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Alternative care
Millions of children are living without the loving, nurturing care that allows them to be safe and grow up enjoying their childhood. Many children remain in families unable to offer them adequate care because they are too poor and lack adequate support. Other children end up in poor quality alternative care or on the street.
Save the Children recognizes that residential care can be appropriate for a small minority of children and should be available as a last resort for those children with no other options. In those contexts, regulated, safe institutions that meet agreed-upon standards can save children's lives and give them opportunities to learn and develop that they would not otherwise have. However, scientific evidence suggests that institutional care can cause significant harm to children's physical, intellectual and emotional development, with children under the age of three being particularly at risk.
Save the Children supports the development of family-based alternative care options in children's own communities for those children who cannot be with their parents. These options include foster care, kinship care and domestic adoption. The organization supports the transition away from existing institutional care services while at the same time ensuring minimum standards during the remaining time institutions provide care for children.
There is also growing international, regional and country level action towards tackling both care and protection issues via strengthening national child protection systems and reforming the care system within the broader framework.
Photo: Chloe White/Save the Children
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For the Benefit of Children Alone? A discourse analysis of policymaking relating to children's institutions in Indonesia, 1999-2009
This doctoral thesis, written by Brian Keith Babington, utilizes a discourse analysis methodology to explore Indonesia’s policy change of the institutionalization of children – children who live in orphanages or other residential institutions. One goal of
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Tallinn Recommendations and Action Plan on Alternative Care and Family Support for the Baltic Sea Region 2015-2020
Government representatives, experts and professionals from the Baltic Sea Region including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, Sweden and wider Europe endorsed the Tallinn Recommendations
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Family Support and Alternative Care: Tallinn Expert Meeting Report 2015
In May 2015, a high-level expert meeting on alternative care and family support took place in Tallinn, hosted by the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs and the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) in collaboration with the E
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Institutional Care: The Last Resort (Policy Brief, 2014)
There are at least 2 million vulnerable children worldwide living in poor quality institutional care that is harmful to their physical, social and intellectual development, especially for those children who are under the age of three. A 2009 longitudinal
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Alternative Care: An Animated Film
This is Suman's story. His mother sends him to a child care home due to difficult circumstances at home but was that the best option for him? Studies have shown that children grow best physically, socially and intellectually when they live with their ow
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Child Protection Issue Brief: Alternative Care
This Issue Brief addresses Alternative Care and the relating key concepts of: unaccompanied children, separated children, caregivers, family tracing and reunification, and child-headed households. The UN Refugee Agency is in a unique position to emphasize
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Youth-Friendly Version of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children
This document is a youth-friendly version of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children and was developed by members of the I Matter International Youth Council from SOS Children’s Villages International. It intentionally avoids using the legal t
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The Child's Right to Quality Care: Review of the implementation of the United Nations guidelines for the alternative care of children in Western Balkan countries
This review of the Implementation of the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in the Western Balkan Countries provides information on the capacities and efforts of the Republic of Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina in
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Framework for the Future: Ending poverty in a generation
2015 is the year that governments are expected to agree a new global framework of concrete goals and targets to take the legacy of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) forward, and bring the commitments that were made at the United Nations Conference o
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Interagency Working Group on Unaccompanied and Separated Children (2013) Alternative Care in Emergencies Toolkit
A practical interagency resource designed to facilitate alternative care for children during and after an emergency. The Alternative Care in Emergencies (ACE) Toolkit is designed to facilitate interagency planning and implementation of alternative care an
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Speaking freely: Children and young people in Europe speak about ending violence against children in custody. Research report
Children in custody, like all children, have the right to be free from all forms of violence.This report sets out the findings of research conducted by young investigators in Austria, Cyprus, England, the Netherlands and Romania with children and young pe
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Alternative care in Laos: An exploratory study with children and caregivers
An exploratory study undertaken by Save the Children in 2013 on Alternative Care in Laos, in partnership with McGill University (Canada) and the National University of Laos. This report summarizes the findings of a study on parental and alternative childc