Moving Forward: Implementing the ‘Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children’

The last decade has seen big steps taken toward the goal of placing children’s rights at the heart of alternative care.

From the initial concept, to the development and approval of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (the Guidelines) by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution A/RES/64/142, we now have a more coherent policy framework. Today, the Guidelines shape how policymakers, decision-makers and professionals approach both the prevention and the provision of alternative care for children.

This handbook, Moving Forward, has been created to take us even further along the road to embedding children’s rights in alternative care provision. It aims to support implementation of the Guidelines by making strong connections between national policy, direct practice and the Guidelines themselves.

Moving Forward reflects the core message in the Guidelines – that children must never be placed in alternative care unnecessarily, and where out-of-home care must be provided it should be appropriate to each child’s specific needs, circumstances and best interests.