Policymakers had to invest more in foster care and accept it was the preferred out-of-home care for children who are taken away from their biological parents, social worker and lecturer Daniella Zerafa urged this week. “Children need policy makers who invest in attracting more foster careers, not hesitating to declare foster care as the preferred […]
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Do not remain immobile in the face of children in out-of-home care getting lost in the system, President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca urged stakeholders at a conference yesterday. “We cannot stand idle when so many children and young people are getting lost in the labyrinth of institutional structures and formal systems,” the President said. Ms Coleiro […]
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The State does not always deliver on its responsibility for the wellbeing of children in out-of-home care, according to the director of the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society. “This is not to say that all children leave out-of-home care with issues,” Ruth Farrugia said. “There are those children who come out of the […]
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The Child Protection Act is being amended under new Family Minister Michael Farrugia. Lack of consultation on the Child Protection Act limits the effectiveness of fresh proposals, which fail to understand the trauma of forced contact between parents and their children, according to experts. Former minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca had presented a draft of the […]
Read moreChildren cannot spend years in care waiting for someone to decide their future, and a new protection law should ensure that never happens, social workers insist. The Maltese Association of Social Workers (MASW) is calling for a law that includes clear deadlines within which professionals will have to submit plans for children in out-of-home care. […]
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Lawyer Daniela Azzopardi says the new child protection law should ensure that children who have been abused by their relatives are not forced to speak out in front of them. 6.20pm – Updated with social workers’ association views A planned new child protection law should ensure that children abused by their relatives are not forced […]
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Foster parents are ‘delighted’ when children in their care are safely returned to their natural parents. However, they will put their foot down when years roll by and they remain without a place they can permanently call home, Patricia Graham and Charles Sammut tell Sarah Carabott. “How would you like it if a stranger comes to your house, where you […]
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Mistreated children are deprived of rights usually granted to victims of abuse and are often forced into meeting or going back to live with the perpetrators, according to the National Foster Care Association. “Victims of domestic violence are not forced to meet their aggressor, which is commendable, and, in the same manner, children who are […]
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Fears that proposed amendments to Bill will remove permanent fostering With the Child Protection Bill still to be debated in Parliament, foster carers are anxious about proposals to remove permanent fostering, which they say can give children more stability. Foster carers are worried that proposed changes to a Bill to protect children will remove permanent […]
Read moreA primary school teacher raised the alarm that one of her students was being sexually abused after the girl inadvertently strayed into the area below the belly of the man while colouring in a drawing. The drawing was sent to the government’s Child Protection Services where social workers, accustomed to “much more explicit drawings” by […]
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