Child Protection & Social Welfare

This regional (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania and Serbia) overview aims to sketch the social service workforce—with a focus on those engaged in the child protection system—in southeast Europe. Specific research areas include, but are not limited to the following:
1. Perceptions and understandings of social service work
2. Who does what and where
3. Policy and regulatory frameworks
4. Organization and funding of child protection systems
5. Competencies and standards for the social service workforce
6. Professional development opportunities
7. Motivation and support
8. Working conditions for the workforce
The finding of the study can be used for improving the child protection system and the lives of children, families and communities by multiple stakeholders which among other include: national governments, professional social service worker associations, NGOs and civil society agencies that rely on the social service workforce to provide child protection services, and educational institutions who train social service workers.
This report represents part of a global research movement to map the social service workforce in diverse regions, which aims at highlighting promising approaches and unique elements to certain countries whereas at the same time identifies common challenges and trends across regions.

Child Protection Hub

2016

Changing Systems & Practice to Improve Outcomes for Young Fathers, Their Children & Their Families recognizes that, though there is an increasing interest in supporting fathers, little attention has been paid to the importance of engaging fathers under the age of 26 – particularly young fathers who are involved in child welfare systems.

This brief makes recommendations for child welfare system policy and practice, recognizing the important role that fathers play in improving their child's outcomes. The document highlights policies and programs seeking to identify, engage and support young fathers. It also includes links to practice guides and resources aimed at supporting the implementation of these recommendations. The policy recommendations in this brief address these challenges:

• The lack of attention to the dual roles and needs of young fathers who are simultaneously navigating a transition to adulthood while learning to parent;
• The invisibility of young fathers in child welfare systems and the dearth of opportunities for them to support the well-being of their children and families;
• The lack of data on the characteristics and needs of young fathers; and
• The lack of cross-system collaboration among the education, juvenile/criminal justice, early childhood education (ECE), child support enforcement, health care, homeless services, housing and mental health systems to support young fathers and their families.

Throughout the brief, voices of young fathers are shared.

The Early Childhood Workforce Initiative's Landscape Analysis Series takes a deeper look at key questions left unanswered concerning the global early childhood development workforce:

• What do early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals need to know and do in order to perform effectively?
• How do requisite knowledge and skills vary across contexts?
• What types of training and support do staff receive?
• How is the early childhood workforce recruited, monitored, and evaluated?

The second of these analyses, Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce: Training and Professional Development, takes a closer look at training and professional development opportunities for the early childhood workforce.

Taking into account the diverse backgrounds and experiences of individuals delivering ECD services, training and professional development programs offer an opportunity to impart a core set of knowledge and skills to members of the early childhood workforce, which is particularly important as programs look to scale and reach a greater number of young children and families. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that supporting individuals with such opportunities can influence child development outcomes.

This analysis, published in January of 2018, synthesizes evidence on the approaches to and challenges associated with training and professional development across the early childhood workforce. An extensive review of published and grey literature, and key informant interviews with ECD experts yielded 10 findings.

You can find the full Landscape Analysis in English below. You may also download the Executive Summary in English, French and Spanish.

The Early Childhood Workforce Initiative's Landscape Analysis Series takes a deeper look at key questions left unanswered concerning the global early childhood development workforce:

• What do early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals need to know and do in order to perform effectively?
• How do requisite knowledge and skills vary across contexts?
• What types of training and support do staff receive?
• How is the early childhood workforce recruited, monitored, and evaluated?

The first of these analyses, Strengthening and Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce: Competences and Standards, deep dives into competences and standards. Competences and standards were of particular importance to our research because of their ability to:

1. increase the relevance of training and professional development,
2. enhance the quality of monitoring and mentoring opportunities,
3. support professionalization of the workforce, and
4. support workforce planning efforts.

This research, published in January of 2018, used an extensive review of published and grey literature to yield six key findings related to the ways in which countries have used competences and standards to support early childhood systems globally.

You can find the full Landscape Analysis in English below. You may also download the Executive Summary in English, French and Spanish.

The Early Childhood Workforce Initiative's Landscape Analysis Series takes a deeper look at key questions left unanswered concerning the global early childhood development workforce:

• What do early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals need to know and do in order to perform effectively?
• How do requisite knowledge and skills vary across contexts?
• What types of training and support do staff receive?
• How is the early childhood workforce recruited, monitored, and evaluated?

The first of these analyses, Strengthening and Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce: Competences and Standards, deep dives into competences and standards. Competences and standards were of particular importance to our research because of their ability to:

1. increase the relevance of training and professional development,
2. enhance the quality of monitoring and mentoring opportunities,
3. support professionalization of the workforce, and
4. support workforce planning efforts.

This research, published in January of 2018, used an extensive review of published and grey literature to yield six key findings related to the ways in which countries have used competences and standards to support early childhood systems globally.

You can find the full Landscape Analysis in English below. You may also download the Executive Summary in English, French and Spanish.

The Early Childhood Workforce Initiative's Landscape Analysis Series takes a deeper look at key questions left unanswered concerning the global early childhood development workforce:

• What do early childhood professionals and paraprofessionals need to know and do in order to perform effectively?
• How do requisite knowledge and skills vary across contexts?
• What types of training and support do staff receive?
• How is the early childhood workforce recruited, monitored, and evaluated?

