FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR DAILY NEWS, EVENTS, RESEARCH, AND OTHER RESOURCES ON CARE
|
|
|
'The closure of an institution in a very careful and planned manner transforms not only the lives of the children resident at that time, but also those who would have entered the system...Therefore, deinstitutionalization is an investment in an entire future generation.'
|
|
In 2007, the Government of Ghana initiated a process of care reform to implement the legal framework for alternative care and push forward deinstitutionalization efforts. This was in response to the 2006 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's recommendations addressing the rapid rise of residential care facilities in Ghana (from 10 residential homes for children in 1998 to 148 in 2006). The focus of reforms has been on strengthening the capacity of families to care for their children, preventing family separation, improving gatekeeping mechanisms, providing alternative care options for children out of family care, and facilitating post-institutional care support.
Under the Department of Social Welfare's leadership, Ghana has made significant progress with reforms of the care system. The legal framework (Children's Act) has been amended to be aligned with international standards, including in relation to adoption and foster care. The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption entered into force in Ghana on 1 January 2017. Following the approval of Foster Care Regulations (Legislative Instrument), a foster care program has been developed as an alternative to residential care. Children have been reintegrated with families, and some of the substandard residential care facilities have been closed. UNICEF has supported the overall care initiative with generous support from USAID's Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF) and in partnership with several CSOs/NGOs and academia. USAID's DCOF also provided direct support to Ghana's Government to ensure the sustainability and continuity of care reforms.
Together, the initiative produced several vital policy documents and tools to guide implementation, which are featured in this issue, including, Guidelines for Deinstitutionalization, a Training Manual for Caregivers of Children with Disabilities, Alternative Care Standards and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), a Social Welfare Workforce Assessment, and others. This issue also features Special Guidance for Child Protection Case Management and Special Guidance for Child Care Institutions developed by the Department of Social Welfare and UNICEF during 2020 to respond to COVID-19 Pandemic.
Additionally, this issue highlights the recently launched report of a National Survey of the Residential Care Facilities for Children in Ghana. UNICEF developed the methodology, tools and study protocol for this survey and Ghana was the first country to implement the full protocol. The report includes a mapping of all residential care facilities (including both licensed and unlicensed homes), a thorough enumeration (count) of children living in residential care, and a survey of a representative sample of children living in those facilities. Counting with reliable data will help the Government of Ghana and its partners track progress in implementing the care reform and better plan for an acceleration of efforts. These and other resources in the focus section of this issue provide important insights in progress made in Ghana over the last decade and practical examples of guidance for caregivers, practitioners, policymakers and others on ensuring quality care for children.
Muhammad Rafiq Khan
Chief Child Protection, UNICEF Ghana
Florence Martin
Director, Better Care Network
|
|
Focus on Children's Care in Ghana |
|
|
|
|
This report, produced by the Department of Social Welfare and Ghana Statistical Service with UNICEF support, provides an overview of the main findings from a census of residential care facilities in Ghana, an enumeration of the child population in these facilities, and a survey on a representative sample of such population.
|
|
|
|
This briefing paper - developed by UNICEF and the Social Policy Research Institute, in collaboration with the National Development Planning Commission - built on existing microdata, analyses of children’s vulnerabilities and specific phone survey data collected between March and June 2020. The paper outlines the primary and secondary impacts of COVID-19 on children in Ghana, including the impacts on vulnerable children such as children with disabilities, street-connected children, and children in residential care.
|
|
|
|
This Training Manual for Caregivers of Children with disabilities was developed by the Department of Social Welfare with UNICEF support to equip caregivers of children with disabilities (which include biological parents, foster parents, adoptive parents, caregivers in institutions, caregivers in day care centers, healthcare providers, teachers of special needs schools, etc.) with the needed knowledge and skill in order for them to be able to provide the required quality of care for the children for them to grow and develop well and become productive in society.
|
|
|
|
This document from the Department of Social Welfare and UNICEF is aimed at complementing the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Licensing, Monitoring and Closure of Residential Homes for Children (RHC) by supporting the implementation of the closure of RHCs that have not been licensed or do not meet the standards in the SOPs.
|
|
|
|
These Standards from UNICEF Ghana and the Department of Social Welfare of the Ministry of Gender are intended to guide social workers and other service providers in monitoring foster care services. The primary aim of these Standards is to ensure that the best interests of the child are sought when a child is placed in foster care.
|
|
|
|
This assessment, conducted by Maestral International on behalf of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) Ghana and UNICEF Ghana, identified various barriers to the effective functioning of Ghana’s social service system, which result in social service provision gaps. The assessment also found that a competent, adequately resourced and trained social service workforce is necessary to provide the services and support required by vulnerable populations, families and children in Ghana. This report notes existing gaps and needs and provides recommendations for specific actions to strengthen the workforce.
