Emergency Care Arrangements

The priority for unaccompanied children in an emergency is to reunite them with their parents, family members, or relatives as quickly as possible, in order to provide them with care and protection. Where this is not immediately possible, children will require emergency care until reunification is possible via documentation and tracing activities.

Emergency care should cater to the child’s basic shelter, security, food and health needs, on a level that is comparable to the local community in order to avoid encouraging further family separations. Children should be kept fully informed of efforts to locate family, and any interim care plans. All agencies offering care must follow and international standards, and coordinate with the local authority.

The preferred care will usually be with temporary caretakers from the community, rather than in institutions, since this provides continuity and greater protection. Children associated with armed forces may require interim care, if immediate family reunification is not possible and in their best interests. Spontaneous care situations, such as kinship, foster care, and child headed households should be screened, monitored and supported to ensure children are protected and their basic needs and rights are being met. In some cases an alternative placement may be necessary. Where family members cannot be located, a longer term care plan should be formulated, however adoption must only be considered after all tracing and reunification activities have been exhausted over a substantial period of time.

Support programs should include all affected children, and should not target or isolate separated children. They should strengthen the community’s natural coping methods and support structures, and will therefore include community and child participation in decision making processes. All placements must be fully documented to facilitate tracing and reunification activities. Reunification should be the immediate goal for all children, unless this is not in their best interests.

The documents in this section relate to emergency care guidelines and examples from around the world.

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Issue Brief Number Three: Child Care, An Essential Service for Disaster Recovery

Save the Children, 2007

A short paper on the importance of child care provision as a critical service in helping local communities recover post disaster. It gives 4 policy recommendations for protecting and restoring child care infrastructure.

The Lost Ones: Emergency Care and Family Tracing for Separated Children from Birth to Five Years

Marie de La Soudiere, Jan Williamson, and Jaqueline Botte, 2007

Practical guidance on how to care for young children separated from their families in emergencies. Includes discussions of best practices in family tracing, promoting child development, and family reunification. Also provides strategies for the prevention of family separation.

IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings

Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 31 Dec 2006

Guidelines for a multi-sectoral response to the most urgent mental health and psychosocial issues in emergency situations.

Timor-Leste Forms for Residential Care

Timor Leste - Division of Social Services, 07 Aug 2006

Practical and professional paperwork for residential care including registration and assessment forms, application for renewal of licences, referral forms, and emergency admission forms. Can be modified for different country contexts.

Timor-Leste Residential Care Centre Forms.doc

Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children Programming Guidance for US Government In Country Staff and Implementing Partners

PEPFAR, Office US Global AIDS Coordinator, 01 Jul 2006

The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

Protecting Children from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Violence in Disaster and Emergency Situations

Stephanie Delaney, ECPAT International, 01 Mar 2006

A practical guide for local and communtiy based organizations about how to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation in disaster and emergency situations.

Seeking Asylum Alone: Unaccompanied and Separated Children and Refugee Protection in the United States

Jacqueline Bhabha and Susan Schmidt, 2006

The report details the scale and nature of migritaion by children entering the United States. It includes policy analysis and recommendations around the protection of seperated and unaccompanied children.

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Progress for Children: A Report Card on Nutrition

UNICEF, 2006

Evaluates global improvements in nutrition as progress towards achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Suggests that the MDGs are attainable only with re-prioritization of efforts to reduce child undernutrition.

Consideration of Kinship Carer(s) for Emergency/Immediate Placement of a Child or Children

Carol Edwards, Edwina Brockelsby Family Rights Group UK, 2006

A template for assessing the suitability of kinship caregivers in the short term, and for planning the care of a child in kinship care. There are sections that can be given to potential caregivers to help them prepare for caring for a child.

Psychosocial Interventions: Training Manual

Save the Children UK, 2006

A manual outlining a detailed 3-day training program in how to respond to the psychosocial effects of disasters. Designed for use by psychosocial program administrators or trainers.

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