Child Care and Protection Policies

Child care and protection policies regulate the care of children, including the type of support and assistance to be offered, good practice guidelines for the implementation of services, standards for care, and adequate provisions for implementation. They relate to the care a child receives at and away from home.

States and all organisations with child care programmes should have child care policies which are in line with national legislation and international law, e.g. the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In line with the CRC, emphasis should be placed on the child’s best interests, with support to families prioritised in order to prevent family separation. Good gatekeeping mechanisms are essential in ensuring families receive the services they need and are entitled to, and to guard against inappropriate placement into poor care arrangements.

Home-based care, day care, and other family support services are mechanisms for assisting families in providing for the child’s development and, when used appropriately, can prevent child separation. When a child is unable to remain at home, alternative forms of community based care should be prioritised, such as formal kinship care or foster care. The use of institutions should be highlighted as a last and temporary measure. All support and care provisions should outline the referral and admission process, the use of care plans, regular reviews, rehabilitation, and aftercare procedures.

Child protection legislation which recognises that abuse can be physical, emotional, sexual, or neglect, and may be carried out by parents, caretakers, children and other adults is required. All agencies working with children should have written child protection policies which respect the rights of the child. Policies should outline behaviours and actions which are unacceptable, provide standards for the appropriate care of children, and clear guidelines on what procedures to follow and by whom, including reporting mechanisms for suspected abuse to an assigned authority for investigation.

Child care and protection policies require resources and monitoring of standards to ensure their appropriate implementation. Adequate provision and training of child care and social work staff is required to deliver family support services and alternatives forms of child care. All staff working with children should be trained and supervised in providing appropriate care for children, identifying abuse, and responding appropriately.

The literature in this section contains country reports and examples of national and organisational child care and protection policies.

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

International Social Service, 2019

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.

Memoria de Labores 2019

Consejo Nacional de Adopciones, 2019

El Consejo Nacional de Adopciones se presenta al público en general la Memoria de Labores correspondiente al 2019, en la cual el único compromiso fue restituir los derechos de la niñez guatemalteca.

Specialized Residential Placements for Child Trafficking Victims 2019

Amy Farrell, Sarah Lockwood, Kelly Goggin, Shannon Hogan - Violence and Justice Research Laboratory, Northeastern University, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2019

This study outlines the policies, practices, and programming that have been implemented across the US to provide specialized responses to exploited and trafficked youth within residential placement settings.

Putting Family First: The Need for Reform in Minnesota's Foster Care Licensing Statutes and Processes to Support Relative Placement

Joanna Woolman - Mitchell Hamline Law Review, 2019

This article tracks the history of foster care licensing requirements in the U.S. state of Minnesota, discusses the real-life story of a grandmother with a grandchild placed in foster care, explains the federal mandates established through the Adam Walsh Act, discusses the existing flaws in the process, and highlights the ways in which Minnesota’s current statutory scheme and processes disproportionally impact communities of color.

State of Children in Nepal 2019

Government of Nepal Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens National Child Rights Council, 2019

The national report on the State of Children in Nepal, 2019 includes child related information - Constitutional and legal provisions, policy, programmatic efforts and results in line with the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Punishing Families for Being Poor: How Child Protection Interventions Threaten the Right to Parent While Impoverished

David Pimentel - Oklahoma Law Review, 2019

This article from the Oklahoma Law Review explores the US child welfare system and the practice of family separation of poor families.

Adoption in the Netherlands: Preparation and post-care of adoptees, biological parents, adoption applicants and adoptive families in the Dutch adoption practice

Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V, 2019

This report from the German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V., DJI) assesses the adoption system in the Netherlands.

Chinese Special Needs Adoption, Demand, and the Global Politics of Disability

Erin Raffety - Disability Studies Quarterly, 2019

This open access article explores three related phenomena: first, the abandonment and institutionalization of children with disabilities in China that increased disproportionately in the 2000s; second, the important relationships between such abandonments, culture, economics, and politics in contemporary China; and third, the relationship between such abandonments, the increasing rates at which Chinese orphans with disabilities are being adopted to Western countries through Inter-country Adoption (ICA), and the global politics of ICA and disability.

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All Children – All Families 2019 Report: Celebrating Everyday Change-Makers in Child Welfare

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2019

This report highlights more than 70 child welfare agencies across the United States that partnered with the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s All Children - All Families project to improve the services they provide to the LGBTQ community, including children in foster care and prospective foster and adoptive parents.

Participatory information governance: Transforming recordkeeping for childhood out-of-home Care

Joanne Evans, Sue McKemmish, Gregory Rolan - Records Management Journal, 2019

This paper examines the recordkeeping governance requirements of the childhood out-of-home Care sector in Australia, with critical interlaced identity, memory, cultural and accountability needs.

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