Enabling Reform: Why supporting children with disabilities must be at the heart of successful child care reform

The Better Care Network and EveryChild present the latest paper in the Better Care Network working paper series. This paper focuses on children with disabilities and urges reform efforts and implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children to be inclusive of children with disabilities. It demonstrates the urgent need to place disability at the heart of the child care reform agenda. Millions of children with disabilities around the world continue to be placed in harmful forms of institutional care, and such care has been clearly shown to damage child development and to enhance the isolation, vulnerability to abuse, and, in some cases, disabling conditions of children with disabilities. The paper provides a clear agenda for action for reversing the neglect of childhood disability in child care reform and points towards several key policy recommendations including: (1) Developing a united front between disabled people’s organisations and those campaigning on alternative care; 2) Challenge governments and lobby NGOs, faith-based organisations and others to devote resources to community-based alternatives; 3) Encourage governments and donors to devote more resources to strengthen systems to support families caring for children with disabilities; 5) Provide detailed guidance to foster care and adoption service providers ; and 6) Increase the visibility and understanding of disability issues in children’s care and protection