The second of these analyses, Supporting the Early Childhood Workforce: Training and Professional Development, takes a closer look at training and professional development opportunities for the early childhood workforce.

Taking into account the diverse backgrounds and experiences of individuals delivering ECD services, training and professional development programs offer an opportunity to impart a core set of knowledge and skills to members of the early childhood workforce, which is particularly important as programs look to scale and reach a greater number of young children and families. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that supporting individuals with such opportunities can influence child development outcomes.

This analysis, published in January of 2018, synthesizes evidence on the approaches to and challenges associated with training and professional development across the early childhood workforce. An extensive review of published and grey literature, and key informant interviews with ECD experts yielded 10 findings.

You can find the full Landscape Analysis in English below. You may also download the Executive Summary in English, French and Spanish.

2017 Home Visiting Yearbook is one of the first publications from the National Home Visiting Resource Center. It was developed with the recognition that, as many communities have implemented home visiting models aimed at improving outcomes for children and families, there has not been a comprehensive overview of how home visiting is across the country. This resource aims to inform readers as they make decisions in policy and practice. The following critical questions are addressed: 

Where do home visiting programs operate? 
How many families and children are being served by home visiting, and how many more could benefit? 
Who develops and administers home visiting? 
Who funds home visiting?

This first edition presents the most complete data available on home visiting in the United States.

Standards for ECD Parenting Programmes takes a deeper looking into the interventions or services which aim to support parenting interactions, behaviors, knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and practices. The document guides practitioners through a set of standards for parenting programs. Nine standards are presented including:  

• Supporting nurturing care because it contributes to holistic child development;
• Build on a theory of change that leads to the desired results;
• Tailor content to the child's developmental stage;
• Serve vulnerable children and their families;
• Involve all parents and key caregivers engaged in the function of parenting;
• Adapt to context and culture and build upon positive parenting practices;
• Engage trained workforce and service providers;
• Reflect continuous improvements through systematic monitoring and evaluation.

This resource is particularly targeted to low and middle income count ires.

The Early Childhood Workforce Initiative Country Study Series examines ways to strengthen and scale up a quality workforce. The first of these studies, Supporting the early childhood workforce at scale: The Cuna Más home visiting program in Peru, focuses on Cuna Más, a large-scale ECD program in Peru.

As one of few home visiting programs operating – and having been evaluated – at scale in low- and middle-income countries, Cuna Más holds valuable workforce lessons that may resonate more broadly with ECD programs and policymakers seeking to reach young children and families around the world:

• Supervision in the field is critical for the home visiting workforce, particularly in rural contexts where many workers have limited training or experience and work independently much of the time.

• In addition to delivering important content, educational materials are critical for empowering community home visitors who may not have the training or experience to otherwise provide guidance to young children and families.

• It is important to identify and address workers’ travel-related barriers, especially in rural or remote areas

• Career ladders and pay scales can reward both professionals and volunteers for their dedication, retain and leverage the experience of high-performing individuals, and encourage strong candidates to see working in ECD as a viable career path, rather than temporary employment.

Home visiting is often used to reach vulnerable young children as well as their caregivers. Trained individuals regularly visit a caregiver and child to improve parenting behaviors, the home environment, and impact child outcomes. The Cuna Más home visiting service enjoys relatively high coverage and early results are promising: a recent impact evaluation by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) found large effects on children’s cognitive and language development. However, operating at scale presents challenges to quality and sustainability.

Proposed Revisions to the Definitions for the Early Childhood Workforce in the Standard Occupational Classification proposes changes to the titles, definitions, and placement for the detailed occupations involving the early childhood care and education workforce in the Standard Occupational Classification.

This paper does the following:

• summarizes the key principles and coding guidelines from the 2010 SOC that must be taken into account in proposing revisions to the SOC definitions for the ECCE workforce;
• presents the definitions for the current detailed occupational categories in the SOC pertaining to the ECCE workforce;
• summarizes the problems with the current categorization and definitions as identified by the NAS Committee, and further issues that the Workgroup has identified when considering how the current definitions align with the principles and coding guidelines for the SOC;
• proposes a revised set of categories and definitions, indicating how they address the problems with the current occupational categories and definitions while adhering to the current principles and coding guidelines for the SOC;
• indicates how the revised categories and definitions could be used in conjunction with data on employment by industry to identify key subgroups of the ECCE workforce that are of high priority to federal agencies and other public and private users of the data;
• discusses the important priority of time series continuity (noting the proposed addition of a new Classification Principle focusing on this priority in the May 22nd, 2014 Federal Register Notice), and the potential for conducting time series analyses if the new occupational categories and definitions are adopted;
• discusses the differing contributions of recurrent data collection on the ECCE workforce through the
• federal statistical system and such one-time or periodic efforts as the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE); and finally,
• acknowledges key limitations that cannot be addressed through proposing changes to the SOC categories and definitions, because of the nature of federal data collection on occupations, as well as the need for parallel steps to be taken to review definitions for the workforce working with school-age children in out-of-school-time care.

Proposed Revisions to the Definitions for the Early Childhood Workforce in the Standard Occupational Classification was commissioned by the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and submitted by the Workgroup on the Early Childhood Workforce and Professional Development.