| BCN Newsletter: 27 June 2013 |
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Welcome to the latest edition of the BCN Newsletter!
First of all a big 'thank you' to all of you who have already participated in the Online Survey and contributed to BCN's Strategic Review Process. If you have not yet had a chance to do so, a quick reminder that there is still time! The Survey is open until the 30th June.
It will take no more than 10 minutes and your feedback will be very useful to us.
Just click on: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BQGSNW5
In this edition, we highlight recent research, tools and policy briefs relevant to children's care, including:
- A feature on UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2013 report, which focuses on children with disabilities.
- A Special Focus on Reunification and Reintegration with two new Retrak documents on family reintegration for street connected children with learning from its programs in Ethiopia and Uganda, the first Campbell Systematic Review of interventions to promote reintegration, and an important report from NSPCC highlighting the challenges for children returning home from care in England.
- A great short video from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University on building the capabilities of adult caregivers and strengthening communities to improve outcomes for vulnerable children.
- Policy recommendations from vulnerable children and young people who were consulted by Family for Every Child in 7 countries on their priorities for the post-2015 development framework, with important recommendations on their care.
- Country Care Reviews that focus on children with disabilities, with the first Concluding Observations from the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
And of course, we have the latest news, upcoming events, conferences, webinars and job opportunities! Questions? You can reach us at contact@bettercarenetwork.org. Thank you for your continual subscription and partnership in promoting positive and appropriate alternative care options for children!
All the best,
The BCN Secretariat
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IN A FEW WORDS:
"I do not remember the day I went to the institution. I even forgot some of my memories of being there, and I hope in time I will forget the other ones.
I want new memories, good memories."
Nicolae Poraico, a boy who spent several years in a residential home for children with mental disabilities in the Republic of Moldova and was reunited with his mother in 2010.
From the UNICEF State of the World's Children
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NEW REPORT
State of the World's Children 2013: Children with Disabilities |
In its 2013 State of the World's Children Report, UNICEF has chosen to highlight the particular issues, needs, and circumstances of children with disabilities worldwide. The report describes ways in which responses to the situations faced by children with disabilities often do not grant them the opportunity to flourish and are largely limited to institutionalization, abandonment, or neglect. The report features powerful personal testimonies and recommendations from children with disabilities, parents, and advocates. In the section entitled "Segregation and abuse in institutions", the President and the Executive Director of the NGO Disability Rights International draw attention to the high prevalence of institutionalization among children with disabilities worldwide and the abuses they commonly suffer in these institutions. The authors also point out that the institutionalization of children with disabilities often extends into adulthood. "Millions of children with disabilities are separated from their families and placed in orphanages, boarding schools, psychiatric facilities and social care homes. Children who survive institutions face the prospect of lifetime segregation from society in facilities for adults."
Among the other common problems and injustices experienced by children with disabilities are: discrimination; exclusion from education, health, and other public arenas; and unequal access to resources. In order to combat these issues, UNICEF calls on governments, organizations, and individuals to focus on the full inclusion of these children in all realms of life (i.e. family, community, society, etc.). The report also includes a section on the "Fundamentals of Inclusion" that provides models of inclusive policy and practice, as well as examples of successfully inclusive programs and initiatives. It concludes with an "Agenda for Action," which offers its suggestions for fighting discrimination, dismantling barriers to inclusion, ending institutionalization, supporting families, moving beyond minimum standards, coordinating services to support the child, and involving children in decision-making.
To view the full report, please use the following link:
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FOCUS ON REUNIFICATION AND REINTEGRATION
Evaluating Outcomes: Retrak's Use of the Child Status Index to Measure Wellbeing of Street-Connected Children |
Retrak is a UK-based organization that works with street children in Africa. This report offers an evaluation of the impact of Retrak's programs in Ethiopia and Uganda in its pilot period (2011 and 2012) and the progress of the children involved in the programs, using the Child Status Index (CSI) as a measurement of child wellbeing and a tool for tracking children's progress as they transition from the street to family homes. The CSI was developed by Measure Evaluation and is comprised of a system of indicators that assess the multidimensional wellbeing of the individual child across six areas of measurement (food and nutrition, shelter and care, protection, health, psychosocial, and education and skills). The report discusses the methodology used, the findings of the CSI assessments in both Ethiopia and Uganda, and concludes with recommendations for reintegration programming.
