This contribution is the result of an initial narrative literature review (Bouhris,2017), which is currently still in development, and which is structured around a series of questions such as: What does “home” mean? What makes the environment “homely”? How do young children living in residential care homes (RCH) perceive their environment? How does the sense of belonging and “feeling at home” contribute to the well-being of the children in residential care homes?   

Children's rights and needs are now central themes in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Care policies emphasise the importance of ensuring that each child has the opportunity to remain with his/her family of origin (UN General Assembly, 2009). However, when removal and placement in RCH are necessary, it is essential to ensure a safe environment, organised around the rights and needs of children, in a setting as close as possible to a family or a small group situation (UN General Assembly, 2009). A setting with the characteristics of a civilian home, with a welcoming and homely environment suitable for the different age groups of children (Istituto Degli Innocenti, 2017) is required to avoid the risk of institutionalisation. In fact, RCH represents a place with multiple connotations in its being simultaneously home, workplace and institution (Dorrer et al, 2010;), thus a fertile ground for pedagogical reflection. It is not easy to give a common definition of what is meant by 'institution', since it has to take into consideration the diversity..of European contexts. However, some constitutive elements of the so-called "institutional culture" (European Commission, 2009) are depersonalisation, the rigidity of routine, block treatment and social distance (Eurochild, 2012).   

The theme of the home as a lived space (Iori, 1996) and emotionally attuned (Bollnow, 2009) and of dwelling, open up a multitude of meanings. For this reason, it becomes essential to interrogate the lived experience (Van Manen, 2016) of children who daily inhabit that space and experience it (Clark, 2014). Furthermore, the guidelines on alternative care (UN General Assembly, 2009) in the section concerning monitoring, mention the importance of involving discussion with and observation of the staff and the children (UN General Assembly, 2009). This review focuses on how different disciplines address the construction of home (Mallett 2004) such as pedagogy (Iori, 1996), children's sociology(Jenks C., 2005), history, and children's geography (Horton and Kraftl 2006; Malatesta 2015).    

The literature points out that one of the elements linked to well-being in institutional contexts is related to the possibility of living in a "homely-like" environment. As Bachelard suggests the ‘house’ can be seen as our ‘first universe’ and ‘all really inhabited space bears the essence of the notion of home’ (Bachelard, 1994).  

The concept of "homeliness" is very individual, however, some characterizing elements are a place that is not institutional and is in "small scale" (Lundgren, 2000), with private and personal spaces (Karlsson, 2019) of which to have control of (Wilson et al, 2012), in which one's own culinary traditions and routines can be carried out(Karlsson, 2019), where dignity is respected and security is guaranteed (Karlsson, 2019) and much more.   

Educational research, in exploring the lived experience of boys and girls in RCH, could also lead to a reinterpretation of the policies that characterize these services. This is crucial for both investigating if there are gaps, as it seems, between the declared and the experienced and for providing the grounds for developing a culture of education (Macinai, 2016) that is sensitive to social justice.

The review, which is currently still under development, is being organised according to thematic criteria emerging from the research questions: -Meaning of home; -Perception of the RCH environment by children -Contribution of the sense of belonging and feeling at home to the well-being of the children in RCH; In addition, the official policies on alternative care for children, and residential care homes for children will be analysed, together with milestone publications on the issue to get a general overview on the de-institutionalisation process, in the transition from orphanages to residential care homes for children in European countries and of the current framework in which RHCs are being developed and run. This paper will focus on the presentation of the European panorama even because it is Europe that develops the main guidelines, based on the UNCRC and other UN guidelines, to which each State should comply when defining their policy. The narrative literature review will be done using the electronic database EBSCO, which is a leading database in the field of human sciences. Some of the key terms used for the research are home, homely-like environment in residential care, sense of home in children, children in alternative care, children in residential care homes.

It is expected, at the end of the review, to have a greater and more systematic understanding of the European context of residential care homes for children. This work represents the starting point to build the theoretical and methodological framework of my doctoral project and to understand how to explore the lived experiences of children in residential care homes. Given the complex historical and political nature of these educational services, the review will be cross-disciplinary, and will also interrogate literature regarding different services such as nursing homes for elderly people (Fleming A. et al 2017). In fact, this research area explored the connection between a homely-like environment and the well-being of 24-hour residents, taking in consideration their lived-experience. Furthermore, this review aims to enrich the debate and pedagogical reflection on residential care homes for children, often seen only as a last resort (Holmes et al, 2018), causing a reflexive vacuum (Tibollo 2015).

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