Residential Care Facilities

Residential Care

• It is important for children who have been abused and neglected to be placed in safe places. In Zimbabwe these children are placed in Children’s homes
• For the safety of children in these homes, Social Welfare Officers need to ensure there are registered, they need to monitor and supervise the residential care facilities and visit the children regularly to ensure their Care Plans are still relevant:
• Once registered in homes, Officers need to prepare a Care plan for each child
• This plan will detail how the child will be cared for and will be used to assess conditions of the child over time
• There are over 3 000 Children in Zimbabwe in Children’s Home. This is apart from those under Fostering and Adoption

Module 2. Establishment of Residential Care Facility



• An individual, a Church, a Trust, or registered Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) can establish a Residential Care home
• Governance structures for the Residential Care home should be clearly laid out that is– there should be a minimum of 7, 9 and up 11 Board of Directors with requisite skills to run a residential care facility
• The Residential Care staff should comprise of a Matron and Social worker and Administrators as key professionals
• In cases where the home accommodates children under 2 years, the matron should have nursing background
• The property should have security of tenure such title deeds, lease agreement, or proof of ownership

Establishment of Residential Care Facility cont'd




Local Authority should issue authority for change of use to Residential/ Children’s home

• Before construction of facilities, the Board should refer to the National Residential Care Standards
• The Environmental Health Department should certify suitability of the children’s home facility and its appropriate carrying capacity
• The organization registers its home in terms of section 31 of The Children’s Act (chapter 5:06)
• The children should be near health centers and schools
• Probation Officer conducts bi-annual inspections to Children’s home to check or ensure compliance with the terms of registration and National Residential Care Standards. A report of should be compiled by the Probation

Residential Care Facilities Checklist cont'd

Bedrooms and beds, and bedding linen (age appropriate)

Ventilation

Sickroom

Water supply arrangements

Residential Care Facilities Checklist cont'd

Toilets

Kitchen facilities – pantry, cutlery, refrigeration etc

Letter of Confidentiality signed by all staff working in the Residential Home

Module 3. Placement of Children in a Residential’s Home



• Institutional placement i.e placing children in residential care whilst is the last resort could be the only option for some children e.g abandoned or neglected children
• Children can be placed into a residential care home by a Probation Officer, Police Officer, Health Officer or Education Officer
• This is initially valid for 7 days and only meant for emergency purposes. During these 7 days the officer should be doing an assessment of the child background to establish whether the child can be reintegrated with family, relatives or stay in the institution

Placement of Children in a Residential’s Home ...cont'd




After 7 days Probation Officer has to approach Court for an extension if assessments are not completed

• Once the Court is satisfied Care Order expires after 3 years at which point it has to be reviewed. During the 3 years there will be ongoing work of assessments to establish whether circumstances have changes
• Children should be placed within their Provinces preferably except in cases of special cases in which case prior -arrangements have to be agreed between the two Provincial Officers.
• For Inter district placements they placing districts should notify the receiving district that a child has been placed