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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up. 

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Under the IPA III/2023/440-638 project funded by the European Union, UNICEF in collaboration with Ministry of Family and Social Services will build on and contribute to Turkiye’s de-institutionalisation process and the national care reform agenda towards community and family-based alternative care.

For every child, inclusivity

Background: 

It is essential that foster care provision is embedded in a wider system of child protection and care, which prioritises support to the birth parents and facilitating reintegration. Carefully managed contact between children in foster care and birth parents is often a vital means of facilitating reintegration, though such contact is not always appropriate or possible.

Therefore, safe and effective foster care requires a well-trained workforce that is able to determine a child’s entry into alternative care and once in care, monitor and regularly review care plans. Their skills and knowledge have a major influence on outcomes for children, together with, their awareness of and attitudes towards foster care, and their access to the resources required for their work with children, their biological parents and foster carers. An effective workforce is essential for the transformation of care systems from an approach based on institutional care to one that prioritises family strengthening and family-based forms of care.

Social workers in Türkiye often face challenges related to their interaction with biological families and require professional direction. Through this consultancy, UNICEF aims to develop a framework for workers to guide their work with biological families. With this resource, it is expected that the workers will understand their supportive role to birth families. This will also strengthen the case management process for foster care cases and help ensure consistent and effective support for children and their families.

How can you make a difference? 

The purpose of this assignment is to create a comprehensive package aimed at supporting social workers in their interactions with biological families. The assignment will focus on:

• Establishing a set of principles for working with biological families and foster families to strengthen their supportive roles in the child’s wellbeing. This includes developing a checklist for understanding common parenting approaches and interactions within the process, as well as outlining key steps from the child's entry into foster care to their reintegration with their family.

• Preparing a detailed guidebook to equip social workers with the necessary knowledge and skills to work effectively with biological families. This includes understanding resistance, enhancing parental awareness and skills, and using motivational interviewing techniques.

*Delivery dates are tentative. Detailed time plan is required together with the technical proposal.

Duty Station: To be based in Turkiye - remote work modality with the possibility of field visits to several provinces..

Supervisor: Child Protection Specialist, NOC.

Estimated Duration and Cost of Consultancy:

Duration: 25 days (12 May-15 August 2025). All-inclusive fees, including lump sum travel and subsistence costs.

Estimated Cost of Consultancy: Applicants shall present a detailed financial proposal that elaborates on daily costs based on the above-mentioned programme and deliverables, including the total sum demanded in TRY. All costs, including travel, accommodation, administrative tools, communications, etc. shall be covered by the consultant/s in line with their daily fee.

Payment: UNICEF will issue a contract in TRY. The payment will be made in instalments upon deliverables as per the contractual agreement and will be executed in TRY.

Payment Schedule: UNICEF will issue a contract in TRY. The payment will be made in instalments upon deliverables as per the contractual agreement and will be executed in TRY.

Reservations: UNICEF reserves the right to terminate the contract and/or withhold all or a portion of payment if the rules and the regulations regarding confidentiality, ethics and procedures of UNICEF and the partners are not followed, the performance is unsatisfactory, or work/deliverables are incomplete, not delivered or fail to meet the deadlines.

The consultant must respect the confidentiality of the information handled during the assignment. Documents and information provided must be used only for the tasks related to these terms of reference.

The assessment report and deliverables will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF is free to adapt or modify them in the future. The consultant may not use the data, products or seek endorsements for their own purposes, nor license the data to be used by others, without the written consent of UNICEF.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

Qualifications:  

• PhD degree in Social Work, Psychology, Child Protection, or a related field. Additional certifications or training in developing guidelines, manuals, or frameworks for social services or child welfare programs are advantageous.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in child protection, alternative care systems, or family-based care, preferably with a focus on foster care.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate with various stakeholders, including NGOs, government  agencies, birth parents and foster carers, to develop and implement support programs.

Skills and personal traits:  

• Strong knowledge of family-based alternative care systems, including foster care and reintegration processes.
• Familiarity with motivational interviewing techniques, resistance management, and parental capacity-building programmes.
• Proficiency in conducting qualitative research, including interviews and focus groups.
• Excellent report-writing skills, with the ability to produce clear, concise, and actionable documents.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders.
• Culturally sensitive, with an understanding of Türkiye’s social and cultural dynamics in family services.
• Detail-oriented and organized, with the ability to manage multiple tasks and meet deadlines.
• Self-motivated and proactive, with a commitment to producing high-quality deliverables.
• Flexible and adaptive to feedback, ensuring alignment with project goals and stakeholder expectations.

*After the selection process the consultant will be expected to complete the mandatory UNICEF AGORA Trainings.  

Application and Selection Criteria

Please note that the assignment can only be held by an individual consultant. Applications should be submitted in English and should include: 

• Financial proposal using the Financial Proposal Template,  Financial Offer-birth parents.docx
• Most recent CV (TMS Profile)
• Sample of relevant work developed by the consultant. 

Financial proposals should be submitted in separate folders from the remaining documentation. After the technical evaluation, the financial proposals of qualified candidates will be evaluated. The technical evaluation will be completed based on the attached technical evaluation criteria.

The applications will be evaluated from the technical and financial point of view. Technical aspects will be evaluated using the criteria outlined in the below matrix: 

The financial proposals will be opened only for the candidates that reach or exceed forty-nine (49) points out of maximum seventy (70) points. Thirty (30) points will be awarded to the candidate that presented the lowest fee for the services requested. The remaining financial offers will receive proportional points ([lowest bid/bid] x 30 points).

 ToR- for IPA-III Foster Care - birth parents 17 April.docx

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). To view our competency framework, please visit  here. UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.