Rethinking Orphan Care: An Introduction to Family Care

Faith to Action Initiative

This report introduces the limitations of orphanages, the importance of caring for children in families, and how to shift support to strengthen families, increase alternative family care options, and empower communities. This resource shares inspiring stories, engaging graphics, and explores tangible examples of work being done around the world to see children cared for in safe and loving families.

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Proposed Guidance for Costing the Social Service Workforce

UNICEF, Global Social Service Workforce Alliance

The purpose of this guidance is to advise policy makers and planners on how to apply a set of variables to their specific context to enable them to calculate the costs of human resources required to meet a target minimum ratio of social service workers per population, in the country in question. The guidance first discusses the essential steps that need to be taken to prepare for a costing exercise, and then the specific steps to take in a costing exercise for the workforce, which are outlined in the costing tool itself (to be released at a later date).

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Proposed Guidance on Developing Minimum Social Service Workforce Ratios

UNICEF, Global Social Service Workforce Alliance

This guide is intended to inform policy makers and workforce managers in ministries of social welfare, finance and planning, and, where applicable, provincial or district authorities and other relevant national bodies responsible for the recruitment, deployment, funding or regulation of the social service workforce. The guide can also be used by a national level leadership group tasked with defining an adequate level of resourcing for social services, and, on this basis, a minimum ratio of workforce to population, alongside other steps to strengthen the social service workforce.

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An Introduction to Care Reform

Emily Delap - Regional Learning Platform on Care Reform, UNICEF, Changing the Way We Care

Although care reform is well established in some parts of the Eastern and Southern Africa, many countries in the region are just beginning their care reform journey. This short paper is aimed at these contexts. It explains what care reform is, the different components of care reform, why care reform is important and how to start a care reform process. 

Kinship Carers

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

The Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security Committee has published its latest report on kinship carers, calling for improved support for carers.

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Left Far Behind: The Impact of COVID-19 on Access to Education and Healthcare for Refugee and Asylum-Seeking Children in Peninsular Malaysia

United Nations Childrens’ Fund, Malaysia

This thematic report is a merged and synthesised version of two full study reports, each focusing on education and healthcare in Malaysia. More details regarding the background, methodology, findings and recommendations of this project are found in the respective study reports.

Digital Childhoods: A Survey of Children and Parents

The UK Children’s Commissioner’s Office

This report aims to understand digital childhoods, and what can be achieved through the Online Safety Bill to protect children online. The Children’s Commissioner’s Office (CCo) commissioned a survey of 2,005 children aged 8-17 and their parents. This survey is nationally representative of children in England, by age, gender and region. All statistics mentioned in this report are from this survey.

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The Outcome of Children Placed in a Welfare Center or Foster Care Before the Age of 4: Prognostic Factors

A. Cailliez, P. Duverger, M. Rozé, D. Rousseau, E. Riquin

This qualitative study designed to identify potential prognostic factors relating to the outcome of children placed in a welfare center or foster care before the age of 4 years was based on the analysis of 34 case histories of children placed in a welfare center or foster care in Angers.

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Archives de Pediatrie

Reunifying or Leaving a Child Behind: How Official and Unofficial State Selection Shape Family Immigration in France

Julia Descamps, Cris Beauchemin

This paper aims to analyse how State policies, on the book and in practice, shape family reunification. It focuses on child migration under constraint in France, by analysing the timing and factors of (non-)reunification among foreign immigrants, whose legal conditions for family reunification are much more restrictive than for those who obtained the French citizenship.

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Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Reunifying or Leaving a Child Behind: How Official and Unofficial State Selection Shape Family Immigration in France

Julia Descamps, Cris Beauchemin

This paper aims to analyse how State policies, on the book and in practice, shape family reunification. It focuses on child migration under constraint in France, by analysing the timing and factors of (non-)reunification among foreign immigrants, whose legal conditions for family reunification are much more restrictive than for those who obtained the French citizenship.

