Joint statement by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

The United States Supreme Court agreed last week to hear a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act, a law that has protected American Indian and Alaska Native children, their families and their communities for nearly 50 years. In the interests of vulnerable children — and in light of the cruel history that this law was written to redress — it is vital that the Indian Child Welfare Act be protected and strengthened, not taken apart.

Acest ghid a fost elaborat pentru furnizorii de servicii care lucrează cu copiii, familiile și copiii separați, în contextul situației umanitare actuale din Ucraina și din țările învecinate.

Данное руководство составлено для поставщиков услуг, которые работают с детьми, семьями и разлученными детьми в ответ на текущую гуманитарную ситуацию в Украине и в соседних странах.

In the current protection crisis unfolding in Ukraine, humanitarian actors must pay particular attention to those who are most at risk of threats to safety and rights violations – including women, children, older people, and people who are blind and/or deaf, persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, those who have mobility limitations, and persons with high support needs. In this brief, the Global Protection Cluster calls on all parties to the conflict and humanitarian actors to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in Ukraine.

The following messages reflect priority protection issues and gaps in Ukraine, based on monitoring and analysis conducted by the Ukraine Protection Cluster and its regular Protection Snapshots. Additional contributions were made by the Global Protection Cluster’s Advocacy and Human Rights Engagement Task Teams. This document will be adapted while reflecting rapidly developing protection risks.

This White Paper summarizes evidence on the current use and impact of small-scale residential care (also: ‘SSRC’) and offers guidance on how to enable all children to grow up in a loving and stable family environment. It aims to promote better decisionmaking among policy-makers, local governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as child welfare and other, allied practitioners of the establishment.

This is the first comprehensive book that provides accessible, international knowledge for practitioners, students and academics about social work in health emergencies and spans fields of practice across world regions with particular reference to the COVID-19 pandemic. The book is relevant to a wide range of audiences, including practitioners, educators and students in social work, human services, international development and public health, as well as policy makers and researchers.

This working paper focuses on two critical global challenges: violence against children and climate change. The links between the two are not always obvious, but they exist and are significant in terms of both causes and solutions. Combating the causes of climate change can impact positively on certain contexts in which children are at high risk of experiencing violence.

This booklet was produced by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in collaboration with The University of Manchester and aims to help parents and their children as they navigate challenges and stay connected as a family. 

This booklet is based on a pilot study testing the feasibility of delivering and evaluating a light touch parenting intervention for caregivers in the West Bank.

Responding to the crisis in Ukraine, Oxford University parenting experts together with their international colleagues, produced this easy-to-use guidance for families and other organisations on supporting children in the current emergency. The guide is based on evidence-based research.

Реагируя на кризис в Украине, эксперты по воспитанию детей Оксфордского университета вместе со своими международными коллегами подготовили это простое в использовании руководство для семей и других организаций по поддержке детей в нынешней чрезвычайной ситуации. Руководство основано на доказательных исследованиях.

Реагуючи на кризу в Україні, експерти Оксфордського університету з питань батьківства разом зі своїми міжнародними колегами підготували цей простий у використанні посібник для сімей та інших організацій щодо підтримки дітей у нинішній надзвичайній ситуації. Посібник заснований на доказових дослідженнях.

Кластер захисту координує заходи захисту та виступає за вдосконалення політики та законодавства, що стосуються людей, які постраждали від конфлікту. Він також займається розбудовою потенціалу та надає рекомендації щодо включення захисту у всі заходи гуманітарного реагування. Це знімок захисту для України за період з 25 лютого по 1 березня 2022 року, складений Protection Cluster Ukraine.

The Protection Cluster coordinates the protection response and advocates for the improvement of policies and legislation affecting conflict-affected people. It also engages in capacity building and provides guidance on mainstreaming protection into all humanitarian response activities. This is the protection snapshot for Ukraine for the period February 25 - March 1, 2022, compiled by Protection Cluster Ukraine.

