Should Foster Care Replace the Family? Child Welfare and the Value of Family Privacy

Eirik Christopher Gundersen

In this chapter in the book "Child Welfare and the Value of Family Privacy", the author discusses moderate alternatives to address problems of the family by enhancing the presence of state agencies in family life. The author asks if organising families as foster homes is less morally objectionable than raising children in families by examining the child welfare system in Norway.

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Parents Who Inject Drugs: Demographics, Care Arrangements and Correlates for Child Placement in Out-of-Home Care

Jocelyn Chan, Bernadette Ward, Lisa Maher, Sione Crawford, Mark Stoové, Paul Dietze

Children in families affected by substance use disorders are at high risk of being placed in out-of-home care (OOHC). The authors of this Australia-based study aimed to describe the characteristics of parents who inject drugs and identify correlates associated with child placement in OOHC.

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Foster Carers’ Views of the Transition from Foster Care to Adulthood for Young People with Mental Health Problems from a Life-Course Perspective

Ingrid Höjer, Inger Oterholm

This article aims to build knowledge, from a life-course perspective, of foster carers’ views of the transition from care to adulthood for young people with mental health problems by interviewing carers from foster homes in Norway and Sweden.

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Prospects for Children in 2024: Cooperation in a Fragmented World (Executive Summary)

Jasmina Byrne, Melvin Bretón, Gary Risser, Cristina Colon, Andaleeb Alam, Camila Teixeira, Manasi Nanavati, Steven Vosloo, Tamara Rusinow - UNICEF

The 2024 Global Outlook Prospects for Children: Cooperation in a Fragmented World examines how global fragmentation along geopolitical and economic lines will impact children in 2024 and beyond. It highlights eight key trends that will shape children’s lives and provides policy guidance to protect their rights and well-being amid this uncertainty.

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Prospects for Children in 2024: Cooperation in a Fragmented World

Jasmina Byrne, Melvin Bretón, Gary Risser, Cristina Colon, Andaleeb Alam, Camila Teixeira, Manasi Nanavati, Steven Vosloo, Tamara Rusinow - UNICEF

Prospects for Children in 2024: Cooperation in a Fragmented World is the latest edition of the Global Outlook, a series of reports produced each year by UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, which look to the key trends affecting children and young people over the following 12 months and beyond.

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As They Move: Child and Youth Experiences of Migration, Displacement and Return in Afghanistan

Zeudi Liew, Mark Gill, Lucy Hovil

The experience children and young people who migrated from their homes in Afghanistan – especially those who have been forced to return – can be described as a spiral of harm and neglect. For many, poverty and a desire to help their families drives them from their homes.

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Child Migrants In Family Immigration Detention in the US: An Examination of Current Pediatric Care Standards and Practices

MGH Center for Global Health, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, Harvard Global Health Institute

The study is the first analysis of the medical records of children as young as six months old and a median age of nine years old detained between June 2018 and October 2020 at Karnes County Family Residential Center in Texas. The report documents evidence of mental and physical harm relating to inadequate and inappropriate medical care experienced by children during prolonged detention.

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Pathways to Better Protection: Taking Stock of the Situation of Children in Alternative Care in Europe and Central Asia

UNICEF

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the situation of children in alternative care and in adoption in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) based on available data from TransMonEE, as well as other sources such as MICS, DataCare and the Conference of European Statisticians (CES). It marks the first analysis of data on children in alternative care by the UNICEF ECA Regional Office since the publication of the ‘At home or in a home’ report in 2010, highlighting the developments and challenges in collecting and reporting data on children in alternative care and adoption and summarises recommendations derived from recent data review initiatives.

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Prevalence of Girl and Boy Child Marriage Across States and Union Territories in India, 1993–2021: a Repeated Cross-Sectional Study

Jewel Gausman, Rockli Kim, Akhil Kumar, Shamika Ravi, S V Subramanian

In this study, the authors aim to present a systematic description of the trends in child marriage in girls and boys aged 20–24 years in India and its 36 states and Union Territories between 1993 and 2021.

