Assisting decisions in child protection service institutions with the RIC – The Risk Indication in Child sexual abuse

Brigitte C. Hansmann and Reinhard Eher - Child Abuse & Neglect

The RIC (Risk Indication in Child sexual abuse) and its screening version (RIC:SV) are actuarial risk assessment instruments, developed at the Austrian Federal Evaluation Centre for Violent and Sexual Offenders and designed for child protection services to assess the likelihood of sexual recidivism in male contact child sexual abusers who still or again live within a family including children.

Youth’s rights and mental health: The role of supportive relations in care

Eunice Magalhães, Maria Manuela Calheiros, Patrício Costa, Sofia Ferreira - Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

This study builds upon and enhances existing knowledge by exploring the moderating role of social support from educators in residential care and the association between perceived rights and psychological difficulties.

Child Maltreatment in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Proposed Global Framework on Research, Policy and Practice

Carmit Katz, Sidnei R. Priolo Filho, Jill Korbin, Annie Bérubé, Ansie Fouché, Sadiyya Haffejee, et al - Child Abuse & Neglect

The current paper aims to suggest a framework for risk and protective factors that need to be considered in child protection in its various domains of research, policy, and practice during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘Discuss it with your legal guardian’: Challenges in practising care for young unaccompanied refugee minors

Guro Brokke Omland, Agnes Andenas, Nora Sveaass - Child & Family Social Work

Informed by developmental perspectives that consider young people's development through participation across contexts in everyday life and by research into how parents in ‘ordinary’ families organize care, the authors of this article developed a study based on interviews with 15 unaccompanied refugee minors and their professional caregivers at residential care institutions.

Young People and Parents' Views on Privacy and How This Affects Their Participation in the Children's Hearings System

Scottish Children's Reporter Administration and Who Cares? Scotland

In order to fully understand the relationship between privacy and confidentiality in the Children’s Hearings System, this research explored three broad questions: (1) How privacy and confidentiality impact on the participation of young people and their parents and carers in the Children’s Hearings System, (2) What is the relationship between advocacy and privacy and confidentiality, (3) And what solutions could be found to help young people and their parents and carers be heard and involved in decision making.

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Voluntary Accommodation of Infants, Children, and Young People in Scotland (Section 25): An initial exploration

Micky Anderson, Brandi Lee Lough Dennell, and Robert Porter - CELCIS

This report presents findings in relation to the purpose, frequency, and variation in the use of Section 25 orders in Scotland, which enable parents, supported by social workers, to voluntarily place their child to secure their safety, into the care of a local authority away from the parental home.

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Evaluation of Pause: Evaluation report

Janet Boddy, Susannah Bowyer, Rebecca Godar, Chris Hale, James Kearney, Oli Preston, Bella Wheeler, and Julie Wilkinson - UK Department for Education

This independent evaluation found that the Pause Programme - which supports local practices to deliver relationship-based support to women who have experienced removal of at least one child and are judged to be at risk of further removals of children - is effective in making a positive difference in women’s lives, improving their relationships with children, reducing rates of infant care entry in local areas and delivering cost savings for local areas.

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Coronavirus (COVID-19): Impact on children, young people and families - evidence summary October 2020

The Scottish Government

This briefing summarises the current evidence (at time of writing) from Scotland and the UK on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the wellbeing of children, young people and families, including those with vulnerabilities and those experiencing disadvantage or discrimination.

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The Family Matters Report 2020

SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, University of Melbourne, Griffith University and Monash University

Family Matters reports focus on what governments are doing to turn the tide on over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care and the outcomes for children. They also highlight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led solutions and call on governments to support and invest in the strengths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to lead on child wellbeing, development and safety responses for our children.

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Adopted students and intersectionality, starting points for a first analysis

Monya Ferritti and Anna Guerrieri - Educazione Interculturale

This article, thanks to data collected by family associations, intends to investigate multiple intersectionality of students with adoptive background by highlighting the most important problems, the school’s and healthcare’s interventions to address those problems and the possible additional and complementary actions that can be put into place to encourage inclusion and integration of disabled students with adoptive and ethnically different backgrounds.

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Trends in inequalities in Children Looked After in England between 2004 and 2019: a local area ecological analysis

Davara Lee Bennett, Kate E Mason, Daniela K Schlüter, S Wickham, Eric TC Lai, Alexandros Alexiou, Ben Barr, David Taylor-Robinson - BMJ Open

The purpose of this study was to assess trends in inequalities in Children Looked After (CLA) in England between 2004 and 2019, after controlling for unemployment, a marker of recession and risk factor for child maltreatment.