The CSI assessments were conducted with cohorts of street children who access Retrak's drop-in centers, at the point of reintegration with their families, and again during intervals of follow-up with the children and their families. The findings of the study indicate that children who have worked with Retrak do see an improvement in their wellbeing across all six areas. However, there were limitations in improvement in certain areas, including education, and wellbeing was impacted by certain factors, including the age of the child, how long he or she had spent on the street, and educational attainment. The report concludes with recommendations for national and international policy as well as reintegration programming, including an emphasis on reintegration over institutionalization, development of strong outreach methods, the importance of assisting children to re-enter formal education, and the role of counseling and psychosocial support to ensure that every child has a solid foundation on which to build a strong attachment with a capable care giver. Finally, the recommendations underline the importance of conducting thorough and accurate monitoring and impact assessments, and the authors encourage other practitioners working with street connected children to use the CSI, both for case management purposes and for monitoring changes in children's wellbeing on the streets and during the reintegration process.
To read the full report, please visit:
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Retrak Standard Operating Procedures: Family Reintegration
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Retrak has also recently published an excellent practical manual detailing its standard operating procedures (SOPs) for family reintegration. Retrak's aim is to successfully return street children to safe homes in families and communities, where each child feels a sense of belonging through a secure attachment to caring adults. It bases its work and approach on the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children and the SOPs highlight in concrete ways how the principles contained in the Guidelines relate to each step and procedure. The SOPs cover the guiding principles of family reintegration, key steps, tools, and monitoring and evaluation procedures, as well as variations on the key steps of family reintegration for working with children and families in varying circumstances.
The SOPs emphasize that reintegration programs must be based on the guiding principles that family reintegration is the first priority, interventions should be child-centered and based on an individual determination of the child's best interest, (re)building positive attachments between children and their families is essential, and the wider community must be involved to ensure greater support for children and their families. The importance of follow up and care giver support is also underlined. The key steps and decisions involved in enabling a child and family to be reintegrated include: (1) child assessment and preparation, (2) family contact and assessment, (3) placement, (4) follow-up and family support, and (5) phase out, as well as a step for removing a child from the care of his or her family should it become necessary. The timeframe and procedures for the key steps are specific to each child and recognize that family reintegration is not viable, other appropriate alternative care options should be sought, such as foster care. In order to assist social workers in this decision-making process, Retrak has developed a toolkit to accompany its SOPs. This toolkit comprises a series of forms that begin with a clear aim and end with a decision about future care. The forms include key questions to be asked, factors to be considered and opportunities to involve children and care-givers. Training curricula for social workers and other staff using the SOPs is also available from Retrak for a fee.
To read the full report and for more information about other material by Retrak, please visit:
http://bettercarenetwork.org/BCN/details.asp?id=31268&themeID=1004&topicID=1027
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A Systematic Review of Interventions for Promoting Reintegration and Reducing Harmful Behavior and Lifestyles in Street-Connected Children
and Young People |
This systematic review, co-registered with both the Cochrane and Campbell Collaborations, summarizes the evidence from studies that have used an experimental or quasi-experimental research design to compare the effectiveness of interventions to promote inclusion and reintegration, and to reduce harm in street-connected children and young people (0 to 24 years old). The review includes 11 studies, evaluating 12 interventions from high income countries, a majority from the United States. No studies from middle and low income countries were included due to a lack of sufficiently robust evaluations, raising questions about the generalizability of the findings. The review compares therapy-based services with traditional shelter and drop-in services and includes: an overview of the condition of street-connected children and the interventions utilized with this population, a description of the methodology used in the review and its incorporated studies, the authors' findings from the review, a discussion of the results, and the authors' conclusions along with recommendations for future research.
Worth noting, the review found that none of the studies had measured the impact of these interventions on the primary desired outcomes, such as reintegration. Instead only a limited number of secondary outcomes were targeted by the studies, particularly the impact on certain forms of risky behaviors. Overall, the review found no significant difference in relation to these outcomes between participants receiving therapy based interventions and those receiving standard shelter or drop-in services. Instead, the data appears to support the conclusion that services need not be highly specialized or technical in order to foster some degree of positive change among street-connected children and youth recruited through shelters or drop-ins. The authors suggest that there is a great need for more research and thorough evaluation of interventions for street-connected children, especially in middle and low income countries where there are fewer adequate studies and where contexts for street-connected youth differ markedly from those of street children in high income countries.
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Returning Home from Care:
What's Best for Children |
This report, published by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the UK, highlights the need to improve outcomes for children leaving care and returning to parents or relatives. Over 90,000 children were 'looked after' in the formal care system in England at some point during 2011, a majority as a result of abuse or neglect.* Although the most common outcome for children leaving care is to return home to a parent or relative, research has also shown that around half of children who come into care because of abuse or neglect in the UK suffer further abuse if they return home, with up to half of those returning to care. At the beginning of 2012, the NSPCC interviewed social workers and senior managers and consulted over 200 children and young people in care to better understand the problems associated with children returning home from care, and the action that needs to be taken to improve care for children. This report offers current data on children leaving care, interviews with social workers and senior managers working in the field of child welfare in the UK, and specific recommendations for both addressing the problems of reunification and developing a new approach to practice.
