Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 23/Nov 04:44

Rebuilding TT’s broken child welfare system

World Children’s Day was celebrated on November 20. It is more than a symbolic date on the calendar. For us in TT, this day comes when our country must confront an uncomfortable truth: that for nearly a decade, our systems have failed to protect the most vulnerable. We have seen too many children become a memory, a headline, a lesson learnt in a court judgment, a trigger to finally implement change – all due to a failed system. Parents cannot be the only ones put on public trial for a child’s suffering. It falls on society and the agencies meant to assist. The Children’s Authority was fully operationalised in 2015, and was proclaimed as a national turning point, a landmark moment for child protection in TT. For the first time, TT had a regulatory body specifically designed to investigate the abuse of children, license children’s homes, provide emergency placements and advocate for child rights. Yet for the last near-decade, its potential has been undermined by a plague of systemic failures – limited funding, inadequate staffing and lack of inter-agency co-operation. The last decade has proved the failure to focus on implementation has left gaps which have directly affected the safety of children. These gaps are not insignificant. Investigators and social workers are overburdened, carrying a caseload which far surpasses best practices, which makes meaningful intervention difficult; children’s homes often lack adequate staffing and monitoring; and reports of abuse sometimes fall through the cracks, not because of lack of care, but because the system designed to respond is strained to its limits. Over the last nine years, a pattern has emerged – one marked by recurring inquiries, reports that gather dust and failures that leave children unprotected. A human cost is attached to each opportunity missed to fix the system and properly implement what has existed since 2015. These shortcomings represent real children whose lives have been disrupted, compromised or forever altered. World Children’s Day reminds us that we cannot allow another decade to pass defined by the cycles of failure. Our child-protection and child-justice systems have not worked as they should, and acknowledging that truth is the first step toward meaningful change. In TT, far too many children have encountered the justice system not because they are criminals at heart, but because they have been failed long before they ever break a law. Strengthening our child-care frameworks means recognising this truth and responding with compassion and structure – something that is finally on the horizon. The current initiatives proposed may not fix every problem, but they target foundational weaknesses which have plagued our system for too long. Child protection cannot rest on the shoulders of a single agency or even parents. It requires co-ordinated action from agencies, schools, law enforcement, social workers, families, communities – all led with care and tangible action. The focus on early screening, structured parental training and mental-health intervention represents a shift away from reactive measures toward prevention and systemic strengthening. The focus should also be on a justice system that prioritises rehabilitation and restoration, particularly for young offenders, who themselves are often victims of trauma and neglect. Many of these young offenders have first faced the courts as children who are victims of neglect, put into the system which ultimately failed them. World Children’s Day is not only a moment to reflect for TT, but also a chance of hope that action is on the way. The commitment to turn promise into reality requires allocating resources to strengthen investigations, revamping our children’s homes, training our social workers, enforcing oversight and building capacity. All stakeholders need to co-ordinate so that children navigating the system are not lost in transition, something which has occurred for too long. Our nation’s children cannot afford another nine years of inaction. With policy commitments now before us, the only acceptable outcome is meaningful change. Our nation’s children need hope that their wellbeing is not another boardroom debate, a “sad read” headline or another judgment to learn from – but a shared national mission. Denelle Singh is an attorney at law The post Rebuilding TT’s broken child welfare system appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.