Child Protection & Social Welfare

Although much emphasis has been given to the professional development of ECEC professionals, limited attention has been given to the availability and quality of the professional development for home-based child care (HBCC) providers. Taking into account the unique needs this professional group has and with the ultimate aim to  ensure that HBCC providers receive the support they need to successfully foster learning and development for children in their care, early childhood education systems and agencies must explore new professional development methods that align more closely with HBCC providers’ needs. Some state agencies and home visiting model developers have begun to explore home visiting as a professional development approach to support HBCC providers. To explore the potential for scaling up this model of professional development for HBCC providers, Child Trends, with funding from the Foundation for Child Development (FCD), examined home visiting models and curricula, state- and federal-level policies related to early care and education and home visiting, funding streams to support early care and education and home visiting, and the perspectives of HBCC providers and parents.

The key conclusions of the report are:

• Implementing a home visiting model as a professional development strategy for HBCC requires coordination among multiple entities. 
• Expanding the evidence base for using home visiting to support HBCC may facilitate efforts to scale up the model.
• Improving professional development for HBCC providers may help improve quality of care for children and families who have been historically disadvantaged.
• Home visiting is a feasible strategy for supporting HBCC, but implementing it at scale in states and communities will require additional research, funding, and professional development system infrastructure.

The report concludes with suggestions for ways that organizations that fund research, technical assistance, and other activities to support HBCC providers can support this work.

Chrishana M. Lloyd, Maggie Kane, Deborah Seok, Claudia Vega

Child Trends

2019

This INEE Guidance Note addresses a gap in the tools that are currently available to educators and professionals operating in emergency and crisis contexts. This INEE Guidance Note encourages more intentional and consistent implementation of practical, goodquality psychosocial interventions on the education frontlines by teachers, education administrators, parents, counselors, peers, ministries, and other education personnel in three concrete ways:

• The Guidance Note clarifies the education sector’s importance in supporting the psychosocial wellbeing of children and youth.
• The Guidance Note provides educators with practical tips and advice about how to integrate PSS into formal and non-formal education efforts.
• The Guidance Note highlights linkages between PSS in education and other sectors. This Guidance Note was developed for all professionals who carry out or support formal and non-formal educational activities for children and youth during humanitarian crises. It is also useful to government entities, policy-makers, community groups, humanitarian workers, parents, peers, and families for planning, programming, policy, and advocacy purposes, and to mechanisms such as the Education Cluster and other education coordination or working groups.

The INEE Guidance Note on Psychosocial Support can be found in Arabic, English French, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish via the link below.

This 4th annual report includes a multi-country, four region review of the state of the social service workforce. Through Alliance-led mappings and assessments in three regions in collaboration with UNICEF, and information from mappings and assessments in a fourth region, this report consolidates trends and data and makes recommendations for better planning, development and support to this frontline workforce. The report also makes connections to the Alliance's Call to Action for Strengthening the Social Service Workforce to Better Protect Children and Achieve the SDGs. The data and findings are intended to build the evidence base in support of advocacy efforts to gain government and stakeholder commitments for strengthening the social service workforce.

Alex Collins

Global Social Service Workforce Alliance

2019

The National Association of Social Workers, has developed the Practice Standards & Guidelines which provide benchmarks that describe the services that social workers should provide; that employers should support and that consumers should expect. Standards/guidelines reflect current and emerging best practice trends and are a critical component of the professional social worker's toolkit. They are useful for both new and experienced practitioners, and can be effective advocacy tools. The Association has developed different sets of Practice Standards and Guidelines, in order to present the sector that social workers are working.

NASW - National Association of Social Workers

This case study is part of a larger effort to document and increase understanding of the various approaches for supporting children affected by HIV and AIDS in South Africa and around the world. The role of the child and youth care workers (CYCWs) who provide programs to those children and their families is of significant importance. Although they report high levels of job satisfaction they role is very demanding. Believing that offering enhanced psychosocial support to CYCWs would prove critical to the program’s success, in 2007 The National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW) facilitated the development of an innovative model called Care for Caregivers (C4C). The model brings clinical psychologists directly to CYCWs for a six month program of professional psychosocial support through individual and group counseling.

This case study offers a detailed examination of the C4C model. The report provides an overview of the strengths of the C4C program, recommendations for the future implementation and extension of the program, as well as specific priorities.