|
|
|
|
Based on social welfare workforce assessment, this long-term capacity building strategy was developed to assist the Government of Ghana - specifically the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) and the Office of the Head of Local Government Service (OHLGS) - to strengthen its social welfare workforce in order to respond appropriately to the needs of vulnerable and marginalized children and other populations in the country.
|
|
|
|
The Inter-Sectoral Standard Operating Procedure for child protection and family welfare (ISSOP), developed by the Government of Ghana with UNICEF, provides a harmonized framework of agreed standards, principles and procedures for all child protection and family welfare stakeholders in Ghana to understand each other’s roles and responsibilities.
|
|
|
|
Using a qualitative design, the author of this study from the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal interviewed 12 social workers to explore the benefits of family support services and challenges that inhibit the gains from the services.
|
|
|
|
This qualitative case study from the journal of Children & Society explores the challenges facing children reunified with their families from an orphanage in Ghana. Eight children, their biological families, and two social workers participated in semi‐structured interviews and shared their experiences and views.
|
|
|
|
The aim of this study from the National Development Planning Commission is to understand the complexity of child poverty in Ghana by investigating children's access to various goods and services crucial for their long-term development.
|
|
|
|
This paper from the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care describes the findings of a geographical mapping and analysis of residential care facilities in four regions of Ghana.
|
|
|
|
The purpose of this manual is to provide guidance on how to collect and report data on children in formal alternative care in Ghana in a standardised way, and to analyse, present, and make the data available for use. The manual describes the necessary data management procedures, and the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders for generating high-quality data on alternative care. The guidelines present a range of indicators for alternative care, the sources of information, the frequency of reports on alternative care, and monitoring and review structures.
|
|
|
|
This study from the Child & Youth Services journal aims to explore the experiences of Ghanaian care leavers to discern the factors that promote and impede their educational attainment.
|
|
|
|
In line with recent policy discussions on mechanisms to regulate informal kinship care practices, this study from Child: Care, Health and Development aimed to identify how the State could be involved in improving kinship care experience for children.
|
|
Understanding the Situation |
|
|
|
This report from Elevate Children Funders Group and the Global Philanthropy Project explores how gender-restrictive groups are using child protection rhetoric to manufacture moral panic and mobilize against human rights, and how this strengthens the illiberal politics currently undermining democracies. The report’s comparative analysis of three country case studies (Bulgaria, Ghana, and Perú) underscores recurring strategies, narratives, and actors and gives insight into how gender-restrictive groups collaborate and engage in coalitional work across the globe.
|
|
|
|
This report from Amnesty International presents testimonies from six parents residing in Australia, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey who have been separated from their children, who are "trapped" in China. Some of these children have been taken to state-run “orphan camps” or boarding schools.
|
|
|
|
This study utilizes narrative and quantitative synthesis to review the scientific evidence on the associations between growing up in SOS villages and child development in various domains. Results showed developmental delays of SOS children compared with their peers in families. Compared to children in typical institutions SOS children do better on mental health but worse on physical growth. The preliminary evidence suggests that SOS Children’s Villages should move away from institutional arrangements to family care.
|
|
|
|
This review from CELCIS seeks to provide an overview of the existing research on residential care, including the function of residential care, what facilitates 'quality' care in residential care, and what effect residential care has upon outcomes for children and young people.
|
|
|
|
This article from The British Journal of Social Work explores the concept of care and the responsibility assumed by states when taking children into care.
|
|
|
|
Drawing on a mixed method study of grandparent carers and service providers located in Western Australia, the authors of this article from the journal of Child & Family Social Work argue that there are important issues of inequity and injustice associated with being a grandcarer, in particular due to systemic and discursive failures to recognize the complexity and challenges of care provision.
|
|
|
|
This paper from Adoption Quarterly explores how adoptive parents, with knowledge of exploitation in their own adoptions from Ethiopia, are responding emotionally and pragmatically.
|
|
|
|
This study from the Journal of Community Medicine and Primary Health Care was conducted to determine and compare the nutritional status of children living in orphanages and children living in the host communities in Nigeria.
|
|
|
|
Over the past decade there has been a marked growth in the use of linked population administrative data for child protection research. This article from PLOS One presents the first systematic review of studies to report on research design and statistical methods used where population-based administrative data is integrated with longitudinal data in child protection settings.
|
|
|
|
The aim of this article from the Archives of Mental Health was to study and compare the depression and behavioral problems among children residing at welfare hostels and orphanages in India.
|
|
Policies, Standards, and Guidelines |
|
|
|
These Principles, published by International Social Service (ISS), are designed to inspire and provide guidance on legislative, policy and practical reforms on the upholding of children’s rights born through surrogacy.
|
|
|
|
With 30 years since the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, this article from the African Human Rights Law Journal discusses how the Charter has contributed to understanding and addressing children's rights to protection.