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Family Matters Report 2023

Family Matters Leadership Group, SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, Monash University (Health and Social Care Unit), Dr. Nicole Schlesinger

Family Matters reports focus on what the Australian government is doing to turn the tide on over-representation and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

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‘I Actually Know that Things will Get Better’: The Many Pathways to Resilience of LGBTQIA+ Youth in Out-of-Home Care

Rodrigo González-Álvarez, Mijntje ten Brummelaar, Samar Orwa, Mónica López López

Using in-depth interviews, the present study aims to illuminate the resilience experiences of 13 LGBTQIA+ young people in out-of-home care in the Netherlands.

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Supporting Integration: A Toolkit for Practitioners Working with Children and Young People on the Move

Family for Every Child

The ‘Supporting Integration’ toolkit documents and shares good practice guidance for practitioners working with child migrants. The toolkit was developed as part of a three year project which involved research into the integration of children moving from the Middle East to Europe, and aims to enhance integration support and services, ensuring that children and young people are provided with a care that fosters their development and well-being.

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2023 State of the Social Service Workforce Report: A Decade of Progress, A Future of Promise

Global Social Service Workforce Alliance

This report examines the evolution of social service workforce strengthening in the light of the three core pillars of the Social Service Workforce Strengthening Framework: planning, developing and supporting. It identifies significant progress and accomplishments that have been made to strengthen the social service workforce at the global level as well as in three specific countries: Romania, Uganda and Viet Nam.

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Learning Brief: Applying the Collaborating, Learning and Adapting Framework

Changing the Way We Care

Since care reform is a long and complex process, requiring collaboration between many diverse actors, with different change pathways in diverse contexts, the Changing the Way We Care initiative set out to learn from different demonstration countries, build national and regional knowledge, and reinforce global momentum for family care. This learning brief describes some of that journey.

This brief shares how the initiative used CLA related to the social service workforce strengthening and case management.

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Mental Health and Wellbeing Interventions for Care-Experienced Children and Young People: Systematic Review and Synthesis of Process Evaluations

Sarah MacDonald, Rob Trubey, Jane Noyes, Soo Vinnicombe, Helen E. Morgan, Simone Willis, Maria Boffey, G.J. Melendez-Torres, Michael Robling, Charlotte Wooder, Rhiannon Evans

This global systematic review incorporated a comprehensive search of available literature from 1990 and captures the extant literature relating to process evaluations for interventions which address care-experienced children and young people’s mental health and well-being, and is one of the first syntheses of process evaluations in social care.

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Resilience Among Children in Foster Care: Variability in Adaptive Functioning and Associated Factors

Pablo Carrera, Maite Román, Jesús M. Jiménez-Morago

This study aimed to explore variability in adaptive functioning in social competence, mental health, and school adjustment in a sample of children in foster care in Spain, and to assess which factors differentiated resilient children (i.e., showing adaptive functioning across domains) from those who were not resilient.

Child Protective Services and Out-of-Home Care for Children During COVID-19: A Scoping Review and Thematic Analysis

Carmit Katz, Afnan Attrash-Najjar, Noa Cohen, Talia Glucklich, Ma'ayan Jacobson, Natalia Varela, Sidnei Rinaldo Priolo-Filho, Annie Bérubé, Olivia D. Chang, Delphine Collin-Vézina, Ansie Fouché, Sadiyya Haffejee, Ilan Katz, Kathryn Maguire-Jack, et al

Limited research has investigated the impact of COVID-19 on Out-of-Home Care (OOHC) and child protective services (CPS) worldwide or explored how CPS overcame the challenges of helping children in OOHC. This review aims to address this gap in the research to unveil the ‘positive legacy’ left by CPS in their work with children in OOHC during COVID-19.

Insight: Disability Inclusion in Kenya's Care Reform

Changing the Way We Care

Disability inclusion means breaking down barriers to promote a society that values diversity and accessibility for everyone. In 2023, Changing the Way We Care Kenya included a disability inclusion reflection learning exercise aimed at collecting views and feedback, and documenting how the initiative had impacted on lives of caregivers and children with disabilities, and how disability issues were be included in the care reform agenda.

Case Management for Children Reintegrating into Family and Community-Based Care

Changing the Way We Care

Case management is used with both families at risk of separation and those where children have already separated and are in the process of being reintegrated, including biological family or placed into an alternative family (e.g., foster or kinship). The end goal of case management is that children are safe and nurtured within a family that is able to care for them, and access needed services that address risks and increase resilience.   

