SOS Children's Villages has produced this assessment tool to benchmark the implementation of the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. It has been designed as the principal research tool of SOS Children's Villages to support advocacy activities. The tool’s main focus is to measure a state’s obligations under the UNCRC, in providing quality care arrangements for all children who have lost parental care and those families at risk of separation. It looks in depth at the mechanisms to support families and those gate keeping arrangements to ensure that alternative care is only used when absolutely necessary. It also looks at the various range of care options available within a state and questions duty bearers responsibilities in terms of staffing, child protection, financial arrangements and standards of care. Each question in the tool is divided into three areas, the data set, the data source and the commentary around the data. The third area is designed to evoke the child rights violations, the causes behind the data and discussion about possible solutions or recommendations for change.