Residential Care

Residential care refers to any group living arrangement where children are looked after by paid staff in a specially designated facility. It covers a wide variety of settings ranging from emergency shelters and small group homes, to larger-scale institutions such as orphanages or children’s homes. As a general rule, residential care should only be provided on a temporary basis, for example while efforts are made to promote family reintegration or to identify family based care options for children. In some cases however, certain forms of residential care can operate as a longer-term care solution for children.

Residential care can be a positive alternative for some girls and boys when it is used appropriately and meets certain standards. For example, small group home living arrangements or supported independent living can work well in cases where children (often older teenagers) don’t feel comfortable in a family setting, or where large groups of siblings want to stay together. Similarly in cases where children have suffered trauma, severe abuse or neglect, have a severe disability or require specialised support, small group settings where trained staff can provide therapeutic care may be an appropriate care option. As much as possible, residential facilities should be small, community-based, organised to resemble a family-type or small-group situation and allow for sufficient staff to provide individualised attention to children.

It is important to distinguish between residential care and institutional care, which should only be used as a last and temporary resort for children. Institutional care refers to large-scale group care within big institutional facilities and has been associated with a wide range of problems for children including physical, social and emotional under-development - with babies and infants under the age of three especially vulnerable to lasting harm. Long periods in an institution can deprive children of positive individual attention from consistent caregivers, make it difficult for them to assimilate back into a family and community, and are often linked to increased risk of sexual and physical abuse, a lack of stimulation, and harsh discipline.

In recent years, deinstitutionalisation has been at the heart of national care reform efforts, which seek to reduce reliance on institutional care and to promote family and community based care options for children instead. This includes efforts to promote ethical volunteerism within residential care centres, educate donors and to avoid proliferation of orphanages and children’s homes after humanitarian emergencies.

The documents in this section outline residential care options for children, examine the damaging impact of institutions, explore family and community-based care alternatives and describe care reform efforts including initiatives around ethical volunteerism.

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Female care leavers' journey to young adulthood from residential care in South Africa: Gender‐specific psychosocial processes of resilience

Joyce Hlungwani & Adrian D. van Breda - Child & Family Social Work, 07 Jul 2020

This article describes the psychosocial resilience processes that facilitate successful transitioning of young women as they journey out of residential care towards young adulthood.

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Kenya National Care System Assessment: A participatory self-assessment of the formal care system of children living outside of family care and for the prevention of unnecessary separation of children from families

National Council for Children's Services - Republic of Kenya, 01 Jul 2020

This care system assessment is intended to support the Government of Kenya to assess and strengthen the national, formal care system.

The Role of Small-Scale Residential Care for Children in the Transition From Institutional to Community-Based Care and in the Continuum of Care in the Europe and Central Asia Region

Stela Grigoras - UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO), 01 Jul 2020

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.

A Data-informed Model for Building Research Capacity in Out-of-home Care and Treatment Settings for Children and Youth

Sharon G. Portwood, A. Suzanne Boyd & Kenesha Smith Barber - Residential Treatment for Children & Youth , 30 Jun 2020

In response to the continuing need for agencies providing residential care and treatment to children and youth to develop and/or to enhance their ability to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of their services, this article explores successful strategies for building and sustaining research capacity in these settings.

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What is known about child sexual exploitation in residential care in Australia? A systematic scoping review

Kathomi Gatwiri, Nadine Cameron, Lynne Mcpherson, Natalie Parmenter - Children and Youth Services Review, 24 Jun 2020

Employing a systematic scoping methodology, this review examined the scope and breadth of literature focusing on children and young people living in residential care in Australia who have experienced sexual exploitation.

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Children in institutional settings

Anne Longfield - The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 23 Jun 2020

In this commentary piece, Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, explores the use of children's care homes in England and the need for improved supports to prevent placement in children's home and to provide for the needs of children and young people who are placed in these homes.

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Cracks in the System

Lumos, 23 Jun 2020

Cracks in the System is a new report from Lumos that is the first of its kind to systematically explore the links between institutional care and child trafficking in Europe.

The effects of the stigma trajectory of adolescents in out-of-home care on self-esteem and antisocial behavior

Eun Mi An, Sang Jung Lee, Ick-Joong Chung - Children and Youth Services Review, 12 Jun 2020

The purpose of this study was to longitudinally examine the effects of stigma on the development of children living in out-of-home care situations, specifically with regards to self-esteem and antisocial behavior.

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The institutional shaping of children’s educational experiences in secure custody: A case study of a secure children’s home in England

Caroline Andow - International Journal of Educational Development, 10 Jun 2020

Through the lens of institutional ethnography, this paper explores how experiences of education inside one Secure Children’s Home in England are shaped by the institution.

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Residential care centers during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A survey of 13 countries – members of FICE-International

Emmanuel Grupper, Shachar Shuman - FICE Israel, 01 Jun 2020

FICE Israel decided to initiate a short survey to document and share information about the way different countries handled their policies and practices in residential care facilities during that period. This report presents findings and some conclusions from this primary survey.