Strategies for Strengthening Mental Health Education for Left Behind Children in Rural Areas

Yang Boran

This article explores the importance of strengthening mental health education for left behind children in rural areas and proposes various strategies to meet their mental health needs. The study emphasizes the importance of parental participation, school counseling mechanisms, diverse educational activities, and social support.

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The Taken Children of Ukraine

Patricia Fronek, Karen S Rotabi-Casares, Marina Lypovetska

This article focuses on The Taken Children of Ukraine during the first 6 months of the war and its implications for social workers engaged in work with children and their families.

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Charting Brighter Futures: Utilizing Data for Accelerated Action to End Child Marriage

UNICEF

On 21st September 2023, the Governments of Canada and Zambia, in partnership with UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage and the Child Marriage Monitoring Mechanism, hosted a High-Level Side Event during the Seventy-Eighth Session of the United Nations General Assembly. The event was titled 'Charting Brighter Futures: Utilizing Data for Accelerated Action to End Child Marriage and Achieve SDG 5.3'.

The Global Social Service Workforce Alliance 2023 Annual Symposium: A Decade of Progress, A Future of Promise

Global Social Service Workforce Alliance

To commemorate their 10th anniversary as an Alliance, this year’s Symposium took place on October 26, 2023, and offered a retrospective view of the Cape Town conference and the impact it achieved, both in the participating countries and globally. Then, through a deep dive into the experiences of three other countries— Romania, Rwanda and Viet Nam—it will explore the different ways countries have made progress in strengthening their workforce over the past decade and will highlight the continuing and emerging challenges facing the workforce in each country.

Findings and Recommendations From Financial Assessments of Residential Institutions

Catholic Relief Services

Daniela Mamaliga, Director of Partnerships for Every Child, presents the findings and conclusions of a comprehensive 2022 financial assessment conducted by CTWWC in six residential institutions. The financial assessments aimed to inform political decisions on the future of the six institutions, including their transformation/reorganization plans. Ms. Mamaliga highlights that though the average annual cost for caring for a child is increasing in all six institutions, even as number of children and staff is decreasing in some of them.

The Role of Social Services and the Importance of Investing in the Social Service Workforce

Catholic Relief Services

As an experienced social worker and practice lead at Social Work Scotland, Vivien Thomson shares valuable insights underscoring the importance of investing in the social service workforce to drive meaningful care reform. Drawing from lessons learned in Scotland's Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) policy framework, Ms. Thomson, illuminates the critical role of social workers and the need to empower them as the glue that holds together multi-agency teams.

Working Together to Create Meaning: Narratives of Care Leavers in Eastern Europe

Zoë Kessler, Susan Levy, Mark Smith

This article uses life history research to reveal a new understanding of institutional care. The study draws on interviews with care leavers from a Latvian orphanage who narrate life histories and identify critical life events and moments of resistance to times of adversity.

Domestic Violence and the Welfare of the Nigerian Child: An Evaluation of the Role of Child Protection Services and Law Enforcement Authorities

Wilson Diriwari

This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how Child Protection Services and Law Enforcement Agencies in Nigeria can combat domestic violence against children. It seeks to provide recommendations, on strengthening these entities as other important stakeholders involved in preventing detecting, responding to, and protecting children from domestic violence.

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A Gender-Responsive Pandemic Accord is Needed for a Healthier, Equitable Future

Shirin Heidari, Els Torreele, Ahmet Metin Gülmezoglu, Sharifah Sekalala, Naomi Burke-Shyne, Gabrielle Landry Chappuis

This comment in the October 2023 issue of The Lancet discusses gender equity in health care and how improving access to sexual and reproductive health services can lead to a considerable reduction in maternal mortality rates. Other reports emphasise how collecting and analysing sex-disaggregated and gender data can help identify disparities in access to education, health care, and other services that are crucial for overall development.

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Parental Migration and Education: Lived Experiences of Dalit and Adivasi Children in a Village of Madhya Pradesh

Rajshree Chanchal, Ajit Kumar Lenka

The article grapples with the tacit interplay of poverty, caste, and gender and its effects on the education of children in a village. It explores how pandemic-induced school closure impacted the life chances of marginalised children during and after the pandemic in the ‘deprived geography’ of rural Madhya Pradesh, India.