Journey of Transition Toolkit

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Assessing the Context for Transition

Transitioning away from residential care requires a solid understanding of the standards, policies, systems, and services that will shape family care in a specific context. Understanding international guidelines and standards enables an organization to align its approach with evidence-based best practice. Knowing a country’s child protection system and policies enables compliance with national law and provides a better understanding of the role that the government may play in supporting the transition process. An assessment of the local context allows the organization to understand the unique factors that have contributed to family separation and identifies potential partners whose contributions and services can support and strengthen family care for children.

Understanding International Standards

International standards, based on a large body of global evidence, recognize that every child has a right to family. These standards guide many countries’ national policies and provide a framework for supporting family-based care. The two most significant sets of standards—the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, and the 2019 UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution on the Rights of the Child—offer core principles for the care and protection of children and place limits on the use of residential care.

International Standards Summary Includes a complete list of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Guidelines for Alternative Care of Children, and other key international conventions. (Faith to Action)

Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child Provides a detailed reference for the implementation of law, policy, and practice to promote and protect the rights of children. (UNICEF)

Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children: A United Nations Framework Provides policy and practice guidance with specific regard to the protection and well-being of children deprived of parental care or who are at risk of being so. (SOS Children’s Villages International and International Social’s Service)

Moving Forward: Implementing the ‘Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children’ Supports implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children by making strong connections between national policy, practice, and the Guidelines themselves. It includes policy and “promising practice” examples and provides signposts to additional resources. (Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection)

2019 UNGA Resolution on the Rights of the Child Summarizes and links to the process, meaning, and final documents from the 2019 UNGA Resolution on the Rights of the Child, including key recommendations developed by a broad coalition of organizations.

Understanding National Policies

A child protection system is the comprehensive set of laws, policies, procedures, and practices designed to ensure the care and protection of children, through both preventive measures and effective responses to allegations of child abuse, neglect, and exploitation. In many countries a child protection system exists and provides services in conjunction with health, education, and social services. Understanding a country’s child protection system, and working in partnership with the government whenever possible, are vital to ensuring legal compliance and also help identify any government services or resources that can be utilized in the transition process. Country-level data and information about child protection policies are typically obtainable from government entities, although availability varies from one country to the next.

It is important to understand the national context because in many places there is an implementation gap in services at the local level that is often filled by nongovernmental and community-based organizations.

Better Care Network Search for national policies, research, and data by Region/Country.

National Care System Assessment Toolkit Considers national policies and guidelines, the social service workforce, services and service delivery, monitoring and evaluation, social norms, and financing across the spectrum of prevention and alternative family-based care options. It can be adapted and contextualized for country contexts. The tools are intended to be used in a participatory, consensus-building way through meetings and workshops, which can also be done virtually. (Changing the Way We Care)

Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment Toolkit Users’ Guide Provides a practical and user-friendly method to mapping child protection systems, and to examine the scope and capacity of the existing child protection system (ranging from formal to informal), accountability mechanisms, and resource mobilization approaches. (UNICEF).

Measuring the Strength of National Social Service Systems for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Guides the measurement of the performance and gaps in national social service systems for orphaned and vulnerable children. (Measure Evaluation)

Assessing the Local Context

Successfully transitioning children from residential care into families and communities requires mapping and assessing the community-level assets and risks faced by children, the specific causes of family separation, and the services already in place that will help meet children’s needs, strengthen families, and support family care within the local community. A thorough assessment helps an organization develop its vision and plan to address gaps in the provision of family-strengthening services, while building key community partnerships (e.g., with local leaders, churches, and community-based service providers) that can contribute to a successful transition.

At this stage, community members can work together to begin to identify local assets and strengths that can be utilized and built upon to address the issues impacting the lives of children and families.

Maximizing Your Impact: A Guide for Taking a Systems Approach in the Care and Protection of Children Presents a framework to support orphaned and vulnerable children that maximizes impact focusing on the broader system of care and protection; and provides concrete and simple actions to incorporate an approach that focuses on systems. (Faith to Action Initiative)

Analysis, Design and Planning Tool (ADAPT) for Child Protection Helps with the identification, prioritization, and root cause analysis of child protection issues, and mapping of systems in place to protect children. (World Vision International)

Community Mapping Defines community mapping with an applicable mapping tool. (Christian Alliance for Orphans)

Understanding the Problem Explores root cause analysis as a tool to examine in detail what is causing a problem and identify a solution for the underlying cause. (PATH and JSI)

Guidelines and Programming Options for Protecting Vulnerable Children in Community-based Care and Support Programs: Child Protection Toolkit Manual 2 Includes a section on conducting a child protection analysis to identify threats, violations, gaps, and root causes of child vulnerability such as poverty and health issues. (FHI 360)

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