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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Looked after children in residential care: analysis

Sir Martin Narey - UK Department for Education, 04 Jul 2016

This analysis was produced as part of an independent review into children's residential care in England and provides data on children living in all types of residential care facilities in the country as of 31 March 2015.

2nd Biennial Conference on Improving Standards of Care for Alternative Child and Youth Care: Systems, Policies and Practice – A Report

Udayan Care, 01 Jul 2016

This report contains detailed discussions that occurred during conference sessions. The first day focused on Caregivers. The second day focused on aftercare services. This report contains Article 20 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It provides background information on alternative care, which includes a definition and an overview of the alternative care situation in South Asia. It also includes some key guidelines from the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care for Children.

National Estimation of Children in Residential Care Institutions in Cambodia

Cambodia National Institute of Statistics, 01 Jul 2016

This document discusses how there is increasing international mobilization around the importance of family care for optimal child development.

Residential Care in England: Report of Sir Martin Narey’s independent review of children’s residential care

Sir Martin Narey, 01 Jul 2016

On 28 October 2015 the Prime Minister of the UK told the House of Commons that he and the Secretary of State for Education had commissioned Sir Martin Narey to review residential care for children in England.

Interpersonal trauma and associated psychopathology in girls and boys living in residential care

Sophia Fischer, Claudia Dolitzsch, Klaus Schmeck, Jorg M. Fegert and Marc Schmid - Children and Youth Services Review, 16 Jun 2016

The present study aimed to assess the relationship between interpersonal traumatic experiences and specific psychopathological symptoms in a high-risk population of girls and boys living in youth welfare institutions in residential care.

Interpersonal trauma and associated psychopathology in girls and boys living in residential care

Sophia Fischer, Claudia Dölitzsch, Klaus Schmeck, Jörg M. Fegert, Marc Schmid - Children and Youth Services Review, 16 Jun 2016

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Previous Institutionalization Is Followed by Broader Amygdala–Hippocampal–PFC Network Connectivity during Aversive Learning in Human Development

Jennifer A. Silvers, Daniel S. Lumian, Laurel Gabard-Durnam, Dylan G. Gee, Bonnie Goff, Dominic S. Fareri, Christina Caldera, Jessica Flannery, Eva H. Telzer, Kathryn L. Humphreys, and Nim Tottenham - The Journal of Neuroscience, 15 Jun 2016

This study examines the effects of early institutional care on infants' brain development.

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Does Size Matter? Comparing Medium-Term Cost-Effectiveness of Group Homes with Institutional Care in South Korea

Choong Rai Nho, Seokjin Woo, Hyunah Kang, JongSerl Chun and Ick-Joong Chung - Asian Social Work and Policy Review, 15 Jun 2016

Using unique 5-year longitudinal data on Korean children in group homes and those under institutional care, this paper compared the medium-term cost-effectiveness of group homes and that of institutional care facilities in terms of developmental outcomes.

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“It is My Dream to Leave This Place” Children with Disabilities in Serbian Institutions

Human Rights Watch, 08 Jun 2016

This report from Human Rights Watch focuses on the institutionalization of children with disabilities in Serbia.

Risk, Resilience and Identity Construction in the Life Narratives of Young People Leaving Residential Care

Gillian Schofield, Birgit Larsson and Emma Ward -- Child & Family Social Work, 06 Jun 2016

The role of residential care for children has developed very differently internationally, but in all cultural contexts, there are questions about the extent to which it can help young people recover from high risk backgrounds. In the UK, residential care has come to be seen as the placement of last resort, yet new government guidance on permanence has suggested that residential care can provide security and a sense of belonging.

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