Recognition of the profession

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has upended families’ lives, with school closures, social distancing, and stay-at-home measures limiting their access to support systems, while adding to health concerns and economic uncertainties. As families face these varied stressors, it is even more important that parenting programs, which seek to promote positive and responsive caregiving, improve health and nutrition, and enhance social and child protection, continue to operate. Against this backdrop, and facing restrictions on normal in-person operations, many parenting programs have had to innovate to continue service delivery and help families navigate this difficult time.

• How are parenting programs reorienting their services in response to COVID-19?
• How are parenting programs supporting their personnel to deliver these critical services? 

This brief seeks to shed light on these questions. Developed by the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative (ECWI), a multi-stakeholder global initiative co-led by Results for Development (R4D) and the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) that works to support and empower those who work directly with young children, the brief highlights common approaches parenting programs are using to continue engaging with families, including transitioning to deliver services virtually and adapting to provide enhanced psychosocial support. We use the five priority actions to support the early childhood workforce outlined in ECWI’s COVID-19 Position Statement as a light guide and explore how some parenting programs are prioritizing the health, safety, and psychosocial well-being, expanding training and guidance, and recognizing the workforce delivering these critical services. Several short case studies provide context and detail to these programs’ efforts and the brief concludes with a set of reflections on the challenges and possibilities ahead.

Kavita Hatipoglu with support from Michelle Neuman and Denise Bonsu (R4D) and Konstantina Rentzou and Zorica Trikic (ISSA)

2021

A well-supported, appropriately equipped, empowered, and protected social service workforce is essential to mitigating the damaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social service workers can build on their existing strong ties to children, families, and communities to rapidly respond in ways that are effective. However, to do so, they must stay safe and healthy. This document is intended to provide guidance on how to support the social service workforce and empower them to safely serve children, families, and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This guidance is for governments, non-governmental organizations, social service workers, and their supervisors.

Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, UNICEF, International Federation of Social Workers, Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

2020

Early childhood development (ECD) services have a strong, positive impact on children’s development. Research from diverse contexts shows that interventions that promote nurturing care in early learning environments significantly improve childhood development and later adult outcomes. Despite increasing knowledge on the benefits of ECD, however, much remains unknown about the early childhood workforce, the range of individuals across paid and unpaid roles who provide services to young children and their caregivers across the health, nutrition, education, and social and child protection sectors. Research supports that the workforce is one of the most important factors influencing the quality of ECD services. However, key questions remain unanswered, including:

• What does the early childhood workforce need to know and be able to do in order to carry out their roles? 
• What types of training opportunities are most effective for building the knowledge and skills that the workforce needs? 
• What types of feedback does the workforce receive on their work on a daily basis? 
• What financial and non-financial incentives impact the job satisfaction of personnel?

In an effort to address these questions, the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative (ECWI), a multi-stakeholder global initiative co-led by Results for Development (R4D) and the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) that works to support and empower those who work directly with young children, is carrying out a series of global landscape analyses to illustrate the size and scope of the challenges faced by the early childhood workforce, while also highlighting promising practices countries have adopted in response to these challenges. Spanning a range of roles including professionals and paraprofessionals, paid and unpaid workers, and frontline workers, supervisors, and managers, from the education, health and nutrition, social protection and child protection sectors, these analyses aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the current status of the workforce worldwide.

Vidya Putcha, Denise Bonsu, and Michelle Neuman

2020

This Guide accompanies the Home Visiting Workforce Needs Assessment Tool, which aims to help Ministries and government agencies reflect on the ways in which they can support personnel delivering home visiting programs across sectors for pregnant mothers and caregivers with children under 3. 



Drawing inspiration from the UNICEF Pre-Primary Diagnostic and Planning Tool, this tool is intended for countries with home visiting programs at either the sub-national or national levels. The scope of the Tool includes home visitors who work directly with young children and their families, as well as supervisors and trainers.

 

The newly completed User's Guide completes the Tool's package. It includes supporting materials, as well as editable handouts and annexes. It is easy to download, translate and adapt to your context. The User's Guide lays out the steps needed to:

• Prepare for the application of the Tool,
• Organize and facilitate a workshop with stakeholders at both the national and sub-national levels, and
• Take action on findings generated from the workshop.