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Mothering in the Context of Violence: Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Mothers’ Experiences in Regional Settings in Australia

Silke Meyer and Rose-Marie Stambe - Journal of Interpersonal Violence

In this study, data derived from 17 qualitative face-to-face interviews are used to explore the lived experiences of Indigenous mothers affected by domestic and family violence (DFV) in Australia.

Pediatrician Guidance in Supporting Families of Children Who Are Adopted, Fostered, or in Kinship Care

Veronnie F. Jones, Elaine E. Schulte, Douglas Waite - Pediatrics

This paper explores how pediatricians can support families who care for children and adolescents who are fostered and adopted while attending to children’s medical needs and helping each child attain their developmental potential.

Exploring Racial Disproportionalities and Disparities for Black Families Involved with the Child Welfare System: A Scoping Review Protocol

Travonne Edwards, Amina Hussain, Christa Sato, Jason King, Michael Saini, Bryn King - Social Science Protocols

This systemic scoping review will provide a succinct synthesis of the current literature on Black disproportionality and disparity in child welfare.

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Breaking Point: COVID-19 and the Child Protection Crisis in Afghanistan

World Vision

Key findings from this report demonstrate that due to the negative impact of the outbreak, the vulnerability of the households further increased and already existing dangerous coping strategies such as child labor, child marriage and decrease of food consumption have been worsened by financial insecurity for families and losses of household income.

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Parental emotional neglect and left-behind children’s problem behaviors: The mediating role of deviant peer affiliation and the moderating role of beliefs about adversity

Banglin Yang, Cancan Xiong, Jin Huang - Children and Youth Services Review

The current study investigated the effects of parental emotional neglect on left-behind children’s externalizing problem behaviors, the mediating role of deviant peer affiliation, and the moderating role of beliefs about adversity in the association between parental emotional neglect and left-behind children’s externalizing problem behaviors.

Children on the brink: Risks for child protection, sexual abuse, and related mental health problems in the COVID-19 pandemic

Sheila Ramaswamy, Shekhar Seshadri - Indian Journal of Psychiatry

This article focuses on examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences on children in adversity in India, describing the increased child protection and psychosocial risks they are placed at, during and in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and its lockdown situation.

Towards recognising practitioners working in out-of-home care as experts in everyday life: A conceptual critique

Claire Cameron - International Journal of Social Pedagogy

This article examines the case for greater recognition of the children’s workforce in out-of-home care (OHC), and situates the concept of ‘expertise’ in the rise of recognition of children’s status as competent social actors, as well as in professionalisation debates.

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The Relationship between Loneliness, Self-Efficacy, and Satisfaction with Life in Left-Behind Middle School Students in China: Taking Binhai County of Jiangsu Province as an Example

Lei Jiang, Mingyue Liao, Ronghua Ying - Best Evidence in Chinese Education

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between loneliness, self-efficacy, and satisfaction with life of Left-behind middle school students in China.

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Trends in the prevalence and incidence of orphanhood in children and adolescents <20 years in rural KwaZulu-Natal South Africa, 2000-2014

Gabriela Mejia-Pailles, Ann Berrington, Nuala McGrath, Victoria Hosegood - PLoS ONE

In South Africa, large increases in early adult mortality during the 1990s and early 2000s have reversed since public HIV treatment rollout in 2004. In a rural population in KwaZulu-Natal, the authors of this study investigated trends in parental mortality and orphanhood from 2000–2014.

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The impact of parental migration on non-cognitive abilities of left behind children in northwestern China

Han Liu, Fang Chang, Hannah Corn, Yi Zhang, Yaojiang Shi - Journal of Asian Economics

Using survey data consisting of 5002 eighth graders from 160 middle schools in northwestern China, this paper investigates how parental migration affects children’s non-cognitive abilities, as is measured by Big Five components of conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness, as well as children’s grit.

Social Protection & Child Protection: Working together to protect children from the impact of COVID-19 and beyond

The Alliance for Children Protection in Humanitarian Action, UNICEF, Save the Children

This paper presents evidence of how social protection approaches can contribute to child protection outcomes and outlines recommendations which call for strong mobilization and uptake by governments, UN and multilateral development agencies, regional bodies, donors, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

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International Kinship Care Guide

Cross Border Child Safeguarding Working Group, Children and Families Across Borders

This guide is the first of its kind which comprehensively addresses the best practice for placing Looked After Children currently in the UK into the care of a family member(s) who lives in another country.

