Last week, in a discussion with global experts on alternative care and care reform, I became increasingly alarmed. The discussion was about the need to have clear definitions and standards to ensure that everyone knows what is meant and expected. I have no argument with that. However, the way the discussion went, implied that once definitions and standards would be agreed upon, this would provide not just a useful framework, but something like a formula or a clear step-by-step guide. With the further implication that if this formula or guide is followed this would automatically lead to good outcomes. That is what I have major issues with.
Continue reading “There Is No Failsafe Formula for Transition”Tag: #communityservices
Looking Back on 2022
The end of 2022 has already arrived. It seems like this year passed particularly fast, somehow. There was certainly no chance of boredom this year. However, unlike the two previous years, it felt more like things were starting to move forward, rather than being held back and stuck in uncertainty.
Continue reading “Looking Back on 2022”The Fourth Year of Family-Based Solutions
And so another year has passed. It is hard to believe it is already four years since I started Family-Based Solutions (Why Family-Based Solutions then). So much has happened and so much keeps changing. While I have never found myself bored before, the past year has been a particularly busy one.
Continue reading “The Fourth Year of Family-Based Solutions”Don’t Let Boarding Schools Replace ‘Orphanages’
As more and more governments start to transition care from institutional to family-based alternative care, and donors increasingly become aware of the harm that institutionalisation causes children, the orphanage industry (running ‘orphanages’ for profit) is falling apart. Removing children from their families, putting them in institutions and calling them orphans was once so profitable, foreign donors and volunteers would be queuing to bring in money. Now, it is becoming harder and harder to convince donors to hand over their money for institutional care. So, people running residential childcare institutions are looking around for other options.
Continue reading “Don’t Let Boarding Schools Replace ‘Orphanages’”UN Day of General Discussion: Children in Alternative Care
Last month, the UN Day of General Discussion took place. Usually, this happens every two years and it was due last year. However, with the pandemic, it got postponed to this year and was held virtually for the very first time. It had been organised by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, and it had been long anticipated by people working in my field. It was considered the next step after the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children.
Continue reading “UN Day of General Discussion: Children in Alternative Care”The Promise of Institutions
I have mentioned it in various ways on various occasions, but I think it is important to lift this point out and look at it closely. The point being that children ending up in institutions is not just about push-factors – such as not having anywhere else to go – there are major pull-factors. If you are not aware of this and do not take it into account, it will not be possible to avoid the unnecessary separation of children from their families or to successfully remove children from institutions.
Continue reading “The Promise of Institutions”Investing in Services and People
The call is often heard that more money needs to be spent on social protection, child protection and universal services like education and healthcare. Very often this is true when compared to spending on defence or tax breaks (or loopholes) for big corporations, the spending on these areas lags behind significantly, which leads both to human suffering and bigger expenses to the public purse down the line. However, in a way it is also misleading.
Continue reading “Investing in Services and People”Community-Based Care
The need for family-based and community-based alternative care has been mentioned often in these blogs. Many decades of research has shown that children do much better when they grow up in a family and as part of a community. However, it is important to understand what community-based care really means because too often there is a misunderstanding about this, with harmful effects on the child.
Continue reading “Community-Based Care”Family Strengthening IS Economic Stimulus
While there was a sense of relief when the EU managed to reach agreement on the Recovery Fund, which is to help EU economies fund economic stimulus to prevent the post-pandemic recession from becoming a bottomless pit, and the next EU long-term budget, there was disappointment too. There had been a lot of hope among people like me who work for child protection and child rights coming up to these talks. This was because there was to be a requirement for EU member states to spend at least 5% of the resources allocated to them from the European Social Fund Plus on addressing child poverty. In the text of the final agreement, this requirement was not mentioned.
Continue reading “Family Strengthening IS Economic Stimulus”Proof That Funding Determines Where Children Go
I have repeatedly written about the ‘orphanage industry’ and how funding and/or volunteering in ‘orphanages’ causes children to be separated from their parents and to end up living in institutions. You can read about that HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE. I have made the following claim many times:
Continue reading “Proof That Funding Determines Where Children Go”