Below, you can find two versions of the User's Guide: 

Version 1: a downloadable PDF
Version 2: a ZIP file for Print, which contains:

• A Print version of the User Guide
• 11 editable handouts and annexes that can be adapted for implementation
• A slide deck, which presents an overview of the Tool

Access the Tool here.

Mihaela Ionescu and Zorica Trikic (International Step by Step Association) and Denise Bonsu, Kavita Hatipoglu, Michelle Neuman, and Vidya Putcha (Results for Development).

2020

The Home Visiting Workforce Needs Assessment Tool aims to help Ministries and government agencies reflect on the ways in which they can support personnel delivering home visiting programs across sectors for pregnant mothers and caregivers with children under 3. Drawing inspiration from the UNICEF Pre-Primary Diagnostic and Planning Tool, this tool is intended for countries with home visiting programs at either the sub-national or national levels. The scope of this tool includes home visitors who work directly with young children and their families, as well as supervisors and trainers.

You can also download the accompanying User's Guide here.

Denise Bonsu, Kavita Hatipoglu, Michelle Neuman, Vidya Putcha, Mark Roland, and Jon Korfmacher

2020

It is anticipated that COVID-19 (the disease caused by the novel coronavirus named SAR-CoV-2) will occur in most, if not all countries.

A key fact about COVID-19 is that the vast majority of infections will result in very mild or no symptoms. Not everybody is at risk of severe disease. Persons of advancing age and those with existing respiratory, cardiac and/or metabolic disorders and immunodeficiencies are at higher risk of moderate to severe disease1. There is limited evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy and the newborn. A recent US based study reported that pregnant women with COVID-19 are more likely to need hospital admission and are at increased risk for intensive care admission and mechanical ventilation compared with nonpregnant women2. However, the evidence is still very sparse and much remains unknown about this disease.

The impact on acute care services in settings with under-resourced health systems is likely to be substantial. Maternity services should continue to be prioritized as an essential core health service, and other sexual and reproductive health care such as family planning, emergency contraception, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, post-abortion care and where legal, safe abortion services to the full extent of the law, also need to remain available as core health services. Early data suggests a drop in facility-based care in many countries and projections of rising maternal mortality. We need to actively reach out to women and encourage continued health seeking behaviours, taking every chance to provide respectful compassionate and meaningful care.

Maternity care providers (including midwives and all other health care workers providing maternal and newborn care), whether based in health facilities or within the community, are essential health care workers and must be protected and prioritized to continue providing care to childbearing women and their babies.

Deploying maternity care workers away from providing maternity care to work in public health or general medical areas during this pandemic is likely to increase poor maternal and newborn outcomes. Maternity care providers have the right to full access for all personal protective equipment (PPE), sanitation and a safe and respectful working environment.

Maintaining a healthy workforce will ensure ongoing quality care for women and their newborns; without healthy midwives and other maternity care providers there will be limited care for women and newborns 3.

The UNFPA response to the COVID-19 pandemic within maternity care involves a 3-pronged approach:

1. Protect maternity care providers and the maternal health workforce

2. Provide safe and effective maternity care to women

3. Maintain and protect maternal health systems

Download it here.

UNFPA

2020

This report which was issued by BRIDGE, Ilifa Labantwana, National ECD Alliance (NECDA), the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Smartstart and the South African Congress for Early Childhood Development (SACECD), is based on a survey of 3,952 ECD operators in South Africa conducted in mid-April 2020.

In line with government’s concern for lives and livelihoods, the organizations that issued the report believe that support needs to be offered to ECD operators owing to the circumstances they find themselves in due to COVID-19. The report constitues a proposal that requests government to appropriately assist ECD workforce during this precarious time of COVID-19.

After presenting the reasons why ECD operators should be accomondated in relief interventions and the impact on ECD operators' sustainability, caregivers and children, two possible interventions that the state can take to support the ECD sector during this time are presented: 1) Support to the ECD workforce to offset their loss in income and 2) Support to ECD operators due to loss of income from reduced fee payment.

