'Children cannot spend years in care'

Children 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.
“First and foremost, this law has to be about children and this means it needs to include permanency. Permanency for children means stability, security and having some form of structure in their lives.

“We cannot have children lost in out-of-home care. Children cannot spend years in care, waiting for someone to decide about their future… waiting for their parents to one day wake up and do something about their issues,” association chairman Joseph Antoncich told Times of Malta.
Earlier this month, the MASW set up a group of stakeholders – including Appoġġ social workers, representatives of children’s homes and foster carers – to give the Family Ministry feedback about the new Child Protection Bill.
A draft of the law had been submitted by President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, when she was family and social solidarity minister, in 2014,...