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 Child’s Right to a Family: Deinstitutionalization – In the Best Interest of the Child

Asha Bajpai - Journal of the National Human Rights Commission, 2017

Using national and international law, court observations, and field experiences, this paper argues a case for deinstitutionalization of children in India, by empowering the families, thereby protecting children's right to a family and preventing abuse and exploitation.

Institutional Violence against Children: How to Cope with the Inevitable and the Unconquerable

Victoria Schmidt - Ending Violence in Childhood Global Report 2017, Know Violence in Childhood, 2017

This paper, produced for the Know Violence global learning initiative, looks at the violence children experience in closed institutions in the Central Asian countries, specifically the former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

No Child Should Grow Up Like This: Identifying long term outcomes of Forgotten Australians, Child Migrants and Stolen Generations

Hazel Blunden, Elizabeth Fernandez, Jung-Sook Lee, Szilvia Kovacs - UNSW Australia, 01 Dec 2016

This report documents the life experiences of care leavers in Australia.

Government response to Sir Martin Narey’s Independent Review of Residential Care

Department for Education, 01 Dec 2016

In July 2016, the UK government committed to implementing several recommendations laid out in Sir Martin Narey’s independent review of children’s residential care. This report sets out more detail on each of these recommendations and also sets out the government’s response to the recommendations in Sir Martin’s report.

Developing family-based care: complexities in implementing the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children

Jennifer C. Davidson, Ian Milligan, Neil Quinn, Nigel Cantwell & Susan Elseley - European Journal of Social Work, 18 Nov 2016

This paper draws on the literature and practice examples from around the world to examine the fundamental challenges experienced by States in their efforts to implement the 'suitability principle,' as described in the Guidelines for the Alternative Care for Children.

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Country Care Review: Suriname

Better Care Network, 09 Nov 2016

This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Preparing for successful transitions beyond institutional care in Zimbabwe: adolescent girls’ perspectives and programme needs

Pamhidzayi Berejena Mhongera - Child Care in Practice , 07 Nov 2016

This qualitative study explored adolescent girls’ perspectives and programme needs as they transition from two institutions in Highfield, Harare, Zimbabwe.

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Epidemiological patterns and correlates of mental disorders among orphans and vulnerable children under institutional care

Victoria N. Mutiso, Christine W. Musyimi, Albert Tele, David M. Ndetei - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 03 Nov 2016

The objective of the study was to estimate the prevalence, comorbidity and socio-demographic correlates of common mental disorders among orphan and vulnerable children (OVCs) in residential care.

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Summary advisory report ‘Reflection on Intercountry Adoption’ of the Council for the Administration of Criminal Justice and Protection of Juveniles

Raad Voor Strafrechtstoepassing en Jeugbescherming, 02 Nov 2016

This document discusses the means by which the Council for the Administration of Criminal Justice and Youth Protection in the Netherlands (the Council) can provide the highest level of protection for children placed in the intercountry adoption focus group.

Alternative Child Care and Deinstitutionalisation in Sub Saharan Africa

Dr Ian Milligan, Mr Richard Withington, Dr Graham Connelly, Dr Chrissie Gale - European Union, CELCIS, SOS Children's Villages, 01 Nov 2016

This desk review provides a brief mapping and summary of existing knowledge on alternative care and deinstitutionalisation in Africa.