Poor child protection leaves millions at risk of family separation, says study

Millions of children across the globe are at risk of being “unnecessarily” separated from their families because of poor child protection systems, a groundbreaking new report has revealed.

The study – commissioned by SOS Children’s Villages, an NGO focused on children and young people without parental care – is one of the first of its kind to investigate the complex forces driving child-family separation globally and how it can be prevented.

“Inadequate care for children and young people has long-lasting – even intergenerational – physical and mental effects,” said Dereje Wordofa, President of SOS Children’s Villages International.

“Yet millions of children are separated from their families against their best interests and denied the family bonds they need to thrive.”

Research has shown that separation of children from their families and communities can have harmful and irreversible impacts on child development, increasing the risk of exploitation by armed groups or criminals.

As of 2020, more than 330 million children worldwide were estimated to live in or near conflicts where armed groups recruited and used children.

“We always talk about decisions being made in the best interest of the child, but very often, we’re finding that is not the case,” said Chrissie Gale, lead international researcher of the study.

A team of experts conducted research through workshops across eight countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Denmark, El Salvador, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, El Salvador, Lebanon, Indonesia and Uruguay.

The researchers spoke to more than 500 children and young people. This included children aged between 13 to 15 living with their families in difficult situations and receiving governmental services, as well as young people who had left alternative care and returned to live in the community.

The report comes 35 years after the legally binding UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which is endorsed by all UN member states except for the United States.

The convention affirmed that families play a vital role in a child’s upbringing, and that separation from family should occur only as a last resort.

However, globally an estimated 220 million children, or one in 10 children, live without parental care or are at risk of losing it.

In Africa alone, 35 million children were believed to be living without parental care in 2020.

Dereje Wordofa, President of SOS Children’s Villages International, said the report showed that there is “no single cause of child-family separation, but a lack of institutional support for families is allowing children to slip through the cracks.”

‘There is a lot of incest’

Violence – in the family and throughout society – was highlighted as a particularly strong factor increasing the risk of children growing up without parental care.

Of the nearly 230 professionals who responded to the survey, more than 40 per cent believed children were often placed in alternative care because of physical abuse of a child.

The data indicated high levels of physical and sexual violence against children from all countries except Denmark.

In Kenya, one professional reported that “the abuse is mostly done by those that are known to the children and family members … there is a lot of incest.”

One professional in Denmark highlighted that violence was experienced as “emotional, but also physical abuse.”

“Lack of emotional connection in the relation between the child and the parent [and] lack of the parents’ ability to know what the child is in need of,” they said.

A “significant number” of the survey respondents across the eight countries drew direct parallels between the stress caused by poverty, with many reporting that insufficient money for basic commodities was “often” a reason that children were placed into alternative care.

In Cote d’Ivoire, one professional said that around 80 per cent of children were placed in residential institutions because of poverty.

The report found that in some countries, children are put in alternative care solely to counter the effects of poverty – such as a means to access education, healthcare, or basic needs such as food or clothing – rather than as a form of protection.

In Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan, for example, one or both parents often migrate within or outside the country to find better opportunities as a result of poverty.

The researchers found that social carers weren’t always equipped to make decisions “in the best interest of children,” with constraints on time and resources sometimes making it more “convenient” for decision-makers to place a child in alternative care, than support them within their own family.

“It will always be easier and quicker to place a child in a residential institution,” said Ms Gale. “It’s a quick and easy decision for a social worker who’s highly pressured, rather than thinking about the child and looking at the child’s best interest.”

The report urged governments to scale up investments in preventative child protection systems – including anti-violence and parenting programmes, as well as improving social protection systems.

Ms Gale said investing in supporting families has a far “higher return” than unnecessary separation.

“Care plays an essential role in allowing a society to develop,” she said. “The investment that is done in supporting families has a higher return than the investment that is done when children are separated from their families.”

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