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The purpose of this paper is to map the current organisation and implementation of children’s services in three regions of Spain, to identify strengths and gaps and to suggest proposals for improvement in line with European recommendations.
The study used an exploratory case study design and relied on qualitative methods, including the answers to open questionnaires provided by senior civil servants at key regional child welfare agencies, children’s services directors and service providers.
The main finding from the review of the legislation and the answers to the questionnaires is that…
This report from SOS Children’s Villages assesses Malawi’s compliance with, and implementation of, the UN Guidelines on the Alternative Care of Children. The report examines the Child Care, Protection and Justice Act of 2010 and the Adoption of Children Act, among other legislation. “The research by SOS Children’s Villages Malawi found that in particular there were concerns regarding the lack of data and information on children in both informal and formal alternative care; inadequate allocation of resources at the national and district levels and lack of staff capacity and training…
This online resource provides an overview of research, conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), on national child protection systems in the 28 European Union (EU) Member States. The research seeks to understand how national child protection systems work and to identify common challenges and promising practices. The data collected are organized around five main areas: (1) National legislative and regulatory framework; (2) National authorities responsible for child protection and service providers; (3) Human and financial resources, focusing on…
A major ministerial conference on ending the placement of children under three in institutional care was held in Sofia, Bulgaria on 21 and 22 November 2012. Organized by the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria in collaboration with UNICEF, it brought together representatives of twenty governments from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, experts from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, international and local NGOs and the academic world to discuss strategies and emerging good practices to support vulnerable families…
This study commissioned by the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Community Development and financially and technically supported by UNICEF and the Better Care Network, aimed at describing the situation of children in institutional care and creating a database containing all institutions in Malawi catering for children requiring alternative care. Some of the scope of work the study covers including mapping out the institutions and counting the number of children being cared for, determining the registration status of institutions, documenting different types…
Sierra Leone is one the world’s poorest countries, ranked 177/177 in 2007 on the Human Development Index and has an estimated population of five million, 51% of whom are children. 11.3% of these children (283,000) are orphans having lost one or both parents as a result of the ten year civil war, low life expectancy in the country, HIV/AIDS and a host of other factors. 20.3% of the child population does not live with their biological parents who are alive.
Poverty coupled with ignorance of children’s rights, many of which are now enacted in the Child Rights Act, poor…
The assessment reviews the situation of children outside parental care in ten countries in the Caribbean (as a sample of CARICOM member states). The central finding of this assessment is that efforts in the Caribbean to respond to children without parental care have been insufficient. This is attributed to a serious absence of strategies designed to support families to keep children at home, to prevent abuse and separation, to provide reintegration and long term rehabilitation services, and to ensure follow up and monitoring of children placed in temporary care.…
The original terms of reference envisaged the preparation of Standards for the operation of Children’s Homes and the provision of foster care regulations. However the Initial Assessment carried out in April 2006 found that Guyana in common with many other Commonwealth countries was struggling to meet the present care and protection problems facing children because of outdated legislation and social work practice that was relying on residential care and had no history of community placements. The Initial Assessment recommended that improvements were needed to the social work systems and…
Little in the literature helps us identify programs that are successful in achieving lasting reunification of children in out-of-home care with their families. Much of the research has looked at characteristics of children and families that help or hinder reunification, but not at whether children are able to remain in their homes over time, or what their long-term outcomes are in safety and well-being (Littell & Schuerman, 1995; Maluccio, 1998; Wulczyn, 2004).
The U.S. National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning (NRCFCPP) has worked with some programs that seem to…
This survey highlights efforts to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate former child soldiers in Cambodia, Colombia, El Salvador, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Kosovo, analyzing them in terms of policy and legal issues, political context and program implementation. The special needs facing the former child soldiers are discussed along with political situation and child protection in each country. Conclusion, lessons learned, challenges and recommendations are presented at the end of the survey.
This survey stresses that disarmament; demobilization and reintegration programs need to…