Child protection services have long-standing understaffing problem

Malta’s Child Protection Services have a long-standing understaffing issue, the Auditor General reported in a performance audit on the CPS.

With six social worker positions remaining vacant, this was cited as the primary reason for the prevalence of a waiting list for CPS’s services.

Specifically, while this had decreased from the 170 pending cases as at June 2019, theNAO noted that 138 cases were still posted to this list as at March 2020.

Auditor General Charles Deguara presented the report ‘Performance Audit: Tackling Child Abuse’, which focused on the Child Protection Services (CPS – an agency under the Foundation for Social Welfare Services’ (FSWS) portfolio and under the remit of the Ministry for the Family, Children’s Rights and Social Solidarity) and the Child Safety Services (CSS – falling under the National School Support Services within the Ministry for Education and Employment).

A gap was noted in CSS’s services, specifically during the summer holiday period. “CSS staff are engaged through contracts with conditions similar to those offered to teachers. This means that these personnel are not required to be physically present at school during the summer period and only do so on a voluntary basis.” 

Of central consideration, the study found that there are insufficient placements for children on care orders.

The FSWS primarily relies on third party accommodations to house its clients, which arrangements range from fostering, the preferred option, to agreements with NGOs or Church-owned homes. This placement supply is, however, consistently lower than the generated demand, which results in some children, who would require out of home accommodation, having to reside in an abusive or neglectful environment for longer than strictly necessary.

The NAO also observed shortcomings in CSS’s data-keeping, with CSS officials keeping individual and decentralised data on their assigned cases in formats which differ from one another. On the other hand, cases that are referred to CPS are listed in a central CSS database which has been active since the service’s inception in 1999. Throughout the years this database has experienced inconsistent inputting and has become cumbersome to manage.

The CPS deals with cases of suspected child abuse or severe neglect, as well as cases in which a child is deemed to be at risk of significant harm. In order for CPS to deal with such cases, it investigates referrals received from various sources which among others include schools, the Police, medical doctors, Supportline 179, as well as the general public.

Once such referrals are received, CPS launches a forensic investigation to ascertain whether the children in question require any assistance and, in the worst cases, whether they require removal from their respective homes through a care order.