Permanent Secretary Francis Borg told www.di-ve.com that children in foster care or residential homes were particularly vulnerable and therefore deserved the kind of care that can most ensure their wellbeing and that can lead to the best possible outcomes for these children.

“It is a great responsibility on the state to provide the means by which the quality of the service provided to these children and their families is ensured,” he said. “We have worked in close collaboration with stakeholders in the field and following an intensive public consultation process, we launched National Standards for Out-of-Home Child Care, model policies and procedures for Out-of-Home care and a 10-year strategic plan.”

He added that taken together, these 3 documents can help to achieve consistently good outcomes for these children.

A separate child-friendly version of the standards has also been published by the Department for Social welfare standards. This version was prepared by a young person who was a member of the working group that drew up the standards and was illustrated by children who are in care.

The documents also highlight the need for a continuum of services, that meets the needs of children in care in a holistic manner. They are based on the belief that the child should be in cared for the minimum of time necessary and that the reasons why children were placed in care need to be addressed. They highlight the need for intensive work that needs to be carried out with families at risk and with families whose children have entered the care system. This work needs to be preventive in order to support families and avoid the need to remove children from their families.

A 2-day conference is being organised by the ministry entitled “Family: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” in January, which will have a keynote speech by Angela Abela, the director of the Centre for Family Studies, among other top speakers.

Families are urged to ook their participation by phoning 2590 3108

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