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Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Children, Care and Crime: Trauma and Transformation

Alison Gerard, Andrew McGrath, Emma Colvin, Annette Gainsford

This book examines the involvement of those with care experience in the criminal justice system in an Australian jurisdiction. The majority of children in care do not come into contact with the youth justice system. However, among children involved in the youth justice system, those with care experience are overrepresented. The authors focus on the process of colonialisation and criminalisation, rather than crime. 

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Children, Care and Crime

Foster Care Leads to Sustained Cognitive Gains Following Severe Early Deprivation

Kathryn L. Humphreys, Lucy S. King, Katherine L. Guyon-Harris, Charles H. Zeanah

This study, based in Romania, examined longitudinal data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a randomized controlled trial of foster care as an alternative to institutional care following exposure to severe psychosocial deprivation.

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PNAS

Joint Statement on Illegal Intercountry Adoptions

UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies; UN Human Rights Special Procedures Special Rapporteurs Independent Experts and Working Groups

This joint statement was issued while the question of illegal intercountry adoptions is being raised in several countries, with an increasing number of adoptees discovering inconsistencies or errors in their adoption process, and that stories they had been told about their origins and the reasons for their adoptions were fake.

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Talking About Family with Children in Care Proceedings: Constructions of “Family” in an Analysis of Spokespersons’ Accounts

Marie Hatlelid Føleide

This article analyses the accounts of children’s spokespersons in Norway, whose mandate is to speak with and forward children’s views in care proceedings. The analyses show how constructions of loyalty, family interdependence, and individualism may inform spokespersons’ interpretations of children’s views, and thereby their exploratory practices in their conversations with the children.

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Mental Health of Unaccompanied Refugee Minors in Europe: A Systematic Review

Andrea Daniel-Calveras, Nuria Baldaquí, Inmaculada Baeza

The aim of this systematic review is both to summarize findings regarding the prevalence of mental health disorders among unaccompanied refugee minors (URM) in European countries since the last available systematic review (October 2017), and to describe associated risk factors.

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Supporting Youth Leaving Care in Rural Canada: Clinical Practice and Social Justice

Anne Marie McLaughlin, Richard Enns, Susan Gallagher, Jesse Henton

In this chapter of the book 'Human Rights and Social Justice', the authors focus their attention on issues and challenges facing rural youth who have exited care, with special consideration of First Nation or Indigenous youth in Canada, and offer a multidimensional framework that can support anti-colonial and anti-oppressive models of practice.

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Human Rights and Social Justice

Bordering Through Care and Control: Policing and Sheltering Central American Migrant Youth in Mexico

Rebecca Maria Torresa, Kate Swanson, Caroline Fariaa, Tamara Segura Herrerac, Sarah Blue

Despite rising numbers of unaccompanied child migrants in the Americas, very limited research directly engages with youth as they journey north to seek protection in the United States. In this article, the authors examine young Central American migrant experiences of bordering, focusing on policing and shelter management.

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Political Geography

Is Contact with Birth Parents Beneficial to Children in Non-Kinship Foster Care? A Scoping Review of the Evidence

Kevin J. Ruiz-Romero, María D.Salas Francisco, Javier Fernández-Baena, Lucía González-Pasarín

In this scoping review the authors analyze the findings of studies conducted over the past two decades that have specifically examined face-to-face contact with birth parents for children in non-kinship foster care, with the goal of determining more clearly when it may contribute positively to the child's well-being. The review involved a search of nine electronic databases in Spain, the U.S., Portugal, and the UK.

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To Identify and Limit the Risks of Neglect in Orphaned Students: Can France Manage It?

Jérôme Clerca, Kamilla Khamzina, Caroline Desombre

In this theoretical paper, the authors argue that, due to the detrimental impact of parental loss on academic achievement in France, orphaned students should be considered as students with special educational needs. This is important to provide appropriate educational responses consistent with inclusive education.

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Youth at the Intersection of Parental Incarceration and Foster Care: Examining Prevalence, Disparities, and Mental Health

Luke Muentner, Katie J. Stone, Laurel Davis, Rebecca Shlafer

This U.S.-based study details the prevalence of youth at the intersection of parental incarceration and foster care, their demographic characteristics, and heterogeneity in their mental health.

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Child Abuse and Neglect - The International Journal