CHIDREN’s advocate Mary Clarke will no longer have to run to the Child Development Agency (CDA) every time she needs legal counsel on how to proceed with a case before her.

This is because the Office of the Children’s Advocate recently recruited eight professionals to assist with the business of ensuring the care and protection of Jamaica’s children, and is still looking to employ two more people to complete the team.

Among the new additions are three legal officers. There is also a public education specialist, two investigators, an accountant and an administrative assistant. The office is still in need of a researcher and an accounting technician, Clarke said.

Until then, Clarke said that the work of her office would be considerably improved.

“We can now more speedily address complaints,” she said.

“When I was alone, it took a longer time. To seek legal advise (for example), I had to borrow advisors from the Child Development Agency. Now I have staff on board so I should be able to handle the complaints more efficiently,” Clarke added.

She was speaking to the Observer on Thursday following a press conference at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston called to update the public on the operations of the office.

Clarke noted that each new worker brought some vital asset to her office, which should see it better serving the island’s children.

“I couldn’t have done any work without the lawyers. It is the lawyers who interface with anything to do with the justice system and interpret the (Child Care and Protection) Act,” she said.

“The investigation officers, we can’t do any work without them. When we get complaints, they have to go out into the field, do investigations on site (or through the use of) secondary data sources.”

The office of the Children’s Advocate opened its doors on the ground floor of the Air Jamaica building at 72 Harbour Street in downtown Kingston on May 31 this year. This was four months after Clarke officially took office as Jamaica’s first children’s advocate, as provided for under the 2004 Child Care and Protection Act (CCPA).

In the months since she took up the position, the office has received some 100 complaints to do with children. Clarke said Thursday that 40 or so of those calls were referred to the CDA or to the police, since they fell outside the jurisdiction of her office. She noted that the others, which included matters to do with street and working children, had either been resolved or were currently being dealt with by her office.

The responsibilities of the office as set out in the CCPA, meanwhile, include:

. review of law and practice relating to the best interest of children and services provided for them by the relevant authorities;

. making recommendations to Parliament or any minister as to the matters concerning the rights of children;

. taking responsible steps to ensure that the island’s children are aware of the functions and location of the office of the advocate and the ways in which they may communicate with that office; and

. investigating complaints made by a child that his or her rights have been infringed.

The advocate may also intervene in legal proceedings involving children, subject to certain stipulations under the act.