Identifying Predictive Indicators: The State of Washington Foster Care Home Study

Sonya Stevens, Richard Fiene, Daniel Blevins, Amber Salzer - Children and Youth Services Review

A mixed method correlational exploratory pilot was conducted in Washington State to determine items within the home study assessment that could be used as indicators to identify baseline requirements of the assessment and suggest anticipated depth (expansion or reduction) within the required topic(s).

Decision-making in foster care: A view on the dynamic and collective nature of the process

Doris Chateauneuf, Marie-Andrée Poirier, Geneviève Pagé - Journal of Social Work

Based on 39 semi-directed individual interviews with social workers from child welfare services, the current study aims at highlighting how social workers come to the decision to remove a child from parental care, and how they choose a foster family.

Protected! Podcast Ep. 4 featuring Selim Benaissa on Child Labour

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

In this episode of the Protected! Podcast, Hani Mansourian from the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action talks to Selim Benaissa, Chief Technical Officer from the ILO on the Myanmar program for the elimination of child labour about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the program.

Protected! Podcast Ep. 3: Featuring Elsa Laurin on Refugee Child Protection

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

In this episode of the Protected! Podcast, Elsa Laurin, the Senior Child Protection Officer for the East and Horn of Africa from UNHCR, tells Hani Mansourian how they and their partner organisations re-prioritised child protection cases in response to the changing situation of shut borders in eastern Africa as the threat of an outbreak of COVID-19 loomed.

Institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation of children 2: policy and practice recommendations for global, national, and local actors

Philip S Goldman, Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, Beth Bradford, Alex Christopoulos, et al - The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health

In this second part of the Lancet Group Commission on institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation of children, international experts in reforming care for children identify evidence-based policy recommendations to promote family-based alternatives to institutionalisation.

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Institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation of children 1: a systematic and integrative review of evidence regarding effects on development

Marinus H van IJzendoorn, Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, Robbie Duschinsky, Nathan A Fox, Philip S Goldman, Megan R Gunnar, Dana E Johnson, Charles A Nelson, Sophie Reijman, Guy C M Skinner, Charles H Zeanah, Edmund J S Sonuga-Barke -The Lancet Psychiatry

This paper reviews the literature on child institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation from a global perspective. This review included a survey of historical and cultural trends and estimates of current numbers of children in institutional care, a systematic review and meta­-analysis of developmental sequelae, and a largely qualitative review of factors found to predict individual variations in such outcomes.

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If not now, then when? The importance of intervening early to provide family-based environments for all children

Aisha K Yousafzai - The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health

In this commentary piece, Aisha K Yousafzai - of the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the  and Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at Aga Khan University - notes that "the evidence presented [in the Lancet Group Commission on the institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation of children] and their call to action to ensure abandoned children can thrive in family-based care environments rather than in institutions matters now more than ever as the global community addresses unprecedented challenges to ensure a generation of children are not left behind with respect to their survival, health, development, learning, and safety."

Children in institutional settings

Anne Longfield - The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health

In this commentary piece, Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, explores the use of children's care homes in England and the need for improved supports to prevent placement in children's home and to provide for the needs of children and young people who are placed in these homes.

Institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation of children: the Executive Summary from a Lancet Group Commission

Niall Boyce, Jane Godsland, Edmund Sonuga-Barke - The Lancet

This Executive Summary provides an overview of the Lancet Group Commission, which advocates global reform of the care of separated children through the progressive replacement of institutional provision with safe and nurturing family-based care.

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Lancet Group Commission on the institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation of children

Lumos Foundation, King’s College London, and Maestral - The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health and The Lancet Psychiatry

This Lancet Group Commission, published between The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health and The Lancet Psychiatry, advocates global reform of the care of separated children through the progressive replacement of institutional provision with safe and nurturing family-based care.

Preventing and Responding to COVID-19: Key messages to support those working with vulnerable children and families in Kenya

Republic of Kenya Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Office of the Principal Secretary

This guidance is designed to inform child protection actors in Kenya in light of the COVID-19 crisis. It guides actions targeting, and services provided for, vulnerable children and families, including children living in institutions, children living on the streets, children with disabilities, and others.

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Hindi Translation of Technical Note on the Protection of Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Children and Alternative Care

Better Care Network, The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, UNICEF and an Inter-agency Task Force

The aim of this Technical Note is to support child protection practitioners and government officials in their immediate response to the child protection concerns faced by children who are at risk of separation or in alternative care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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COVID-19 and children

UNICEF

This webpage from UNICEF links to the Policy Brief on the Impact of COVID-19 on children, the Dashboard on Data to inform the COVID-19 response, and other key data resources on COVID-19 and its impacts on children.

Joint Statement of The ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Social Welfare and Development Mitigating Impacts of Covid-19 on Vulnerable Groups in ASEAN

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

This Joint Statement the ASEAN Ministers responsible for social welfare and development outlines their concerns and commitments to action regarding meeting the needs of vulnerable people impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, including children with disabilities, children deprived of liberty, and children in institutional care, among other groups.

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Webinar Recording: COVID-19 - Responding to the Crisis of Care and Learning: Lessons from humanitarian contexts

Inter-Agency Network on Education in Emergencies (INEE), the Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN) and the Moving Minds Alliance (MMA)

This webinar focused on Early Childhood Development in Humanitarian Settings in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Checklist to ensure EU-funded measures contribute to independent living by developing and ensuring access to family-based and community-based services

European Expert Group on the transition from institutional to community-based care with Hope and Homes for Children

The purpose of this checklist from the European Expert Group on the transition from institutional to community-based care, with Hope and Homes for Children, is to ensure EU funds in the 2021-2027 programming period contribute to independent living and inclusion in the community, including by supporting desk officers to check the consistency of the measures to transition from institutional to family-based and community-based services for children and the prevention of institutionalisation and separation of children, including with disabilities, from their families.

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Not in Care, Not Counted - A legal loophole: homeless 16- and 17-year olds and unregulated accommodation

Kady Murphy & Natalie Williams - Just for Kids Law

This paper from Just for Kids Law (JfKL) explores an issue that the organization has come across through their work: cases of under 18s (mainly 16- and 17-year olds) in the UK who are facing homelessness and do not receive the support they are entitled to from local authority children’s services. 

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Recent Immigrations in Spain and a Brief Approach to Unaccompanied Foreign Minors

Juan Ramón Ferreiro Galguera - Migration, Religion and Early Childhood Education

In this paper, after a historical introduction, the authors will refer, from a general point of view, to the current moment of immigration witnessed in Spain offering not only statistical data regarding this phenomenon but also legislation, and description of the policies carried out by the central and regional governments on issues like immigration, asylum and integration, with a particular focus on unaccompanied minors.