Disturbingly, research quoted in the report found that a child's return home from care had only been planned in 40% of cases. In addition, 48% of the children and young people interviewed by the NSPCC said they were not consulted at all about their views on returning home. Over 70% of children consulted said they were not ready to return home. The NSPCC urges policymakers and practitioners to engage in work to improve the quality of assessment, planning, and preparation regarding when and if a child should be returned home and to increase the support for children and their families once they return to their families. Among its recommendations for reunification, the NSPCC suggests improving assessments; increasing collaboration amongst agencies, government, and local authorities; the standardization of best practices; and honoring children's views and best interests in decision-making. The report concludes with a suggested framework for assessment, decision-making, planning and preparation, and continued communication with children and parents.
* The number of children in the formal care system in England quoted in this report includes short-term placements in care. The number of 'looked after children' in England, excluding short-term placements, is 65,520 for the same period. The vast majority of these children are in foster placements (in England in 2011, 74% of children in care were in foster placements with only 10% in some form of residential facility.)
To view the full report, please visit:
http://bettercarenetwork.org/BCN/details.asp?id=31239&themeID=1004&topicID=1029
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NEW VIDEO
Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes: A Theory of Change |
This 5-minute animated video by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University depicts a theory of change from the Frontiers of Innovation community for achieving breakthrough outcomes for vulnerable children and families. It describes the need to focus on building the capabilities of caregivers and strengthening the communities that together form the environment of relationships essential to children's lifelong learning, health, and behavior. As stated by Jack Shonkoff from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, who narrates the video, "We need to focus on the development of the adults who are important in kids' lives".
Launched in May 2011, Frontiers of Innovation (FOI) focuses on the work of a community of more than 400 researchers, practitioners, policymakers, philanthropists, and experts in systems change from across North America. The goal of FOI is to bring about substantially greater positive impacts for vulnerable young children whose needs (or the needs of their caregivers) are not being fully met by existing policies and programs. FOI's work draws on science, including advances in the biological, behavioral, and social sciences, to:
- identify reasons why children's development stays on track or goes off course;
- devise theories of change about how to produce better outcomes; and
- design and test new intervention approaches and measure their effectiveness in reducing barriers to learning and strengthening lifelong physical and mental health.
To view the video and to find out more about Frontiers of Innovation, please visit: http://bettercarenetwork.org/BCN/details.asp?id=31248&themeID=1000&topicID=1000
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POLICY
My World, My Vision: Consultations with children on their priorities for the post 2015 framework |
The Millennium Development Goals will come to an end in 2015 and discussions are currently taking place on what framework will replace them. Children's participation is crucial to these discussions. Between July 2012 and March 2013, members of Family for Every Child consulted with children living in seven different countries. This report summarizes the main findings that emerged from these consultations and incorporates the views of almost 600 children between the ages of 8 and 17 in Brazil, Ghana, Guyana, India, Kenya, Malawi and Russia. These consultations involved highly vulnerable groups of children, who are commonly marginalized and excluded from policy debates. This included children in a range of living arrangements, such as: extended family care, formal foster care, residential care (short-term shelters for children removed from forced labour or the streets as well as special residential care facilities for those with disabilities), child-only households, on the streets, with employers or previously with employers, and in detention.
The children made recommendations on 7 main themes, including wanting to be safe and protected in families and to live free from violence in homes, schools, workplaces and communities. They underlined the importance of governments and others working with families and communities to better understand the needs of children so they can be cared for in supportive and loving homes. Doing so, they argued, would reduce the numbers of children living in institutional care, on the street, in detention and in other environments that are inappropriate for children.
To view the full report, please visit:
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COUNTRY CARE REVIEWS
Care Related Concluding Observations by the
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities |
In this issue, we take a short break from the Committee on the Rights of the Child and, continuing this edition's focus on children with disabilities, we take a look at the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Convention was adopted on 13 December 2006 and it came into force on 3 May 2008. It has been ratified by 132 countries to date.
A number of provisions of the Convention are especially relevant to children's care. In particular, Article 23 on 'Respect for home and the family', stipulates that:
- States who are party to the Convention must ensure that children with disabilities have equal rights with respect to family life and that early and comprehensive information, services and support to children with disabilities and their families should be established to prevent concealment, abandonment, neglect and segregation of children with disabilities.
