Children’s voices for building a Homely-like environment in residential care homes. First findings from a Narrative Literature Review

Objectives This contribution is the result of a narrative literature review (Bouhris, 2017) investigating how children living in residential care homes (RCH) perceive their environment and how the sense of“feeling at home” contributes to well-being. Care policies, framed within the UNCRC, emphasise the importance of ensuring that each child is ‘given a voice’ in creating a safe environment, organised around the rights and needs of children, in setting as close as possible to a family or a small group situation (UN General Assembly, 2009). Method Given the complex historical and political nature of RHC, the review will be cross-disciplinary, also interrogating literature regarding different services such as nursing homes for elderly people (Flemiet al., 2017), and official policies at a European level. Using EBSCO research database, the key terms are: home, homely-like environment in residential care, sense of home in children, children in alternative care, children in residential care homes. Results The literature points out that living in a "homely-like" environment in institutional contexts is linked well-being. It is expected, at the end of the review, to have a greater and more systematic understanding of theEuropean context of residential care homes for children and on the sense of ‘homeliness’ according children. Conclusions RCH should have the characteristics of a civilian home, with a welcoming and homely environment suitable for the different age groups of children (Istituto Degli Innocenti, 2017) to avoid the risk of institutionalisation. At the same time, RCH represents a place with multiple connotations in its being simultaneously home, workplace and institution (Dorrer et al., 2010). This complexity makes it a fertile ground for pedagogical reflection. List of 3-4 recommendations or takeaway points for the audience RHCs are often considered as the last resort (Holmes et al., 2018). This caused a reflexive vacuum (Tibollo, 2015) in the pedagogical debate on residential care homes for children and should be addressed. There is a strong need to define the pedagogical practices to construct a sense of home inRHC, able to ‘dialogue’ with the institutional borders of the RHC. The sense of belonging and feeling at home contribute to the well-being of the children in RC.