The impact of complex and unwanted feelings evoked in foster carers by traumatised children in long-term placements

Andrew S Browning - Adoption & Fostering

In this article, two case studies chart show that if foster carers are able to reflect upon the painful and unwanted feelings evoked in them, and acknowledge and take responsibility for what has become enacted in the placement, there may be an opportunity for harmful dynamics to be processed and repaired.

In-home video chat for young children and their incarcerated parents

Elizabeth Skora Horgan & Julie Poehlmann-Tynan - Journal of Children and Media

This article explores in-home video chat between children and their incarcerated parents as a potentially viable option for building relationships during incarceration, especially when opportunities for positive physical contact are limited or non-existent.

Is the Foster Care-Crime Relationship a Consequence of Exposure? Examining Potential Moderating Factors

Jennifer Yang, Evan McCuish, Raymond Corrado - Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice

Using data from the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study, the criminal offending trajectories of 678 incarcerated youth were examined. A history of foster care predicted membership in a high rate chronic offending trajectory.

Authentically engaging youth with foster care experience: definitions and recommended strategies from youth and staff

Amy M. Salazar, Sara S. Spiers & Francis R. Pfister - Journal of Youth Studies

This study aims to answer two research questions: a) How do youth and staff/professionals define/conceptualize authentic youth engagement (AYE)? and b) What are youths’ and staff/professionals’ recommended strategies for authentically engaging youth?

Educational trajectories of children in care across the early education and primary school years: A national cohort study in England

Eran P Melkman - American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

The goals of this article were to (a) examine the changes in educational achievements of children in care from preschool through the end of primary school; (b) identify subgroups exhibiting distinct educational trajectories; and (c) explore key predictive individual, care, and school characteristics.

Research Brief: Impacts of Pandemics and Epidemics on Child Protection: Lessons learned from a rapid review in the context of COVID-19

Shivit Bakrania, Ramya Subrahmanian - Innocenti, UNICEF Office of Research

This research brief summarizes the findings of a rapid review that collates and synthesizes evidence on the child protection impacts of COVID-19 and previous pandemics, epidemics and infectious disease outbreaks.

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Child Protection Anxieties and the Formation of UK Child Welfare and Protection Practices

Gary Clapton - Discourses of Anxiety over Childhood and Youth across Cultures

This paper argues that whilst statutory services have expanded then contracted, children’s charities have remerged as the most influential voices that have shaped twenty-first century child protection policy and practice in the UK.

Ecosystems of Educational Disadvantage: Supporting Children and Young People receiving Child Protection and Welfare Services in Ireland

Susan Flynn - Social Work and Social Sciences Review

Theoretically-informed focused commentary on the literature in this paper considers the position of children and young people as embedded within socio-ecological systems. The specific focus is on the educational disadvantage of children and young people susceptible to involvement from child protection and welfare services in the Republic of Ireland.

Causes of family separation and barriers to reunification: Syrian refugees in Jordan

Hannah Chandler, Neil Boothby, Zahirah McNatt, Margaret Berrigan, Laura Zebib, Patricia Elaine Freels, Hamza Alshannaq, Noor Majdalani, Ahmed Mahmoud, Esraa Majd - Journal of Refugee Studies

This qualitative study sought to understand the causes of separation among Syrian families in Jordan and the obstacles to family reunification.

Family homelessness, subsequent CWS involvement, and implications for targeting housing interventions to CWS-involved families

Jason M. Rodriguez, Marybeth Shinn, Bridgette Lery, Jennifer Haight, Mary Cunningham, Mike Pergamit - Child Abuse & Neglect

The authors of this article sought to better understand the relationship between homelessness and child welfare services (CWS) involvement and examine whether homeless shelter data could combine with CWS data to enhance intervention targeting.

Effects of parenting interventions on child and caregiver cortisol levels: systematic review and meta-analysis

Rafaela Costa Martins, Cauane Blumenberg, Luciana Tovo-Rodrigues, Andrea Gonzalez & Joseph Murray - BMC Psychiatry

The authors of this article conducted a systematic review of the impact of parent-training interventions on children’s and caregivers’ cortisol levels, and meta-analyzed the results.

