enthusiasm, commitment and time, could
complement the work of professional guardi-
ans. Both types of guardianship could coexist
and complement each other or on some
occasions be sequential: professional guard-
ians could be swiftly appointed upon arrival,
following which a volunteer guardian could be
appointed after a thorough matching process.
In such a system, clarity on the role of each
type of guardian and other actors involved is
essential.
Nevertheless, volunteer guardians should
not be assigned to cases of children and
young people with severe trauma or cases of
children and young people who need to be
treated by qualified and trained professionals
with relevant expertise, for example victims
of criminal acts or children with multiple
vulnerabilities.
• An efficient volunteer guardianship sys-
tem requires resources.
An efficient volunteer guardianship system
should be an integral part of the formal child
protection system, which requires allocation
of sufficient resources. Volunteers could add
value and ensure the quality and efficiency
of guardianship services, but they should not
be seen by policymakers as an opportunity to
save resources. Setting up an efficient guardi-
anship system in which volunteers constitute
an essential element requires sufficient re-
sources, since the recruitment, vetting, train-
ing, supervision and monitoring of volunteers
requires adequate resources be allocated to
youth welfare offices and other child projec-
tion services involved. Partnership between
local authorities and private and/or profes-
sional non-profit organisations in the area of
recruiting and training volunteers could be an
option in certain contexts.
36
• Measures need to be taken to ensure child
safety.
Not every willing volunteer is suited to work
with children or to become a guardian. The
recruitmen