OVC Support Toolkit  >  Living environments 

Alternatives to community care in extended families

This section looks at alternate forms of care for children apart from care within the extended family. Other sections look at issues facing carers and situations in which children and young people live outside of family care. Other sections look in detail at placing a child with another family and residential care.

Key points about alternate forms of care are:

• In many countries, HIV/AIDS is increasing the number of children who can no longer be cared for by their parents. Most of these children are cared for by their extended families. This form of care needs to be supported and promoted.
• However, this is not available to all children. Some children and young people live outside of family care.
• In these situations and where a child is at risk of abuse most countries have laws which require and allow the state to take over responsibility for care of a child. This has legal and financial implications.
• There are a range of alternative forms of care available. These include placing a child in another family or in an institution.

In situations where children and young people are living outside of family care and/or a child is considered at risk of abuse most countries have laws which require and allow the state to take over responsibility for that child's care. This means that the state has legal responsibility for the child. The state has to provide care for the child or ensure that this is done. Many forms of community care are informal and not recognised by law. It is difficult for the state to place children under its care in these forms of care.

In addition, the state often has financial responsibility for children under its care. It will usually pay for care provided in this situation. If poverty is widespread, children may be admitted into this type of care for financial reasons. The state is rarely able to provide financial support to people providing care within the extended family in the community.

There are a wide range of terms used to describe various forms of alternative care. Some of these terms overlap. Commonly used terms include:

• Adoption - This involves a child being taken into the care of adults other than their parents. It is done on a permanent basis and the child legally becomes the child of those parents. The term adoption is usually only applied where the people 'adopting' the child are not relatives. Once a child is adopted, the state usually stops being financially responsible for that child.
• Fostering - This also involves a child being taken into the care of adults other than their parents. It is usually a temporary arrangement and the state retains financial responsibility for the child. It is a formal/legal arrangement and usually involves non-related adults. In many cases, people foster large numbers of children. These 'foster homes' are essentially small institutions.
• Residential Care - This term is used to apply to institutions which provide child care. Most of the children in these institutions are placed there by the state. Institutions may be run directly by the state or by other organisations. Many institutions are moving towards structures which try to recreate family life as much as possible.

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