THE QUALITY OF RESIDENTIAL CHILD CAREIN PORTUGAL AND THE EXAMPLE OF ITS DEVELOPMENT IN SPAIN

Abstract

This article describes the historical development of residential care for children and young people in Portugal and reviews current research in this field. Institutional care in Portugal has changed and is still changing, but the improvements made are not based on sound criteria and broad service quality evaluation. In comparison to the situation of Spain, a research review in Portugal revealed the lack of studies on the quality of care and the scant information about how far the available services meet the real needs of children and young people. These findings highlight the importance and urgency of carrying out extensive research on care quality, which would permit the assessment of its current status, measurement of the suitability of services and the extent to which institutional care meets the clients’ real needs. A proposal for nationwide assessment of the Portuguese residential care system is made, which would be based on the assessment of institutionalized children’s needs and of the quality of the services the institutions offer. Such a broad study would serve to support national-level policy decisions about structures, methods, mechanisms and resources, contributing to a greater degree of specialization and, ultimately, permitting comparison of the state of residential care in Portugal with the reality in other countries.

Keywords

• Residential child care
• Needs assessment
• Quality evaluation
• Children at risk.