Guidance for Alternative Care Provision during COVID-19

COVID-19 poses specific challenges and risks to children with regards to appropriate care both at the policy or system level and in work with individual children. This includes the potential temporary need for alternative care when caregivers become ill or die, the availability of placements including at borders or while children are in transit, the increased risks in residential care settings, and the strain on existing child protection and child welfare services.

This document provides practical guidance to actors in humanitarian and development contexts on the adaptations and considerations needed to support children who are either currently in alternative care or are going into an alternative care placement during the COVID-19 pandemic. It expands in the Interagency Technical Note on Children in Alternative Care Immediate Response Measures by providing more detailed “how-to” guidance for the medium and long-term response to COVID-19. It should be read alongside the Technical Note: Adaptation of Child Protection Case Management to the COVID-19 Pandemic