The Protection Cluster coordinates the protection response and advocates for the improvement of policies and legislation affecting conflict-affected people. It also engages in capacity building and provides guidance on mainstreaming protection into all humanitarian response activities. This is the protection snapshot for Ukraine for the period February 25 - March 1, 2022, compiled by Protection Cluster Ukraine.

The overall aims of this research project were to explore the experiences of the children, parents and families involved in alternative care in Thailand. This research project reached a significant number of children (n.160) living in alternative care and their parents and families (n.20).

This APPG report puts a spotlight on what ‘community’ means to care-experienced people and explores what might be done to help strengthen important community relationships and connections for current and future generations of children in care. The report contains 15 practical recommendations for changes that could be made in the near future to improve the ways in which the care system supports young people to connect with their communities and highlights 5 broader areas where the authors feel serious reform is required that the Department for Education (and others) should consider in greater detail.

This study combines a quantitative overview of the leading indicators of well-being among children and young people in cities, with a qualitative, in-depth understanding of how daily life is perceived and experienced by the urban young. The quantitative analysis has predominantly employed existing national data sets, such as The National Socioeconomic Survey (SUSENAS) and the Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS), to understand the situation of children in urban settings. The secondary analysis assessed approximately 20 indicators that are based on the SDG/Sustainable Development Goal themes, and that align with the Indonesian National Medium Term Development Plan 2020–2024. The combination of secondary analysis, a systematic literature review, and consultations with children and young people generated insights on the constraints and opportunities faced by them and their broader urban communities.

This CELSIS briefing builds on the 2019 briefing, Access to Care Records, which outlined the legislative and policy context in Scotland around care records. This briefing is for all practitioners involved in writing, managing and/or supporting access to care records, and draws on research, campaigning work, and knowledge from organisations and local authorities across Scotland including in social work and information governance teams.

“Engaging Fathers – Putting Lessons Into Practice” is a three-part series to share strategies implemented from three of the five State or county agencies: Los Angeles County, California; Hartford, Connecticut; and Prowers County, Colorado.

“Engaging Fathers – Putting Lessons Into Practice” is a three-part series to share strategies implemented from three of the five State or county agencies: Los Angeles county, California; Hartford, Connecticut; and Prowers county, Colorado. Part one focuses on the strategies developed within Hartford, Connecticut.

This report analyses 1,804 care leaver responses collected in 21 English local authorities between 2017 and 2019.

This report is a follow up to the ‘What Makes Life Good?’ report published in 2020 about the views of care leavers on their well-being, using pre-pandemic data collected between 2017 and 2019 through the Your Life Beyond Care survey. In this follow-up report, the authors compare the ‘What Makes Life Good?’ pre-pandemic data from 1,804 care leavers to data from 2,476 care leavers in 2020 to 2021, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has allowed them to identify priority areas that have emerged recently. Care leavers aged 16 to 25 were asked the same questions at both time points; about their living arrangements and safety, financial well-being, relationship with care workers, emotional support, stress, loneliness, overall well-being, and more.

Join webinar to hear speakers present from Canada, the USA , the United Kingdom and Finland to discuss the work that they are doing to transform the child welfare system and in so doing return social work to its original values: social justice, empowerment and hope.

This research looks at the planning and preparation that happens before leaving care in England. The report reflects the views of care leavers and whether the help they got when getting ready to leave care was what they needed, and how involved they were in the decisions made about their future.

This report is based on consultations with parents and allies in England carried out by Parent Families and Allies Network; Love Barrow Families; New Beginnings; Parent and Carer Alliance; and Southwark Family Council and Parent to Parent Peer Advocacy. It sets out ideas on making the care system more supportive, humane and inclusive, and ensuring families’ needs are met early, with advocacy as a core feature. It also argues for immediate changes, led by parents and children with lived experience of social care.

The Primary Prevention Framework for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (the Framework) provides guidance for humanitarian workers on the key actions and considerations to apply when developing or implementing programming to prevent harm to children in humanitarian settings at the population-level. The Framework highlights guiding principles and specific actions to take within each of the five steps of the program management cycle for effective primary prevention efforts. Supporting resources and practical tools are linked within each step.