Glean lessons learned from foster care support programs to help students succeed after pandemic‐related trauma

Warren Hilton, Susan Mangold, Nicole Generose, Joanna Suriel - Student Affairs Today

This brief article from Student Affairs Today highlights some of the lessons learned by student affairs professionals regarding foster care support programs at higher education institutions in the United States in light of the COVID-19 crisis.

Determinants of undisclosed HIV status to a community-based HIV program: findings from caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children in Tanzania

John Charles, Amon Exavery, Asheri Barankena, Erica Kuhlik, Godfrey M. Mubyazi, Ramadhani Abdul, Alison Koler, Levina Kikoyo & Elizabeth Jere - AIDS Research and Therapy

This study assesses the magnitude of, and factors associated with undisclosed HIV status to a community-based HIV prevention program among caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Tanzania.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on intercountry adoption and international commercial surrogacy

Patricia Fronek & Karen Smith Rotabi - International Social Work

This short report calls attention to heightened risks, and raises awareness, for practitioners in the fields of intercountry adoption and international surrogacy in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and asserts the need for caution.

Advocacy brief: Nutrition and feeding for highly vulnerable children

SPOON Foundation

This advocacy brief from SPOON Foundation notes that successful nutrition interventions are not reaching the children who are at highest risk, including children without family care and children with disabilities, and outlines four key actions that can help to ensure that children without family care and children with disabilities have opportunities to grow and thrive.

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An evidence-based nutrition education programme for orphans and vulnerable children: protocol on the development of nutrition education intervention for orphans in Soweto, South Africa using mixed methods research

Temitope Kayode Bello & Jace Pillay - BMC Public Health

The purpose of this longitudinal study from BMC Public Health is to develop, implement and to test the efficacy of an evidence-based nutrition education programme (NEP) for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in South Africa that will integrate their families/caregivers, schools and communities.

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Coronavirus Disease (COVID 19) Summary of Guidance for Nutrition in Emergencies Practitioners

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) & Global Technical Assistance Mechanism for Nutrition (GTAM)

This resource document collates available guidance and tools on the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) to assist Nutrition in Emergencies (NiE) practitioners in integrating COVID-19 preparedness and response into humanitarian nutrition responses.

Interim Recommendations for Adjusting Food Distribution Standard Operating Procedures in the Context of the COVID-19 Outbreak

Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)

This document aims to guide the revision of existing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Food Distribution in the COVID-19 context at the country level to minimize the risk of exposure of personnel, partners and beneficiaries.

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Webinar Recording: Leaving Care: An integrated approach to capacity building of professionals and young people

Better Care Network and SOS Children's Villages International

In this webinar, hosted by Better Care Network and SOS Children's Villages International, panelists - including careleavers who served as co-trainers in the Leaving Care project - discussed the training, building a supportive network for care leavers, and the support needed to ensure that the rights of young people in alternative care are respected and that they are prepared for an independent life.

Nationwide Assessment Report of Child Care Facilities in Zambia

Ministry of Community Development and Social Services and UNICEF

This report is based on findings the Nationwide Assessment of all Child Care Facilities (CCFs) in Zambia, which aimed to gather evidence for the purpose of updating baseline information pertaining to the condition of all Child Care Facilities (CCFs) in Zambia; in line with the Minimum Standards of Care for Child Care Facilities (MSC), United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as well as the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children.

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Leaving Care Project

SOS Children's Villages International

Through the two-year project ‘Leaving Care – An Integrated Approach to Capacity Building of Professionals and Young People’, SOS Children’s Villages, in collaboration with international project partners, aimed to train care professionals in how to apply a child rights-based approach in their work with young people leaving care and worked to strengthen support networks for young care leavers.

Be the Change! Improving outcomes for care leavers

SOS Children’s Villages International

This report from SOS Children's Villages describes the Leaving Care Project, a project that was set up to develop and implement a state-of-the-art training programme for care professionals who work directly with young people leaving care in order to equip them with the skills, knowledge and tools they need to work with young people in transition.

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Save Our Education in West and Central Africa: Protect Every Child's Right to Learn in the COVID-19 Response and Recovery

Save the Children West and Central Africa

This brief from Save the Children describes how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted children's education in West and Central Africa and outlines recommendations for responding to the growing vulnerabilities of children in the region.

