This first International Conference on Financing of Family Strengthening and Child Protection Services in the Context of Moldova’s European Union Association Agenda held in Chisinau from 20-21 June 2023 has been a focused discussion between central and local government, non-governmental, private and academic sectors, international experts and organizations, on ensuring adequate public financing for strengthening families and protecting children, and meeting the challenges associated.

This document outlines a capacity-building roadmap for scaling up the transition of residential care services. It is an interagency resource developed by Better Care Network and the Transitioning Residential Care Working Group (Transforming Children's Care Collaborative).

This article explores the existing policies and services that are prevalent in Bhutan that are enhancing childcare and protection. It also tries to bring forth the good practices that are currently in place and how it can be strengthened further by addressing challenges within the system. It also provides insight into history and evolution, and role of stakeholders involved in alternative care in the country.

This is a series of written interviews conducted with care-experienced persons from Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka who have had experience with alternative care. These interviews were published in the September 2023 issue of the Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond journal.

This article explores the steady move towards family-based care in Sri Lanka over the last decade. The country has given priority to family strengthening and strong gatekeeping mechanisms to prevent children from being unnecessarily separated from their families.

Based on the literature and observation, this article explores ideas on the alternative care of children, particularly relating to its modalities and challenges in the context of Bangladesh. The authors opine that the children’s best interest cannot be achieved when a group grows without quality care.

In this editorial, Ian Forber-Pratt, editor of this tenth anniversary edition of the Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond, gives an of alternative care in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. 

This article focuses on the national efforts advancing children’s right to alternative care services in Nepal. It presents the government’s existing laws and policies in providing responsible care to children in need of special protection and for children who cannot be placed in parental care due to various reasons for family separation.

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In this paper the authors reflect on their process and offer lessons learned from engaging in participatory evaluation that may apply to the field of kinship care and across social service delivery more broadly.

Ce Guide Technique pour la Réintégration Familiale en Haïti se veut un guide pratique pour les travailleurs sociaux de l’Etat, des Organisations de la Société Civile et des ONG travaillant avec les enfants séparés de leurs familles et placés en Maison d’Enfants ou en d’autres dispositifs de protection de remplacement en Haïti.

This is a practical guide for the social workforce from the State, Civil Society Organisations and NGOs working with children separated from their families and being placed in residential care institutions or in other forms of alternative care in Haiti. This ISS publication draws on case studies and best practices from various experiences in Haiti and abroad in the field of family reintegration.

This UK-based paper presents evidence of the importance of screening looked-after children for Adverse Childhood Experiences and demonstrates that the Trauma and Adverse Life Events (TALE) is a valid and reliable tool for this purpose. Adverse and traumatic experiences were highly prevalent in this population and appeared to be closely related with children’s psychosocial wellbeing.

This U.S.-based case study provides lessons on how states and civil society strategically manage a “crisis” and discusses the implications for immigrants’ rights and vulnerabilities.

In this essay, after providing some data regarding Ukrainian families and minors who fled their country after the Russian invasion and moved to Italy, the authors will focus on the extraordinary effort made to improve reception programs, on the peculiar condition of minors who reached our country accompanied by adults who were not their parents, and finally on the experience of placing these fleeing families into Italian households.

This book chapter highlights the consequences of the recognition of the kafala related to the religious freedom of the immigrant’s family, with a special concern to intergenerational transmission of religious values and the religious education of children in host countries.

The main aim of this paper is to gain insight into the needs of youth who have left alternative care in the social welfare system. The study was conducted in Zagreb, Croatia, on a sample of sixteen young people.

This paper examines South-South migration by investigating the stay-behind families of female migrants in Bangladesh with a focus on their unaccompanied children.

This paper considers eight evaluations of an extended care scheme in England known as ‘Staying Close’. Findings suggest that for extended care projects like ‘Staying Close’ to work, any service offer designed to support the transition from residential care to independent living must be seen by the young person, the carer, and the wider social network, as a continuation of earlier efforts to build and nurture a genuinely committed relationship.