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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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Family Support and Alternative Care in the Baltic Sea Region: Background paper 2015
In preparation for the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) expert meeting on Family Support and Alternative Care in the Baltic Sea Region, May 2015, this background paper was crafted from relevant data and information on family support and alternative
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Strategies for Delivering Safe and Effective Foster Care: A review of the evidence for those designing and delivering foster care programmes
Research, knowledge, and understanding on how to deliver effective, safe foster care programmes in low and middle income countries is lacking. This report attempts to fill the gap in understanding by providing an analysis of the available literature and i
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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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Compendium of Promising Practices to Ensure that Children under the age of Three Grow up in a Safe and Supportive Family Environment
The total number of children who grow up in formal care in the Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) region is estimated at 1.3 million, of which 650,000 live in residential care. Of these children, some 200,000 h
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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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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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Kinship Care Album: Syrian refugee children in Jordan
This Album on Kinship Care is a compilation of the works of Syrian refugee children in kinship care and their adult caregivers who took part in the participatory action research undertaken by Save the Children and the Information and Research Center – Kin
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Researching the Linkages Between Social Protection and Children’s Care in Rwanda: The VUP and its effects on child wellbeing, care and family reunification
This research investigates the links between the Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP), child well-being, children’s care and family reunification. It is part of a wider study on the linkages between social protection and children’s care in Rwanda, Ghana a
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"Yarankowane" Children Belong to Everyone: Nigeria report on Kinship Care
Children without Appropriate Care (CwAC) is a priority area for Save the Children’s child protection work for the period 2010-2015. In working toward this priority, Save the Children embarked on a multi-country participatory research initiative from 2012-
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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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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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Identifying basic characteristics of formal alternative care settings for children. A discussion paper – March 2013
This discussion paper is the outcome of an initiative launched in July 2010 to contribute to building understanding and promoting discussion about the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children accepted by the UN General Assembly in December 2009. I