The Guidelines to Strengthen the Social Service Workforce for Child Protection 2018 (the Guidelines), developed in consultation with UNICEF Headquarters and regional offices and the Global Social Service Workforce Alliancec (GSSWA), are informed by evidence of ‘what works’ and lessons learned in the field. They are designed to accelerate UNICEF regional and country offices’ programming on social service workforce strengthening, and support work to better plan, develop and support the social services workforce with national and regional partners. The Guidelines are intended to complement the Programme Guidance on Preventing and Responding to Violence Against Children and Adolescents (Programme Guidance on VAC), recognizing that a qualified social service workforce, paid and unpaid, government and non-governmental professionals and para-professionals are often the first line of response for children and families and the most important element of a well-functioning child protection system.

Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, UNICEF

2019

This global survey, which presents information on 426 programs in 121 countries in all world regions, aims to fill in existing gaps in our knowledge about the status of IECD and ECI programs internationally. Specifically, the main objectives of the survey were to: 1) Map current implementation of IECD and ECI programs and related activities; 2) Describe key IECD and ECI program features; 3) Identify gaps and challenges in providing accessible IECD and ECI services; 4) Document factors associated with successful implementation and scale-up; and 5) Generate recommendations to inform future policy and program development and national planning and implementation efforts.

The study reports program types and participants, legal frameworks that support the development and implementation of programs, program objectives, multi-sectoral cooperation, service provision, financial support and parent involvement across regions. In addition, the study highlights the barriers and enabling factors that can support the development, expansion and improvement of IECD and ECI programs. Based on the robust findings and conclusions of the study, the authors formulate 20 recommendations that can support the development, scale up and effectiveness of the IECD and ECI services globally and at the same time they issue a Call for a global agenda for the improvement and expansion of IECD and ECI programs.

RISE Institute, UNICEF, Early Childhood Development Task Force

2019

Resisting Neoliberalism: Professionalisation of Early Childhood Education and Care focuses on the professionalization of early childhood in Australia, Chile, England, Germany, Ireland and the United States.

This paper questions how the sector manages the constraints imposed by a neoliberal political and social world and calls upon manages the constraints imposed on it in a neoliberal political and social world. It calls on professionals to take a stand in terms of what is considered best practice. The paper further argues that continued debate is needed around the boundaries of what is called the early childhood profession, considering the ways in which the education, health and welfare sectors contribute to a holistic approach balanced against the requirement for a profession to have an identified and discrete body of knowledge.

Mary Moloney, Margaret Sims, Antje Rothe, Cynthia Buettner

International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education

2019

ISSA and R4D, in partnership with ICDI, are glad to announce a new webinar series in the framework of the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative. This webinar puts the spotlight on the notion of early childhood practice being political, and on early years practitioners as activists and change agents. In an interactive format we explore:

• What does early childhood activism mean or look like in different political, geographical and cultural contexts?
• Are advocacy, activism and the ability to effect positive change essential elements of professionalism in general, and therefore the early childhood profession in particular?
• Is it reasonable to expect early childhood practitioners to balance an activist critical stance alongside other roles such as pedagogical expert; builder and maintainer of relationships with children, their parents and other professionals; as well as manager in return for little recognition and poor remuneration?

The webinar is primarily intended for early childhood practitioners, leaders in early childhood services and lecturers/trainers teaching pre-service and continuing professional development courses on leadership, professional practice in the early years, working with families with young children and social policy.  It is also beneficial to those who represent the interests of the early childhood workforce (trade unions, professional councils, representative bodies) at national and international levels.To listen to the webinar recording, click the YouTube link below. To access resources and presentations related to this webinar, visit the webinar webpage.

Adopting multi-sectoral approaches in the early years, which integrate parenting support, nutrition, health, social protection, child protection, and education, is widely recognised as the way forward to meet global challenges. Multifaceted problems require both multiple as well as aligned and well-coordinated interventions. Poverty, discrimination and increasing inequalities need to be addressed in an integrated manner in order to bring about qualitative and quantitative change.

So called ‘integrated services’ are seen as desirable for responding to the complex problems that characterise the realities of children and families. Therefore, the way early childhood systems are designed, governed and financed, and the way early childhood services are delivered can make a dramatic difference in children’s as well as in their families’ life. Yet, that there are many barriers to making integration work and that it may take different shapes depending on the context.
The objective of this webinar was to discuss the conditions for interagency work from the perspective of those in a position of leadership in the early year’s workforce.

To listen to this webinar recording, visit the YouTube link below. To access videos, reports and presentations related to this webinar visit the webinar page.