Resources Database

Financing quality social services will require increased public investment and greater mobilization of both domestic and international resources in the post-COVID era. Currently, low- and middle-income countries invest, on average, just one third of their total government expenditure in social spending on education, health and social protection. However, the fiscal space to enhance social spending remains constrained in many parts of the world. Given the scale of the challenge facing many countries, a renewed focus on financing social spending is needed to address widening inequalities.

Social protection is increasingly being used in Eastern and Southern Africa to address economic and social vulnerability.Many governments in the region are also engaged in care reform to prevent family separation, support families to care for children well and provide quality alternative care.There are many overlaps in the goals, interventions and target groups of care reform and social protection programmes. The same frontline workers are also often engaged in these two streams of work.

This Learning Channel has been developed to highlight those Child Protection courses most closely aligned to different components of UNICEF’s Child Protection Strategy 2021-2030. This list of courses is meant to support the learning and capacity development of our Child Protection workforce, as well as that of our partners.

This article explores Munther Amira’s ‘Pedagogy of Revolution’, a unique approach of non-violent resistance that adopts the pedagogy of Paulo Freire and global social work values and principles, for educating, empowering and mobilising Palestinian refugees living in the Westbank, as a means for liberation from the oppression imposed by Israel’s military occupation. The article begins by charting the history of Palestine, locating it as a place of violent upheaval and colonial occupation.

The purpose of this practice guidance is to improve understanding and practice in relation to working with trauma experienced by children who live in alternative care settings. It primarily focuses on those who care for or work with children directly, but it also speaks to the wider range of professionals e.g. managers, budget holders, policymakers etc., whose roles shape and govern how children experience care in their daily lives.

Sets out the Government of Scotland's vision for the health and social care workforce. The strategy is primarily aimed at the Health and Social Care employers across the statutory, third and independent sectors. It provides an overarching framework of activity at a national level, in turn supporting local partners and partnerships to continue to plan and deliver the workforce needed to provide excellent services that promote better population and public health outcomes.

The Guidance Document was developed to support organisations taking part in the Organisational Development workshops for the project. 

Through the workshops, we aim to establish a trauma-informed culture in organisations that care for and support children and young adults in alternative care.

In this summary report, the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) presents the findings of its 2021 annual survey providing an insight into the state of the profession, the views of social workers and student social workers on key topics and the ongoing impact of working during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. The survey was launched in December 2021 as a place for social workers to reflect on their profession and their experiences in the preceding twelve months.

Professional Social Work Response to COVID-19 Affected Families in India: Facilitating Services and Building Awareness during the Second Wave, is the outcome of a nationwide online survey carried out between July and September 2021 to capture the professional social work’s response to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

Increasing migration and a high number of refugees and forcibly displaced people cause an accelerated spread of a large diversity of cultures throughout the world. This results in a more diverse group of young people within alternative care settings and a large new target group, namely unaccompanied children. This evolution brings several challenges. Social workers come into contact with target groups of which they have little knowledge. Cultural barriers are experienced, which can jeopardize the quality of care. This puts care workers in an uncertain position.

Accurate data on the extent to which residential homes for children in Ghana are in compliance with national standards for quality of care and case management are lacking. To begin to address this gap, a census of residential homes and an enumeration of the child population were undertaken in 2019, followed by a survey on a representative sample of children living in such homes. Data were gathered on the types and characteristics of all 139 residential homes operating in the country at the time and the demographic profiles and well-being of children living in such facilities.

The NCWWI Communications Guide helps child welfare programs’ initiate or improve their existing communications strategies to build public support, strengthen the workforce, improve partnerships, increase community collaboration, and enhance perceptions. Communication strategies support sustainable systemic change in service of equitable and just outcomes for children, youth, and families. The Guide illustrates:

Today, more than ever, volunteers are on the frontlines of protecting children in their communities. Volunteers work tirelessly in complex humanitarian contexts and often face emotional and physical risks, with little recognition for their efforts.

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action's CPHA Frontliner Getting Started Learning Package has been designed to rapidly onboard new team members in the wake of a new emergency or crisis and aims to ensure that frontline workers are introduced to the minimum competencies to work in a safe, effective, accountable, and professional way with children, families, and communities. The learning package has been designed to be delivered in modules through both face-to-face and remote facilitation.

The global care crisis is being exacerbated by the global climate emergency, with interlocking impacts that threaten lives and livelihoods in all parts of the world. These impacts are particularly severe in resource-based economies and make everyday life difficult for people living with scarce resources and low incomes in rural areas of the global South. Climate change intensifies the work involved in caring for people, animals, plants, and places.

This is the first comprehensive book that provides accessible, international knowledge for practitioners, students and academics about social work in health emergencies and spans fields of practice across world regions with particular reference to the COVID-19 pandemic. 　

Ensuring child welfare worker safety is a complex concern. Doing so encompasses not only taking measures to prevent the threat or reality of physical violence, but also promoting psychological and emotional safety, as well as resilience, within the workplace. In order to create a culture and climate that promote child welfare worker safety, agencies need to address all of the parameters of child welfare worker safety in their policies and practices.

The importance of mainstreaming gender into social protection policies and programmes is increasingly recognized. However, evidence on the extent to which this is actually happening remains limited. This report contributes to filling this evidence gap by drawing on the findings of two complementary research projects undertaken by UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti and UN Women in 2019.

The number of international migrants under 18 is rising, accelerated by complex and fast-evolving economic, demographic, security and environmental drivers. Based on interviews carried out with 1,290 migrant children and young people in Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, this report helps address the evidence gap on children and young people migrating in the Horn of Africa by providing a better understanding of their protective environments; their access to services and resources; and their perceptions of safety, well-being and trust in authorities and other providers.

În 2021, Changing the Way We Care a lansat o analiză situațională a sistemului de îngrijire a copilului în Republica Moldova. Rezultatul acestei analize sunt 8 rapoarte bazate pe cercetări ample ale partenerilor CTWWC: Copil, Comunitate, Familie (CCF) Moldova, Keystone Human Services International, Moldova și Parteneriate pentru fiecare copil (P4EC). Aceste rapoarte oferă o imagine de ansamblu a situației copiilor vulnerabili și a familiilor acestora din Moldova, atât în contextul dezinstituționalizării, cât și al prevenirii plasării în instituții rezidențiale.