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Supporting vulnerable children and young people during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak - actions for educational providers and other partners

UK Department for Education

This guidance from the UK Department for Education outlines actions to be taken by educational providers - working together with other partners, where relevant, such as local authorities - to meet the needs of vulnerable children and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): implementing protective measures in education and childcare settings

UK Department for Education

This advice seeks to support staff working in schools, colleges and childcare settings, to care for children in the safest way possible, focusing on measures they can put in place to help limit risk of the virus spreading within education and childcare settings. 

Safe working in education, childcare and children’s social care settings, including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE)

UK Department for Education

This guidance explains the strategy for infection prevention and control, including the specific circumstances PPE should be used, to enable safe working in education, childcare and children’s social care settings in England during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The role of complexity theory and network analysis for examining child welfare service delivery systems

Marianna L. Colvin & Shari E. Miller - Child & Youth Services

In response to the ongoing call for a complex systems approach for understanding and informing child welfare practice and policy, this article presents a context-specific conceptual framework that combines complexity theory and network analysis.

The impact of complex and unwanted feelings evoked in foster carers by traumatised children in long-term placements

Andrew S Browning - Adoption & Fostering

The manner in which foster children present and the frightening feelings this may trigger can overwhelm the foster carers’ capacity to sustain a nurturing stance in relation to the children and jeopardise the placement. In this article, two case studies chart such a dynamic and show that if carers are able to reflect upon the painful and unwanted feelings evoked in them, and acknowledge and take responsibility for what has become enacted in the placement, there may be an opportunity for this harmful dynamic to be processed and repaired.

The Adopting Together Service: how innovative collaboration is meeting the needs of children in Wales waiting the longest to find a family

Katherine H Shelton, Coralie Merchant, Jane Lynch - Adoption & Fostering

This article describes a major development in child care practice in Wales that has occurred over the past two years. The Adopting Together Service (ATS) involves a unique, innovative and multi-layered collaboration between the voluntary adoption agencies (VAAs – non-governmental charities) and regional adoption teams (statutory agencies) to secure permanence for children who wait the longest to find families.

The endings of journeys: A qualitative study of how Greece’s child protection system shapes unaccompanied migrant children’s futures

Divya Mishra, Vasileia Digidiki, Peter J. Winch - Children and Youth Services Review

This study explores how male unaccompanied migrant children’s interactions with child protection staff in Greece shape their future trajectories as migrants.

Maltreatment and youth self-representations in residential care: The moderating role of individual and placement variables

Maria Manuela Calheiros, Carla Silva, Joana Nunes Patrício - Children and Youth Services Review

The objective of this study was to explore the effects of previous maltreatment on current self-representations (i.e., the attributes used to describe oneself) of youth in residential care and the moderating role of gender, age, number of previous placements and length of placement in residential care.

Managing through COVID-19: the experiences of children’s social care in 15 English local authorities

Mary Baginsky and Jill Manthorpe - NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, The Policy Institute, King’s College London

This research set out to capture the ways in which adaptations were made by UK local authorities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report is based on the experiences of 15 local authority children’s social care (CSC) departments that volunteered to participate in the research and whose views were captured between late May and early June 2020.

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The role of foster parents’ basic psychological needs satisfaction and frustration as predictors of autonomy-supportive parenting and the functioning of foster children

Johan Vanderfaeillie, Stacey Van Den Abbeele, Giulia Fiorentino, Laura Gypen, Delphine West, Frank Van Holen - Children and Youth Services Review

This study aims at examining if processes proposed by self-determination theory (SDT) are supported in a foster care sample.

Family Environment Characteristics and Mental Health Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care: Traditional and Group-Care Placements

Katie J. Stone, Yo Jackson, Amy E. Noser & Lindsay Huffhines - Journal of Family Violence

This study explored how youth and foster caregivers perceive new foster care environments and how cohesion and conflict within the foster care setting (i.e., traditional or group-care) may be impacting youths’ mental health.