|
|
|
|
This study from the journal of Genealogy explores the recent adaptation of foster care (Koruyucu Aile) in Turkey. This elite-driven norm change was institutionalized through comprehensive legislation, economic incentives and national campaigns, situated in the “politics of responsibility” arising from moral duty and national and religious ethics.
|
|
|
|
Case Studies to Accompany the Transitioning Models of Care Assessment Tool
These case studies from Better Care Network and Kinnected are organized around the various stages of transition from residential to family-based care and explore some of the key themes outlined in the Transitioning Models of Care Assessment Tool. They also feature timelines that provide a visual representation of the key milestones and durations of each of the stages of transition.
|
|
|
|
This report documents activities and conversations from the International Care Leavers Convention 2020, held virtually in November 2020. The outcome of the convention saw the birth of a social movement for Care Leavers driven by the motto “nothing for us, without us”.
Read Also:
|
|
|
|
In this How We Care series, Family for Every Child presents the programming of three CSOs on how they are supporting kin carers and the vulnerable children in their care, in their respective regions: the Associação Brasileira Terra dos Homens (ABTH) in Brazil, Farm Orphan Support Trust (FOST) in Zimbabwe and Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (GRG) in New Zealand.
|
|
|
|
This study from the journal of Developmental Science aimed to test whether a home‐visiting intervention could improve early attachment relationships between adolescent mothers and their infants living in poverty in Brazil.
|
|
|
|
This study from the Children and Youth Services Review experimentally tested proximal outcomes of Connecting, a low-cost, self-directed, family-based substance-use prevention program for foster families.
|
|
|
|
This chapter from the Handbook of Political Violence and Children: Psychosocial Effects, Intervention, and Prevention Policy reports on one intervention, the Family Strengthening Intervention (FSI), initially developed and tested in Rwanda to improve communication and parenting in HIV/AIDS-affected families with school-age children.
|
|
|
|
For this article from the journal of Child & Family Social Work, a review of what is currently known about intensive intervention with families where there is risk of a child removal was undertaken to explore the challenges that might arise in New Zealand's bi‐ and multi‐cultural environment.
|
|
Panelists included:
- Cornelius Williams, Associate Director & Global Chief of Child Protection, Programme Division, UNICEF
- Rachel Moussié, Deputy Director, Social Protection Programme, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)
- Dominic Richardson, Chief, Social and Economic Policy, UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti
- Elizabeth Lule, Executive Director, Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN)
|
|
This webinar is the second in a series for the Transforming Children's Care Global Collaborative Platform. In the webinar, Philip Goldman from Maestral International presented new guidance on Public Expenditure and Children’s Care produced by Changing the Way We Care, which is designed to strengthen the capacity of government agencies in low resource settings to prepare a sound budgetary framework. View the Spanish interpretation of the webinar here: Grabación de Seminario de Web: Transforming Children's Care Seminario #2 - Guía en Gasto Público
|
|
|
|
The conversation of this webinar, hosted by the UBS Optimus Foundation, focused on the root causes of why there are millions of children globally growing outside of families, and discussed some of the proven ways of strengthening families and communities to provide a safe and nurturing environment for the world’s most at risk and vulnerable children.
|
|
The Guardian, 29 April 2021
AP News, 21 April 2021
ABC News, 14 April 2021
The Hindu, 7 April 2021
The Hindu, 6 April 2021
NPR, 5 April 2021
The Guardian, 30 March 2021
BBC News, 30 March 2021
|
|
Forbes, 26 March 2021
ABC News, 23 March 2021
BBC News, 19 March 2021
Time, 17 March 2021
The Guardian, 16 March 2021
The Sunday Times, 14 March 2021
BBC News, 14 March 2021
Canadian Press, 10 March 2021
|
|
|
|
Able Child Africa and Save the Children
|
|
|
|
Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO)
|
|
|
|
The International Data Alliance for Children on the Move (IDAC)
|
|
|
|
Transforming Children's Care Global Collaborative Platform
|
|
|
|
Together to #ENDviolence global campaign
|
|
7-11 June 2021
Milan, Italy
|
|
|
|
|
Hope and Homes for Children
|
|
|
|
Global Social Service Workforce Alliance
|
|
|
|
Global Social Service Workforce Alliance
|
|
Newsletter participants, currently 4,445 in total, work on issues related to the care and support of vulnerable children across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. The purpose of the newsletter is to enable members to exchange information on matters of mutual concern. If you would like to share a document, raise a specific issue, request a newsletter subscription, or reach out in any other way to the Network, please send the information to us at contact@bettercarenetwork.org or visit our website at www.bettercarenetwork.org.
Thank you!
|
|
Better Care Network | 521 West 146th St, PO Box 214, New York, NY 10031
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
