This study advances the understanding of child separation and Family Tracing and Reunification (FTR) needs in humanitarian settings.

This video shows highlights from The National Summit on “Reimagining the Care System for Children in India” held on the 30th of March, 2025, in New Delhi. The Summit aimed to foster collaboration, learning and collective action among key stakeholders from government, civil society, academia, and individuals with lived experience.

The National Summit on “Reimagining the Care System for Children in India” was held on the 30th of March, 2025, in New Delhi.

In January 2025, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom launched a bold and visionary initiative: to transform the lives of children globally so that all children are cared for in families and free of violence, exploitation and other harmful practices.

Through this new campaign governments, civil society, faith groups, and individuals with lived experience of care systems are calling on world leaders to join forces in a global movement that harnesses decades of international progress to ensure all children are growing up in a safe, nurturing and loving family environment. This overview calls on government leaders to join this movement.

In January 2025, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy launched an initiative to transform the lives of all children globally, so that they are cared for in families and free of violence, exploitation and other harmful practices.

The Global Charter on Children’s Care Reform is a call for world leaders to act together to: uphold the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; invest in families, children, care leavers, and inclusive services; and end violence against children and harmful practices like orphanage tourism.

This report makes a series of recommendations on issues affecting all types of care, including foster care, adoption, kinship care, children’s homes, and support for disabled children in the UK.

This document provides comprehensive guidelines for designing, implementing, and evaluating effective and scalable parenting programs—including by examining their costs—particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of global and regional child labor trends. The publication profiles children engaged in child labor, maps where these practices are most concentrated, and examines the critical impact on children’s access to education and learning outcomes.

The VACS Data Dashboard is a comprehensive online tool designed to provide easy access to data from the Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS) across more than 20 countries.

There is currently little consensus in the United Kingdom around the prevalence of violence against children: maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, bullying, and community violence, and most existing studies focus on only a single or a few forms of violence. This study aims to produce data to highlight the current magnitude of the problem in the UK, to inform policy, drive action and allow for monitoring of progress over time.

This briefing looks at what data and statistics are available about children in care to help professionals, and the organisations they work for, make
evidence-based decisions.

Safety, or the absence of maltreatment, is the primary mandate of the child protection services (CPS) system, both for children living at home and those living away from home. Yet, few research studies have examined maltreatment in out-of-home care due to the low incidence rate and data limitations. This study used statewide administrative data to estimate the association between placement type and experiencing a maltreatment investigation or substantiation in out-of-home care.

Physical victimization by peers was examined among 1,324 Jewish and Arab adolescents, aged 11 to 19, residing in 32 residential care settings (RCS) for children at-risk in Israel.

This summary draws on the work of the UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO) with and for children with disabilities to develop pathways for their full inclusion in their communities.

This study addresses a critical knowledge gap regarding alternative care in Thailand's Southern Border Provinces (Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Satun, and Songkhla), where the population is predominantly Muslim with a strong ethnic Malay identity. The research investigates various forms of alternative care, including institutional care (Pondok and Hafiz institutions, government boarding schools, private orphanages) and family-based care, examining the quality of care, available social services, and cultural context.

The Framework for Action is an interagency initiative, led by UNICEF, Save the Children and World Vision, driving global action behind efforts to strengthen child protection systems, mobilising the complex array of stakeholders at sub-national, national, regional and global levels to implement pledges and commitments to end violence against children.

Millions of persons with disabilities, children and older persons live in congregate settings. Whilst the motivation for providing such care may be well-intentioned, that is not always the case. Many of those settings are ‘institutional’, with residents denied autonomy and choice, provided with poor quality health and social care, and experiencing social isolation, neglect or abuse. This report summarises the evidence and experiences of persons living in congregate settings in general, and in terms of the impact of COVID-19, to understand the barriers to deinstitutionalisation, and to highlight the approaches that have sought to overcome those barriers.

The Care Reform Roadmap (2024-2028) lays out the strategic actions for caring for vulnerable children in Ghana, led by the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection.

This advocacy brief and video are underpinned by research confirming the high costs of violence against children to society, and the significant returns that could accrue from investments made in interventions to prevent and respond to violence against children. The research highlights the need for a paradigm shift, from viewing expenditure on the protection of children from violence as a cost to viewing it as an investment.

This toolkit, building on prior research, presents the economic rationale for investing in the prevention and response to violence against children, emphasizing that such spending should be seen as an investment rather than a cost. Part A outlines the societal and economic benefits of preventing violence, while Part B provides a step-by-step guide for practitioners to develop evidence-based investment cases to persuade governments to adopt integrated, cross-sectoral strategies.

This project explored the experiences of young people in Australia living in ‘therapeutic residential care’ to understand what helps or hinders them in building trust and feeling safe. Drawing on interviews and surveys, it shares insights directly from the young people about what works well and what could be improved.

This report presents the main findings, conclusions, and recommendations of a formative and summative evaluation of the childcare and deinstitutionalisation reforms in North Macedonia for the period of 2009 2022. The evaluation was commissioned by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Europe and Central Asia Region Office (ECARO), as part of its multi-country evaluation of the impact of national child care reforms across eight1 countries in Europe and Central Asia and was conducted by Coram International.

This study examines the role of transition plans (TPs) in supporting young people leaving youth care in Flanders, identifying ownership, integrated working, and social support as key elements for effectiveness. While TPs have strong potential to guide meaningful transitions, their success depends on flexible, person-centred design and reflective professional practice that aligns with young people’s aspirations and values.

Neglect is the most common form of child maltreatment and has serious consequences for the development of children. Assessing child neglect is challenging because it involves recognizing acts of omission rather than commissions. This study examines the influence of the assessment tool SAT-BL on the documentation of neglect.

Positioned as ethical travel, orphanage tourism commodifies vulnerable children, akin to slum and wildlife voluntourism. Rather than alleviating harm, it sustains institutionalisation and exploits children for profit. This article examines orphanage tourism through hospitality ethics, sustainable tourism and corporate social responsibility (CSR), revealing gaps in hospitality curricula that overlook the industry’s complicity.