Making Pandemic Solutions Permanent Solutions

During the pandemic crisis, solutions need to be found fast and implemented straight away. Suddenly, what usually took months or years, or what was said to be impossible, is decided on within days and implemented. In some cases, this provides a risk factor. There is not the same scrutiny and due diligence, and some of the solutions that are acceptable for a temporary crisis situation are not at all desirable as a permanent solution. This is something we need to be alert to and to make sure is dealt with appropriately when the recovery phase arrives. However, there are also cases where the crisis has allowed the red tape to be swept aside and the measures that have been advocated for years are suddenly implemented without delay. These should be kept in place.

Over the past months, I have been talking to and corresponding with people who work in alternative care and child protection in many different countries in the world. This has allowed me to develop a sense of the problems and dangers that people run into but also of the solutions that are being found. These solutions may come as positive steps forward, or as attempts to mitigate the consequences of things that have happened that are far from ideal.

For example, it is very worrying that in a variety of countries (I have heard descriptions of this happening in Ukraine, Bulgaria, India, Kenya and South Africa) when the lockdown or other restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19 were introduced many thousands of children who were living in institutions were sent home to their families from one moment to the next. This is not a good thing. Although early in the outbreak I did advocate for children being returned to families where possible, I have always stressed that this should only happen where it can be done safely and responsibly. Just shoving children out of the door does not meet those conditions.

However, with the situation as it is and the children already having been returned to their families – without preparation or support – many organisations, and thankfully even some governments, are now trying to make the best of a bad situation by looking at ways of supporting these families and children to try to make sure that they can continue to stay together after the pandemic is over. This is done by providing the families with guidance and training, and by linking them to existing support services. And, like in Kenya, by enrolling the families in a cash transfer scheme set up by the government. So hopefully, although the reunion did not happen as it should, it may still end up being successful.

In Guatemala, work is underway to fast track foster care placements. This does not mean rushing things through, it is important that necessary assessments, planning and preparation is done. Rather, this is about oiling a system that right now is causing unnecessariy delays and hold-ups due to a heavy bureaucratic burden. There are a significant number of foster families that have been assessed and approved in the country, yet right now only about 10% of them have had a child placed. The hope is that the currently unusual circumstances will allow more flexibility and avoiding the unnecessary delays. And that once this system is working more efficiently during the pandemic, it will be allowed to continue as such after the pandemic.

These initiatives give hope that the terrible realities of the pandemic can at least be a driver of change for the better in child protection and alternative care.

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