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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Developing a positive living group climate in residential youth care: A single case study

Delphine Levrouw, Rudi Roose, Peer van der Helm, Eefje Strijbosch, Stijn Vandevelde - Child & Family Social Work, 2018

This article describes what could be learned from a project focused on monitoring the living group climate in a residential youth care service in Flanders, Belgium.

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Initial evaluation of the ‘Why Not?’ initiative developed by Care Visions

CELCIS: Vicki Welch and Kenny McGhee, 2018

This short document provides a summary of initial learning from data gathered for an evaluation of the Why Not? initiative in Scotland. The Why Not? initiative within Care Visions services was started in 2014 to ‘improve the way young people are supported when ageing out of care, by offering a different experience of relationships beyond care.’

Lost in Translation: Cultural Interpretations of Family in East Africa and Implications on Children’s Care

Kelley Bunkers, Beth Bradford, and Karen Smith Rotabi - Brown Journal of World Affairs, 2018

This article explores Intercountry Adoption (ICA) practices and the related expansion of orphanages (also referred to as residential care) in the East African context.

In and beyond the care setting: relationships between young people and care workers

Vicki Welch, Nadine Fowler, Ewan Ross, Richard Withington, Kenny McGhee - CELCIS, 2018

This review seeks to identify and summarise findings from literature about the nature of relationships that develop between older children and young people, and those caring for them within and beyond residential and fostering settings.

We All Matter! Situation Analysis of Children with Disabilities in Albania

Joanna Rogers and Elayn M. Sammon - UNICEF, 2018

The purpose of the present Situation Analysis of Children with Disabilities in Albania is to generate comprehensive knowledge about children with disabilities to inform concrete actions by the Albanian government and UNICEF Albania to address the most critical rights violations of children with disabilities.

It's not just about the adults!

Judy Furnivall - Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care, 2018

This article discusses how important it is for children in residential care to develop the ability to navigate relationships with each other.

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Child Abuse Research in South Africa - The perceptions of experts and guardians regarding the early onset of misbehaviour in male, at-risk children in child and youth care centres

Jessie-Mari Broich, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and Laetitia Coetzee - South African Society on the Abuse of Children (SAPSAC), 2018

This study explored the perceptions of experts and guardians regarding the early onset of misbehaviour in male, at-risk children in child and youth care centres in South Africa.

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Violence and Trauma in the Romanian Residential Child Protection

Maria Roth, Imola Antal, Ágnes Dávid-Kacsó, Éva László-Bodrogi, Anca Mureșan - Revista de Asistenţă Socială, 2018

Exploring the testimonials collected during a focus group and 45 individual interviews with adult alumni of such institutions the Romanian research team enrolled in the SASCA Project revealed a wide range of forms of violence and traumatic consequences.

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Video Art and Photography in Creation of Autobiographical Narratives With Adolescent Girls Aging Out of an Orphanage (Hogares De Ninas) in Peru

Tara Callen - Columbia University Academic Commons, 2018

This dissertation was an ethnographic narrative study tracking eight young women who were “aging out” or forced to leave their orphanage in Peru, where most of them had spent a majority of their lives. The study examined the way in which a collaborative art community could support the participants as they narrated their lives over a 16-month period of time through photojournaling and social media outlets.

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Special Issue of the International Journal of Longitudinal and Life Course Studies: Outcomes of children raised in out-of-home care

Longitudinal and Life Course Studies: International Journal, 2018

The aim of this special issue of the International Journal of Longitudinal and Life Course Studies is to examine the outcomes of children who were raised for part of their childhood in out-of-home care, including in foster care and institutions.

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