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COVID-19: Adapting Child Protection Case Management MOOC Follow-Up

MOOC Taskforce

Following thousands of comments and responses posted by the 8,000 course participants for the MOOC on COVID-19: Adapting Child Protection Case Management, as well as research and evidence being issued by child protection agencies, three international experts were invited to provide short videos containing advice and opinions of experts in different regions of the world regarding the need to plan for support for children for the evolving situation of COVID-19 and in particular post-pandemic scenario. 

Social Welfare Workforce Capacity Assessment to develop a long-term capacity building strategy for the social welfare service sector in Ghana

Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and UNICEF Ghana

This report notes existing gaps and needs in social service provision and provides recommendations for specific actions to strengthen the social welfare workforce in Ghana.

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Data collection on children in residential care: Protocol and tools for a national census and survey on children in residential care

UNICEF

In response to the need for accurate and reliable statistics on children in residential care, UNICEF has developed the first-ever comprehensive methodology to collect data on children living in residential care settings by applying a number of preexisting tools from international survey programmes, such as the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and other validated instruments, to an institutional population.

Behind the Mask of Care: A Report Based on the Results of the Situation Analysis of Baby Homes in Ukraine

USAID, UK aid, Hope and Homes for Children

This report presents the findings of the 2019-2020 assessment conducted within the Pilot assessment of residential healthcare facilities for children and development of recommendations for reform in five baby homes of Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Kherson regions of Ukraine. In addition to the findings from the assessment of baby homes, the report presents results from the region assessments regarding needs in the medical rehabilitation, paediatric palliative care, and social services for children aged 0-6 years and their families. 

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Early Childhood Development Index 2030

UNICEF

The ECDI2030 is a tool, developed by UNICEF, to measure progress toward SDG indicator 4.2.1. It captures the achievement of key developmental milestones by children between the ages of 24 and 59 months. Mothers or primary caregivers are asked 20 questions about the way their children behave in certain everyday situations, and the skills and knowledge they have acquired.

Children in care institutions

Evie Browne - K4D Helpdesk Report

This paper explores the question: What does the literature tell us about how many children worldwide are in institutions/orphanages; how likely they are to be exploited and in which ways; and what interventions are most effective in preventing this?

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Situation Analysis of Children in Uganda - 2019

Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, and UNICEF Uganda, with support from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics

This situation analysis explores multidimensional poverty in Uganda, including an examination of both material and social needs of children – including health care and education, a social and family life, clean and safe drinking water, housing that is not squalid and overcrowded, adequate clothing, and regular meals with sufficient and nutritious food.

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Principle of Subsidiarity - ISS/IRC comparative working paper 1: Spotlight on solutions

International Social Service

Having the best interest principle and taking into account the individual needs of each child in intercountry adoptions, this paper endeavours to promote the two tier approach of the principle of subsidiarity by examining the drafting spirit behind international standards (Section 1), providing examples of legislation and jurisprudence (Section 2) and identifying promising practices (Section 3) that reflect the principle.

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What Works to Protect Children on the Move: Rapid Evidence Assessment

Rachel Marcus, Amina Khan, Carmen Leon-Himmelstine and Jenny Rivett - UNICEF

This rapid evidence assessment (REA) aimed to answer three questions: (1) What interventions have been effective in ensuring the protection of children on the move? (2) What are the implementation factors that make these interventions effective or that hamper effectiveness (for example the context of the intervention, and specific design features such as who is targeted)? and (3) What kinds of social welfare and child protection systems are linked to effective interventions?

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“I Had No Hope, I Had No Help at All”: Insights from a First Study of Fathers and Recurrent Care Proceedings

Georgia Philip, Lindsay Youansamouth, Stuart Bedston, Karen Broadhurst, Yang Hu, John Clifton and Marian Brandon - Societies

This article presents data from the first large-scale study of fathers involved in repeat (or recurrent) care proceedings in England. The study consisted of three elements: an analysis of population-level administrative data from the Child and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS), a survey of fathers in pre-proceedings and care proceedings, and a qualitative longitudinal (QL) study of recurrent fathers.

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