- In no case should a child be separated from parents on the basis of a disability of either the child or one or both of the parents.
- Where the immediate family is unable to care for a child with disabilities, States Parties must undertake every effort to provide alternative care within the wider family, and failing that, within the community in a family setting .
- States Parties must also render appropriate assistance to persons with disabilities in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities.
The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has begun reviewing State Parties' initial reports during its 5th through 8th Sessions, held from April 2011 to September 2012. We highlight here the care related sections of the Concluding Observations adopted so far by the Committee during those sessions.
To access the Concluding Observations on Argentina, please visit:
To access the Concluding Observations on China, please visit:
To access the Concluding Observations on Hungary, please visit:
http://www.crin.org/BCN/details.asp?id=31108&themeID=1004&topicID=1028
To access the Concluding Observations on Peru, please visit:
http://www.crin.org/BCN/details.asp?id=31109&themeID=1004&topicID=1028
To access the Concluding Observations on Spain, please visit:
http://www.crin.org/BCN/details.asp?id=31110&themeID=1004&topicID=1028
To access the Concluding Observations on Tunisia, please visit:
http://www.crin.org/BCN/details.asp?id=31111&themeID=1004&topicID=1028
For more information about the Convention and the work of the Committee, please visit:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRPD/Pages/CRPDIndex.aspx
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IN THE MEDIA
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Vietnam: Caring for Vietnam's 'invisible' disabled children, New Straits Times, 30 May 2013.
Vietnam has some of the highest rates of child disability in the world, attributed to the nation's legacy of decades of war, and particularly to the country's exposure to the defoliant "Agent Orange" used in warfare. The article states that up to three million Vietnamese people were exposed to dioxin in Agent Orange, and that one million suffer grave health repercussions today, including at least 150,000 children born with birth defects.
Many Vietnamese families feel they are unable to provide the necessary care to their children with disabilities, and as a result, Vietnam has roughly 20,000 children in institutional care, over half of whom are disabled. Families in Vietnam currently receive minimal support to help them to care for their children with disabilities. The Vietnamese government has publicly committed to action to help the country's disabled population and has signed, but not ratified, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It is also looking at piloting cash benefits to support families with disabled children next year, according to the article.
To read the full article, please visit: http://www.crin.org/BCN/details_news.asp?ID=31163&themeID=1004&topicID=1028
Korea: Adoptees help to change adoption culture in Korea, The Korea Herald, 28 May 2013
Since 1953, almost 200,000 Korean children have been sent to 14 Western countries through inter-country adoption. According to this article, of the thousands of adoptees and families that attempt to reunite every year, less than 3 percent are successful, as documents have often been lost or falsified by adoption agencies, hindering these reunions. Many of these adoptees have joined forces with unwed mothers' groups, lawmakers and special interest lawyers, calling for changes to the system to better safeguard the rights of the children involved and protect unwed mothers from being pressured to give up their children.
The adoption structure in Korea has long been plagued with complaints that false documents have been used to send children abroad for adoption, that unwed mothers have been pressured to give up their children, and that birth parents have been encouraged to think of inter-country adoption as a "study abroad" opportunity rather than a permanent separation. According to data from the Ministry of Welfare, 90 percent of adoptees in 2012 came from single mothers. In August 2011 amendments to the Special Adoption Law were passed and went into effect a year later. These amendments, along with Korea's recent announcement that it was to join the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, are seen as a step forward in improving adoption policy for adoptees and their advocates. If properly implemented, the amendments will push adoption agencies to be more transparent in their proceedings and place more emphasis on the child and birth family's rights. According to the article, adoptee rights groups say they are in an ongoing battle with adoption agencies and related groups pushing to overturn these amendments just nine months after they went into effect.
To read the full article, please visit: http://www.crin.org/BCN/details_news.asp?ID=31167&themeID=1002&topicID=1014
Linked to the above article, a recent op-ed piece in the Korea Times entitled 'Signing Hague Convention: Implication and challenges for Korea,' authored by Jane Jeong Trenka (an author and president of the Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea) and David Smolin (director of the Center for Children, Law, and Ethics in the U.S.), offers the authors' views on why Korea's recent signing of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, and its ultimate ratification and implementation, would improve the child welfare situation.
While signing the Hague Convention is a positive step for Korea, according to the authors, ratifying the Convention will lead to changes and improvements in the current Korean adoption system only if it is properly implemented. Furthermore, the Convention does not offer any redress for adoptees and their birth families and there is currently no national system of redress. Additionally, there is no effective international investigatory or enforcement mechanism regarding the Hague Convention. Therefore, the authors urge the Korean government to sincerely seek to fulfill the spirit of the Hague Convention to ensure that the Korean adoption system is adequately improved upon.