The aim of this report is to fill a knowledge gap by examining the points of interaction between climate change impacts and the amount, distribution, and conditions of unpaid care work. We focus on care workers rather than those who are cared for, while stressing the relational nature of care and acknowledging
that carers too require care.

The COVID-19 pandemic had widespread effects, including enhanced psychosocial stressors and stay-at-home orders which may be associated with higher rates of child abuse. The researchers aimed to evaluate rates of child abuse, neglect, and inadequate supervision during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this analysis was to compare perspectives of frontline workers, administrators, and experts in child abuse and neglect in a system with mandatory reporting (Colorado, United States) and one without mandatory reporting (The Netherlands).

Although long-term fostering has existed for many years as an important part of the foster care service, it was only in 2015 that the government issued the first regulations and guidance on longterm foster care. The introduction of these Department for Education regulations and guidance supports long-term foster care with both kinship and non-kinship carers as a positive permanence option. The aim of this study was to investigate their implementation.

Este gráfico está destinado a los profesionales que trabajan en los organismos gubernamentales y las organizaciones no gubernamentales que participan en diferentes aspectos del sistema de protección y atención, pero específicamente en el apoyo a la reunificación, y detalla las funciones y responsabilidades específicas de quienes participan en este proceso en Guatemala y cómo deben coordinarse. 

This graphic is intended for use by professionals working within government agencies and non-governmental organizations in Guatemala engaged in different aspects of the protection and care system but specifically in support of reunification. It details specific roles and responsibilities of those engaged in this process in Guatemala and how they should coordinate.

The Sri Lanka The Department of Probation and Child Care Services created this national guideline to assist with providing collaborative intervention of Child Rights Promotion Officers and all government social workers to minimize vulnerabilities that lead to violence against children.

A poster for Child Protection teams to emphasize the evidence based practices of engaging volunteers that were documented in the research.

This is a 3-page document targeting donors, policy makers, and UN agencies regarding the roles of volunteers and how decision makers can support their roles

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action undertook an inter-agency project to provide a better understanding of community volunteers’ engagement in the case management process and develop guidance and tools to support their work.

Community volunteers are an integral part of preventing and responding to cases of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of children in humanitarian settings. They have a deep understanding of their communities, and help to identify children who are at-risk, have experienced harm, or have been separated from their family. Following global and field research conducted in 2020, the Alliance has produced key resources related to the roles of community volunteers in Child Protection case management in humanitarian settings.

Sri Lanka's National Policy on the Alternative Care of Children outlines a comprehensive range of alternative care options and encourages the reforming of all formal structures that provide at-home and out­-of-home services for children deprived of care and protection or at risk of being so. This policy also extends to children under care of the Juvenile Justice System. It provides policy solutions to programming for children at risk of family separation and facing deprivations such as child abuse, neglect, child labor, poverty, addiction, imprisonment, human trafficking, mental and physical disabilities, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, orphanhood, abandonment and displacement etc. The policy also takes into consideration and encompasses provisions to children who are forced to live and work on streets.

It is starting to be recognised that young people with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities making the transition to adulthood from out-of-home care require focused attention to understand their needs and service requirements. Within the UK jurisdiction of Northern Ireland (NI), young people with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities are over-represented in the population of care leavers and yet very little is known about their specific needs. The overall aim of the study reported here was to examine the profile of care leavers with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities in order to better inform how best to configure child and adult service systems to meet their transitional needs.

There are limited studies which investigate the perceived needs and wellbeing of parents caring for their children with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This qualitative study uniquely explored the experiences and cultural factors of Vietnamese parents caring for children with a disability in multicultural Australia.

At least 5 million children have lost a parent or caregiver due to #COVID19 since March 2020, updated figures suggest. The authors urge actions to prioritise affected children, incl. economic strengthening, enhanced community and family support, and education.

The goal of the summit was to lead lasting change in the lives of millions of people with disabilities. To succeed, it is crucial that governments, international organizations, civil society and private business commit themselves to increased efforts to promote inclusion and rights-based development.