FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DAILY NEWS, EVENTS, RESEARCH, AND OTHER RESOURCES ON CARE
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'A lot of UNICEF and national efforts were concentrated on closing down infant homes; it was realised that this could only be successful if wider support networks and systems for identifying early risk were available; we saw this as a way to go beyond deinstitutionalisation and strengthen support to families in the most important early years; entrance to the service is wide to strengthen preventive role of the healthcare system; service objectives include child development, child protection from violence and abuse and prevention of development difficulties, and providing support to families.'
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New Resources on COVID-19 and Children's Care
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The Better Care Network will continue to share tools, guidance, information, and other resources regarding children's care and protection during the COVID-19 pandemic as practitioners, policymakers, and other key stakeholders work to respond to the needs of children and families impacted by this crisis. For more resources on COVID-19 and children's care, visit the growing collection of documents in the
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This briefing paper - developed by UNICEF and the Social Policy Research Institute, in collaboration with the National Development Planning Commission - built on existing microdata, analyses of children’s vulnerabilities and specific phone survey data collected between March and June 2020. The paper outlines the primary and secondary impacts of COVID-19 on children in Ghana, including the impacts on vulnerable children such as children with disabilities, street-connected children, and children in residential care.
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Catholic Medical Mission Board Zambia (CMMB), SPOON, and St. Catherine's University conducted this Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in Lusaka Province, Zambia, to understand the disparate impact that COVID-19 and the containment measures had on children with disabilities and their families. his two-phased assessment is designed to gather evidence about the impact through seven domains: COVID-19 knowledge and practices, food consumption, housing and livelihood, child safety and risk of separation, child health and wellness, parental and child stress, and education.
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This article from the San Diego Law Review explores the current state of child rights within the U.S. child welfare, juvenile justice, and special education systems, highlighting concerns that pre-date COVID-19 as well as recent legal implications of the pandemic.
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Understanding the Situation |
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This report from the U.S. Census Bureau and the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) illustrates current patterns and projected trends of population aging in Africa and empirical evidence of the socioeconomic circumstances and health status of older Africans. Among other findings, the report notes that older Africans, especially older women, play an active role of caregivers or guardians of younger-generation kin.
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This article from the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology examines the extent to which psychosocial deprivation increases the risk of later cognitive and psychiatric difficulties and the downstream consequences of this for risk-taking behavior in adolescence. The current study included 165 children, 113 with a history of institutionalization and 52 with no such history.
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This article from the British Journal of Social Work explores evidence which shows that the use of ‘private family arrangements’ in Ireland is motivated partly by a concern for subsidiarity, and partly by necessity: they provide a source of placements in cases where regulatory requirements and a lack of resources would otherwise make the placement challenging or impossible.
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This chapter from Crime Prevention and Justice in 2030 summarises the detailed findings of the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty and exemplifies the significant leading role of academia in ‘making the invisible and forgotten visible’ throughout the world.
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The two primary objectives of this study from the journal of Child Abuse & Neglect were 1) to compare recent child abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) between orphaned and separated children and adolescents’ (OSCA) in Kenya living in institutional environments and those in family-based care; and 2) to understand how recent child abuse among street-connected children and youth compared to these other vulnerable youth populations.
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For this article from the PLoS ONE journal, a school-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 626 adolescents in two districts of Western Nepal to examine the association between parental international migration and the psychological well-being of left-behind adolescents.
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This qualitative study from the Southern African Journal of Social Work and Social Development employed individual interviews to explore the emotional experiences of 15 adolescents placed in foster care in South Africa.
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This study from the journal of Child & Family Social Work assesses whether youth in foster care in the United States who are over age 18 have better financial capability and related supports compared with younger youth and whether there are associations between supports and financial capability.
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This new report from UNICEF considers global discussions on adequate reception and care for unaccompanied migrant and asylum-seeking children. Following the journey of children traveling alone from northern Central America to the U.S. – entering, navigating and leaving the U.S. reception and care system and transitioning to community life – this report presents eight overarching recommendations for the realization of a better and more equitable system of care and support for every child.
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This guidance from Changing the Way We Care is designed to strengthen the capacity of government agencies in low resource settings to prepare a sound budgetary framework for policies, programs and services that aim to keep children in safe and nurturing family environments. See the accompanying one-page technical brief here.
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This brief from the World Health Organization summarizes actions that programme planners and implementers should take to minimize the impact that emergencies have on the lives of young children and their families. It calls upon all relevant stakeholders to invest in evidence-based policies and interventions that have been shown to build resilience and mitigate the harmful effects of emergencies.
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The Children’s Commissioner of New Zealand undertook a thematic review of the policies, processes and practices of Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children relating to care and protection issues for pēpi Māori (Māori infants) aged 0-3 months. This first report presents the insights gained from interviews with mums and whānau (family) who had experience with pēpi (aged 0-3 months) who had either been removed, or were at risk of being removed, from their whānau by Oranga Tamariki or its predecessor Child, Youth and Family. The second report comes to the clear conclusion that to keep pēpi in the care of their whānau, Māori must be recognised as best placed to care for their own: this involves by Māori, for Māori approaches that are enabled by the transfer of power and resources from government to Māori.
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UNICEF Bulgaria's project, "Family for Every Child," aimed to demonstrate that viable alternatives to institutionalization exist, and that as long as a network of suitable support services is in place, deinstitutionalization is achievable. UNICEF Bulgaria commissioned this evaluation to establish whether the project had been successful. This evaluation is one of 18 reports highlighted in the Best of UNICEF Research and Evaluation 2020 publication.
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This is the final report of the evaluation of the Salvation Army Westcare Continuing Care Program, which aimed to provide relationship-based support to assist the planning, preparation and support needs of young people in Victoria, Australia during their transition from out-of-home care (OOHC) to independent living.
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The purpose of this study from the European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine was to determine the effectiveness of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple-P) in enabling mothers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to manage stress related to parenting a child with intellectual disability (ID).
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This paper from the journal of Children & Society presents data from a unique programme evaluation of the parenting programme titled ‘Learning together, growing as a family’ applied in 14 cities in Spain and targeting families at risk of neglectful behaviour.
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This article from the Journal of Family Therapy explores the possibilities of a systemic approach in the support of parents whose children are placed in public care in Norway.
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This report presents the latest findings from the Growth Beyond the Town Girls and Boys Town South Africa (GBTSA)/University of Johannesburg (UJ) joint partnership longitudinal research study. Presented are the findings from 150 participants who were interviewed as they disengaged from GBTSA, as well as the outcomes of many of these care-leavers that have been measured each year during follow-up interviews. The report also provides an analysis of resilience variables that predict better outcomes for care-leavers as they transition out of care over the first six years out of care.
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The Irish Times, 1 March 2021
ABC News, 23 February 2021
The Palladium Group, 22 February 2021
NBC News, 19 February 2021
BBC News, 19 February 2021
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The Standard, 19 February 2021
Teen Vogue, 17 February 2021
BBC News, 8 February 2021
Associated Press, 5 February 2021
Global Sisters Report, 4 February 2021
The New York Times, 4 February 2021
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National Family Support Network
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Nka (The Swedish Family Care Competence Centre) Linnaeus University and Eurocarers
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6-9 June 2021
Milan, Italy
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Newsletter participants, currently 4,441 in total, work on issues related to the care and support of vulnerable children across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. The purpose of the newsletter is to enable members to exchange information on matters of mutual concern. If you would like to share a document, raise a specific issue, request a newsletter subscription, or reach out in any other way to the Network, please send the information to us at contact@bettercarenetwork.org or visit our website at www.bettercarenetwork.org.
Thank you!
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