To read the full article, please visit: http://www.crin.org/BCN/details_news.asp?ID=31166&themeID=1002&topicID=1014
USA: Filling up an Empty Nest, The New York Times, May 14, 2013
This article brings to light a new trend in U.S. adoption, older adults who choose to adopt children, particularly older children and adolescents. According to the president and chief executive of the advocacy group National Council for Adoption, age barriers formerly set by adoption groups have steadily fallen over the past 20 years and adoption-related agencies claim that they have seen heightened interest in adoption among older adults. This trend may be part of a larger paradigm shift in the common views on what constitutes an appropriate adoptive family, especially as more single individuals and same-sex couples are choosing to adopt children in the United States as well. This also reflects a recognition, that "children do far better in families than in institutional or temporary care," according to the executive director of the Donaldson Adoption Institute, a nonprofit research group, and author of "Adoption Nation."
What is especially noteworthy is that older adults are choosing to adopt older children, some as old as 21. In 2011, there were 104,000 children waiting to be adopted in the United States and over half of those were over the age of 6, indicating that many children who are waiting to be adopted are older children. The article discusses the question of the suitability of older adults to become adoptive parents and tells the story of a couple aged 60 and 76 years old, who each have three adult children of their own and are now the adoptive parents of 12 children ages 8 to 19.
To read the full article, please visit: http://www.crin.org/BCN/details_news.asp?ID=31165&themeID=1002&topicID=1014
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EVENTS |
The 'Opening Doors for Europe's Children' campaign launched in Brussels at the European Parliament
The 'Opening Doors for Europe's Children' campaign led by Eurochild and Hope and Homes for Children was launched on 6 June, 2013 at the European Parliament in Brussels. The campaign seeks to achieve significant progress in policy, legislation and funding at EU and national levels to dismantle institutional care systems and ensure that children are no longer separated from their parents as a consequence of poverty and social exclusion. The campaign is being implemented at EU and national levels, in partnership with organisations from 12 European Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.
The briefing for the campaign underlines that the new EU budget 2014-2020 and the European Commission Recommendation 'Investing in children, breaking the cycle of disadvantage' create a unique momentum to eventually eradicate institutional care for children across Europe. Structural funds and EU accession funds can inject necessary funds to support systemic reforms that will transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and families across Europe.
To read the full press briefing, please visit:
First draft of outcome document from High-Level Meeting on Disability and Development released ahead of negotations
On 23 September 2013, the United Nations General Assembly will convene a High-level Meeting on Disability and Development at the level of Heads of State and Government, with the overarching theme "The way forward: a disability inclusive development agenda towards 2015 and beyond." The High-level Meeting will result in an action-oriented outcome document in support of the aims of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). On June 14, 2013, the General Assembly submitted a report in advance of its sixty-eighth session as a contribution to the High-level Meeting. The report reviews good practices and existing approaches to disability-inclusive development and concludes by recommending steps to include disability as an integral part of all development efforts, with a view to contributing to an action-oriented outcome document of the upcoming High-level Meeting.
For information on the High-Level Meeting, and its official documents, please use the following link:
http://bettercarenetwork.org/BCN/details_news.asp?ID=31211&themeID=1004&topicID=1028
The 5th annual International Social Service-USA Conference
On Friday November 22, 2013 the USA Branch of International Social Service will host a conference on developing child-centered practice in law, social work, and policy for cross-border families. The conference will be held at the SMC Campus Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA. Further information will be available in July.
For more information on the conference, please visit the ISS-USA homepage by using the following link:
http://www.iss-usa.org/
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GENERAL INFORMATION
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The newsletter participants, currently 3,293 in total, are working on issues related to the care and support of vulnerable children across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. The purpose of the newsletter is to enable members to exchange information on matters of mutual concern. If you would like to share a document, raise a specific issue, or reach out in any other way to the Network, please send the information to us at contact@bettercarenetwork.org. In the interest of keeping messages consolidated, we will manage announcements on the newsletter and send out a few messages each month.
We would like to involve as many people as possible who are concerned with better care issues in the Network. Please advise anyone who would like to be added to the newsletter to send us a message at contact@bettercarenetwork.org with"newsletter request" in the subject line. Alternatively, visit the homepage of the Better Care Network website at http://www.bettercarenetwork.org and click on the upper right box where it says, "click here to sign up for our email announcements." Thank you.
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