Indiscriminate friendliness in foster children: Associations with attachment security, foster parents’ sensitivity, and child inhibitory control

Nikita K. Schoemaker, Harriet J. Vermeer, Femmie Juffer, Ruan Spies, Elisa van Ee, Athanasios Maras, and Lenneke R. A. Alink - Developmental Child Welfare

The current exploratory study examined the associations of children’s attachment security, parental sensitivity, and child inhibitory control with reported and observed indiscriminate friendliness (IF) in 60 family-reared, never-institutionalized foster children.

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Differences and disparities over time: Black and White families investigated by Ontario’s child welfare system

Kofi Antwi-Boasiako, Bryn King, Barbara Fallon, Nico Trocmé, John Fluke, Martin Chabot, Tonino Esposito - Child Abuse & Neglect

This paper compares incidence data on Black and White families investigated by Ontario’s child welfare system over a 20-year period.

Foster parents' experiences of using child mental health and welfare services in Norway: Associations with youth, placement, and service characteristics

Marit Larsen, Valborg Baste, Ragnhild Bjørknes, Kyrre Breivik, Trine Myrvold, Stine Lehmann - Child & Family Social Work

This study examined quality of care from the foster parent's perspective and associated characteristics.

Female care leavers' journey to young adulthood from residential care in South Africa: Gender‐specific psychosocial processes of resilience

Joyce Hlungwani & Adrian D. van Breda - Child & Family Social Work

This article describes the psychosocial resilience processes that facilitate successful transitioning of young women as they journey out of residential care towards young adulthood.

From doubt to trust: Swedish mothers’ and counsellors’ experience testing a parenting programme for mothers exposed to intimate partner violence whose children have developed behavioural problems

Helena Draxler, Renée McDonald, Fredrik Hjärthag, Kjerstin Almqvist - Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry

The aim of this study was to investigate counselors’ and caregivers’ experiences with Project Support (PS) in Sweden, a program designed for families with children who have been exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV).

Unprotected: Crisis in Humanitarian Funding for Child Protection

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Save the Children International, Child Protection Area of Responsibility

This desk review provides a picture of funding for the child protection sector over the period 2010–2018. The authors highlight funding trends, main donors and recipients, and examine funding levels in comparison to financial requirements in a selection of countries in 2018.

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Exploring drivers of demand for child protection services in an English local authority

Rick Hood, Sarah Gorin, Allie Goldacre, Wilson Muleya, Paul Bywaters - Child & Family Social Work

This paper reports on an empirical study of child protection services in a local authority where rates of investigations and interventions rose to unprecedented levels during the course of a single year.

“Roll back the years”: A study of grandparent special guardians' experiences and implications for social work policy and practice in England

Helen Hingley‐Jones, Lucille Allain, Helen Gleeson, Bismark Twumasi - Child & Family Social Work

This paper reports a small qualitative research study where 10 sets of grandparents were interviewed to explore their journey to becoming GSGs and to theorize their subsequent experiences.

Protected! Podcast Episode 5 featuring Joan Lombardi on Caring for Young Children (Part 1)

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

In this episode of the Protected! Podcast, Hani Mansourian and Joan Lombardi - director of Early Opportunities - talk about how responsive care and early childhood experiences shape a child’s development and future wellbeing within families and communities.

“Surviving not thriving”: experiences of health among young people with a lived experience in out-of-home care

Madelaine Smales, Melissa Savaglio, Heather Morris, Lauren Bruce, Helen Skouteris & Rachael Green - International Journal of Adolescence and Youth

This study aimed to explore the experiences and perceptions of health among young people (YP) who have previously lived in care.

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Thirty years of the CRC: Child protection progress, challenges and opportunities

John Tobin & Judy Cashmore - Child Abuse & Neglect

In this article, the authors outline some of the issues in the implementation and understanding of the Convention and highlight three major international developments over the last decade: the adoption of General Comment No 13, the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence Against Children, and the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the UN General Assembly in 2005.

A longitudinal jurisdictional study of Black children reported to child protection services in Quebec, Canada

Alicia Boatswain-Kyte, Tonino Esposito, Nico Trocmé - Children and Youth Services Review

This article examines rates of disparity using secondary longitudinal clinical-administrative data provided by a child protection agency in Quebec for a subsample of Black, White, and other visible minority children over a ten-year span.