BRIDGE, Ilifa Labantwana, National ECD Alliance (NECDA), Nelson Mandela Foundation, Smartstart, South African Congress for Early Childhood Development (SACECD)

2020

COVID-19 can disrupt the environments in which children grow and develop. Disruptions to families, friendships, daily routines and the wider community can have negative consequences for children’s well-being, development and protection. Measures used to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19, including quarantine measures such as school closures and restrictions on movements disrupt children's routine and social support while also placing new stressors on parents and caregivers who may have to find new childcare options or forgo work. With added stress, school closures and restricted movement, children and caregivers may face increased social isolation, psychosocial distress and heightened domestic violence. Movement restrictions can also make it much harder for a children or caregivers affected by violence to leave their household and seek help. In addition, stigma and discrimination related to COVID-19 may make children more vulnerable to violence and psychosocial distress. Children and families who are already vulnerable due to socio-economic exclusion, have a history of violence in the home, or those who living in overcrowded settings are particularly at risk. For all of these reasons, the continuation of case management to very high-risk children and families is a fundamental part of emergency response and should be considered child lifesaving.

All children, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances, have the right to be protected, nurtured and free from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Respecting and supporting this right is the essence of child safeguarding. All forms of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) are a violation of human rights.

In line with Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY) Instruction No.031, dated 20 March 2020 and Instruction, dated 26 March 2020 on Prevention and Protection of COVID-19 Infection to Children without family, relative or guardian specifically on social work and psychosocial supports for children and families affected by COVID-19, this Guideline aims to further provide technical guidance to child protection workers to better respond to the child protection risks during a COVID-19 pandemic through case management, including psychosocial support.

Download it here.

Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY) of Cambodia

2020

Information on the impact of COVID-19 on early pregnancy outcomes remains unavailable at the time of writing. Non-pregnant women of childbearing age are also at low risk of severe disease. The impact on acute care services in settings with under-resourced health systems is likely to be substantial. Maternity services should continue to be prioritized as an essential core health service, and other sexual and reproductive health care such as family planning, emergency contraception, treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and where legal safe abortion services, to the fullextent of the law, also need to remain available as core health services.

Maternity care providers (including midwives and all other health care workers providing maternal and newborn care), whether based in health facilities or within the community, are essential health care workers and must be protected and prioritized to continue providing care to childbearing women and their babies. Deploying maternity care workers away from providing maternity care to work in public health or general medical areas during Covid-19 pandemic is likely to increase poor maternal and newborn outcomes.

Maternity care providers have the right to full access for all personal protective equipment (PPE), sanitation and a safe and respectful working environment [2]. Maintaining a healthy workforce will ensure ongoing quality care for women and their newborns; without healthy midwives and other maternity care providers there will be limited care for women and newborns.
As part of COVID-19 Pandemic UNFPA Global Response Plan, the UNFPA response involves a 3-pronged approach for Maternity care:

1. Protect maternity care providers and the maternal health workforce
2. Provide safe and effective maternity care to women
3. Maintain and protect maternal health systems

Detailed practical recommendations across these 3 prongs for antenatal care, intrapartum and postnatal care have been outlined in: UNFPA COVID-19 Technical Brief for Maternity Services Interim Guidance, April 2020 This document serves as an adjunct to the UNFPA COVID-19 Technical Brief for Maternity Services to provide interim guidance on providing phone based antenatal care (ANC) in the immediate clinical situation during COVID-19. These recommendations are provided asa resource for UNFPA staff based on a combination of WHO guidelines, good practice and expert advice based on the latest scientific evidence

UNFPA

2020

The COVID-19 virus has created considerable uncertainty about the remainder of this school year, the next school year, and beyond. Federal, state, and local government responses should be informed by understanding current policies and their history, including the effects of the last major economic crisis, the Great Recession, on America’s state-funded preschool programs.
The 17th edition of The State of Preschool, the National Institute for Early Education Research’s (NIEER) report on the annual survey of state preschool policies, provides government policymakers valuable information for planning short- and long-term responses to the crisis. The report includes information for every state on child enrollment, resources (including staffing and funding), and quality standards. It also provides information on where children are served, operating schedules, and other program features relevant to planning the education of children in a post-COVID-19 world.

National Institute for Early Education Research

2020