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.

Displaying 951 - 960 of 1482

Browse Other Topics

Does Size Matter? Comparing Medium-Term Cost-Effectiveness of Group Homes with Institutional Care in South Korea

Choong Rai Nho, Seokjin Woo, Hyunah Kang, JongSerl Chun and Ick-Joong Chung - Asian Social Work and Policy Review, 15 Jun 2016

Using unique 5-year longitudinal data on Korean children in group homes and those under institutional care, this paper compared the medium-term cost-effectiveness of group homes and that of institutional care facilities in terms of developmental outcomes.

View Article

“It is My Dream to Leave This Place” Children with Disabilities in Serbian Institutions

Human Rights Watch, 08 Jun 2016

This report from Human Rights Watch focuses on the institutionalization of children with disabilities in Serbia.

Risk, Resilience and Identity Construction in the Life Narratives of Young People Leaving Residential Care

Gillian Schofield, Birgit Larsson and Emma Ward -- Child & Family Social Work, 06 Jun 2016

The role of residential care for children has developed very differently internationally, but in all cultural contexts, there are questions about the extent to which it can help young people recover from high risk backgrounds. In the UK, residential care has come to be seen as the placement of last resort, yet new government guidance on permanence has suggested that residential care can provide security and a sense of belonging.

View Source

Children and Youth in Care - Hotel Placements

Ministry of Children and Family Development, British Columbia, Canada, 02 Jun 2016

This special report from the Ministry of Children and Family Development in British Columbia, Canada presents findings on the number of children in care in the province who were sent to stay in hotels.

Keyworking in residential child care: Lessons from research

Orla Cahill, Stephanie Holt & Gloria Kirwan - Children and Youth Services Review, 01 Jun 2016

This paper presents selectively on the findings of two separate but related qualitative Irish studies exploring relationship-based approaches in residential child care practice, from the perspectives of both residential child care workers and young care leavers.

View Article

Experiencing emotional and psychosocial support during preparation for re-integration: A study of street children under the care of Retrak Uganda

Paria Eslaminejad - Makerere University, 01 Jun 2016

This thesis investigates children’s experience of psychosocial and emotional support of (nonparental) caregivers in residential facilities in preparation for their re-integration into family based care.

Alternative Child Care and Deinstitutionalisation in Asia: Findings of a desk review

Catherine Flagothier -- Catherine Flagothier, 01 Jun 2016

This desk review examines the reasons children are being placed in care, evaluates the types of care in the region, and discusses regional efforts towards deinstitutionalisation.

Introduction to Residential Family Centres: A children’s social care guide to registration

Ofsted, 01 Jun 2016

This guide by the UK's regulatory body, Ofsted, explains in detail what one must do in order to open a residential family centre.

Altruistic Exploitation: Orphan Tourism and Global Social Work

Karen Smith Rotabi, Jini L. Roby and Kelley McCreery Bunkers - British Journal of Social Work, 30 May 2016

Based on an exhaustive review of the global literature and utilising an innovative theoretical framework of ‘altruistic exploitation’, the authors explore the ironic juxtaposition of benefits and harms associated with orphan tourism to the various stakeholders.

View Article

Unaccompanied and Separated Foreign Children in the Care System in the Western Cape: A Socio-Legal Study

J Sloth-Nielsen and M Ackermann, 30 May 2016

This document is a report on a study which involved a survey of all foreign-born children placed in child and youth care centers across South Africa’s Western Cape Province. The study examines the intersection between migration law and children’s rights.

View Source