Earlier Contact with Child Protection Services Among Children of Parents With Criminal Convictions and Mental Disorders

Tyson Whitten, Kimberlie Dean, Rebecca Li, Kristin R. Laurens, Felicity Harris, Vaughan J. Carr, Melissa J. Green - Child Maltreatment

In this study the authors examined the relative contributions of maternal versus paternal criminal offending or mental health problems in relation to the time to the offspring’s first report to child protection services, or first placement in out of home care (OOHC), using administrative records for a population sample of 71,661 children.

The challenges affecting foster care in a “failed-state” context: case of the SEDI child protection network in South-Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo

Agino Foussiakda Cécilia & Amani C. Kasherwa - Children and Youth Services Review

Using a phenomenological research design, this study delves into the motivations and challenging experience of foster carers in South-Kivu.

What Makes an Effective Early Childhood Parenting Programme: a Systematic Review of Reviews and Meta-analyses

Jie Gao, Clare Brooks, Yuwei Xu, Eleanor Kitto - The UCL Institute of Education

By synthesising the research evidence, this study seeks to address the questions of whether early childhood parenting programmes are effective in improving parenting and enhancing children's development; and which factors of the programme design and implementation contribute to the successful outcomes of parenting programmes.

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Community‐Based Caregiver and Family Interventions to Support the Mental Health of Orphans and Vulnerable Children: Review and Future Directions

Francesca Penner, Carla Sharp, Lochner Marais, Cilly Shohet, Deborah Givon, Michael Boivin - New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development

The goal of this paper was to conduct a review of studies from 2008 to 2019 that evaluated community‐based caregiver or family interventions to support the mental health of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in sub‐Saharan Africa, across four domains: (a) study methodology, (b) cultural adaptation and community participation, (c) intervention strategies, and (d) effects on child mental health.

“I wish someone would explain why I am in care”: The impact of children and young people's lack of understanding of why they are in out‐of‐home care on their well‐being and felt security

Jo Staines & Julie Selwyn - Child & Family Social Work

Drawing on a large‐scale online survey of looked after children's subjective well‐being, this paper demonstrates that a significant number of children and young people (age 4–18 years) did not fully understand the reasons for their entry to care.

Parent–professional interviews in child protection: Comparing viewpoints

Michel Boutanquoi, Dominique Ansel, Maryse Bournel‐Bosson - Child & Family Social Work

To analyse how professionals and parents position themselves, the authors of this study chose to focus on the content of social workers' interviews with parents and on the associated interactions. To this end, the authors recorded 13 parent–professional interviews after receiving the consent of the concerned parties.

Learning from parents: A qualitative interview study on how parents experience their journey through the Dutch child protection system

Helen Bouma, Hans Grietens, Mónica López López, Erik J. Knorth - Child & Family Social Work

The authors of this study interviewed 20 parents about their experiences with the Dutch child protection system (CPS).

Parental stress and parenting in Chinese immigrant families: The mediating role of social support

Shu‐Wen Liu, Fuhua Zhai, Qin Gao - Child & Family Social Work

This study investigated whether parental stress was associated with parenting and whether this relationship was mediated by social support in a sample of 255 Chinese immigrant parents from the Survey of Asian American Families in New York City.

Predictors of parenting stress in Portuguese adolescents' adoptive parents

Isabel‐Sofia Costa, Maria Barbosa‐Ducharne, Jesús Palacios, Joana Soares - Child & Family Social Work

The present study aims to identify the adoptee, parents and family related predictors of the adoptive parents' parenting stress, exploring direct and indirect effects. Fifty Portuguese adolescents' adoptive parents participated in this study.

Policy Brief: COVID-19 & Urgent Need for Child-Sensitive Social Protection

World Vision

Based on World Vision's extensive experience working with children and families in crisis, this policy brief outlines recommendations to stakeholders, such governments, UN agencies, NGOs, and donors, and calls for the use of child-sensitive social protection in these stakeholder’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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Webinar Recording: Supporting the most vulnerable children and families – Concrete examples of responses to the COVID-19 crisis

ISSA - International Step by Step Association

This webinar aspires to share examples of successful approaches for supporting the most vulnerable families and young children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Ukraine.