households headed by elderly persons or another child, in households where the adult/s are chronically ill, and living in households in chronic poverty (MSWGCA, 2012). 165. Many vulnerable children have often been inappropriately removed from their family care and placed in one of a number of alternative care options. In the years immediately following the civil war, placements and facilities were not regulated by law or required to be facilitated /overseen by court processes. A number of studies found that children in alternative care are at a greater risk of abuse, neglect and exploitation and few, if any children, were reunified with their families due to weak reunification processes and resources (UNICEF-Sierra Leone, 2009). 166. Whilst there is an Adoption Act, 1989, it is out-of-date and out of alignment with international obligations created by the CRC, ACRWC and The Hague Convention on Inter-Country adoption (which the GoSL is yet to accede to). 167. Today, more than 500,000 children in Sierra Leone do not live with their parents, but are instead in different types of alternative care. The number of children in alternative care, even though their biological parents are alive, increased by 7 percent from 16 percent in 2000 to 23 percent in 2010 (Statistics Sierra Leone and UNICEF, 2011). 168. Alternative care options in Sierra Leone include:  Residential child care facilities (RCCF) – a number of facilities (approximately 56) were established during and in the post-war years by NGOs, but numbers and prevailing conditions were unknown as they were unregulated;  Informal fostering (menpikin) and extended family kinship care;  Formal foster care;  Formal adoptions. 169. The most common form of alternative care is kinship care / informal fostering situations (menpikin), followed by foster care, domestic adoption. Placement in RCCFs and inter-country adoption is a last resort (UNICEF-Sierra Leone, 2013). 170. To improve the protection of children, the quality of alternative care, and compliance with internationally and regionally prescribed standards and requirements, the Chid Rights Act introduced a stronger legal and regulatory framework. As previously described, since 2007, the Child Rights Act provides that no child may be removed and/or placed in alternative care without an order from the Family Court, thus making the process of removal subject to scrutiny by the courts. 171. Moreover, the act requires that the GoSL, acting through the Local Councils, ensure the safety and development of children place in alternative care, and that their placement be regularly reviewed. The Act further requires the inspection and registration of all residential care facilities by the Local Council. Unregistered homes are not permitted to operate and receive children into their care. The Local Council is also required to engage in ongoing monitoring of children’s homes and where there is a failure to comply with prescribed standards, the registration of the home may be cancelled. Moreover, the Act imposes a positive duty on the staff at homes as well as social workers and probationary officers to take promote and assist children in homes to be reunified with their families. The regulatory framework was further 48  Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone Initial Report on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child 2002-2014