THE Child Development Agency (CDA) is an executive agency, established in 2004, mandated to provide a stable and nurturing living environment for children in need of care and protection (ie, those abused, abandoned, neglected or otherwise in need of care and protection).

* The CDA’s core business objectives are:

1. Promoting the welfare and providing quality care for children in the care of the State;

2. Safeguarding children from abuse through advocacy and education;

3. Maintaining children within their families wherever possible and supporting families to meet their children’s essential social care needs; and

4. Advising on policy and legal issues relating to children.

* The CDA has regulatory responsibility for 63 residential child care facilities across Jamaica: 12 places of safety (pos) and 51 children’s homes.

* Twelve of these residential child care facilities are operated by the Government of Jamaica — four children’s homes and eight places of safety.

Profile of CDA clients

* Approximately six in every 1,000 children and their families in Jamaica are the direct recipients of services in the tertiary care and protection system.

* 6,023 children were in the care of the CDA, as at December 2009.

* Residential child care facilities, 2,529 or 42 per cent.

* LIFE programme, 3,494 or 58 per cent.

* 7,693 offered services by CDA, April – Dec ’09.

* 55 per cent behaviour management problems:

Criminality

Risky sexual behaviour

Violent actions

Persistent disobedience

* 1 per cent abandoned

* 5 per cent sexual abuse

* 5 per cent physical abuse

* 34 per cent other reasons (birth certificates, economic difficulties, special needs).

CDA revolutionising children’s services

* Directed by the recommendations contained in the:

* Children’s Services Department Modernisation Plan

* 2003 Report into conditions in children’s homes & places of safety (Keating Report) and

* The 1999 Ministry of Health report, Faces of Residential Care.

* The CDA has, over the last six years, sought to craft a new system of alternative care in Jamaica.

* The old/traditional reliance on the child rescue approach that is crisis-oriented and labour-intensive is being replaced by a new approach that embraces the family support model.

* This philosophical shift is responsible for the fundamental changes that have been made to the agency’s:

a) Governance structure;

b) Programmes promoting the welfare, safety and security of children;

c) Primary prevention;

d) Legal and policy development;

e) Relationship with service partners across the care sector; and

f) Resource utilisation & service delivery.

Firsts in the history of children’s services

Governance

1. Strengthening of the organisational structure

Appointment of chief executive officer

Regionalisation of operations

Divisional structure

Residential child care facilities managers and assistant managers (GOJ)

Increase cadre of children’s officers from 39 to 80.

Five social workers assigned to seven government facilities

Investigation team (10 members) introduced

Clinical psychologist team (four members)

Children & Family Support Unit (four members)

Serious Case Review Panel

2. Protocols, guidance and supporting instruments exist for all areas of operation

* Child Care & Protection Service Manual (guidance for all process areas)

* Standards of Care Guidelines

* Institution Monitoring

* Management of Critical Incidents

* Core assessment/safety determination

* Absconding Protocol

* Administration & Dispensation of Medicines

* Complaints Policy & Procedure

* Investigation Protocol

* Children & Family Support Protocol

* Disaster Planning, Management and Recovery Guidance

3. First-ever database on children in the care of the CDA (resulting from 2007/2008 census) leading to improved planning for individual children and influencing policy development and improvement on service delivery. For example, we know that:

* 413 clients suffering from acute/chronic illnesses

* 313 mental challenges

* 489 physical disabilities/impairment

* 735 children will be leaving the care of the CDA in 2010/2011

Welfare, safety & security of children

4. Child and Family Support Unit, which provides interventions for children whose situations do not necessitate going before the court:

* 192 families involving 220 children (12 – 16 yrs) served

* 116 male, 104 female

* 17 cases closed – satisfactory adjustment

* 2 families relocated – St Thomas and St Mary

* 6 cases referred to Court

* 81 cases referred to agencies

* 85 cases being service

5. Nine-member Central Investigation Unit that manages Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) referrals in the hotspots of Kingston & St Andrew, St Catherine and Clarendon.

* Between May and December 2008, 702 out of a total of 976 reports or 72 per cent received from the OCR were fully investigated and reported on.

* April – June 2009:

6. All children, on entering the care of the CDA, receive a first medical and dental examinations.

7. Care plans are developed for all children entering the care of the CDA.

8. 24-hr emergency response system in place.

9. All private residential child-care facilities licensed.

10. Four-member team of clinical psychologists appointed in April 2007 to focus on the cognitive, social and emotional development of clients, treated 1,126 children in the care of the CDA in 2007/2008 and 1,126 children in the care of the CDA in 2008/2009.

11. 3,494 or 58 per cent of the children in the care of the CDA are participating in the Living in Family Environments (LIFE) programme.

* Coming from 40 per cent prior to 2004.

* Home on Trial (HOT) over 1,000 mark for first time since tracking.

* Supervision Order: 544.

* Foster care: 1,183.

12. The mechanism for continuous updating of the database is in place.

13 Monitoring of police lock-ups.

April – December 2009:

— 1,099 visits conducted islandwide

— 217 children were identified in police lock-ups.

— Approximately 9 per cent were there for care & protection and were removed to places of safety.

14. Five GOJ facilities refurbished and 10 private facilities refurbished since 2004 and others:

Approximately J$45 million spent on rehabilitation of residential child care facilities.

Copse closed for renovation

Manning

Granville POS

Homestead

15 Critical Incident Logs instituted, monitored and evaluated for action:

* one in seven children affected by critical incidents

* 28 per cent hospitalisation due to illnesses

* 6.7 per cent deaths due to chronic illnesses

* 14 per cent injuries — accidental

* 17.5 per cent abuse & neglect

* 4.5 per cent behaviour management

* 22.9 per cent behavioural issues (fighting, etc)

16. Robust monitoring system, which is reviewed periodically, in place:

* In 2006/2008 – 474 visits made by monitoring officers to residential child-care facilities (67 per cent of target)

* In 2007/2008 – 591 visits were made (85 per cent of target)

* In 2008/2009 – 467 visits (67 per cent of target)

* As at Dec 31 – 477 visits have been made (87 per cent of target)

17. System to track the academic performance of children in care implemented:

* 70 per cent of children who sat CXC exams on 2009 got passes in at least 50 per cent of subjects taken.

18. Children eligible to sit the various nationally administered exams are registered (through funding support) to participate in GOGSAT online help sessions. A total of 365 children, who will sit exams in 2010, are benefiting.

19. Special Assistance Grant Committee established.

* Approximately J$3 million in Special Assistance Grants approved for educational, medical, funeral expenses and other developmental needs of children in care only.

20. Child participation made a key component of CDA’s policy formulation, strategic planning and decision-making.

* Four hundred and ninety Jamaican children, including children in the care of the CDA, consulted in the preparation of the third and fourth consolidated Jamaica Country Report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.

* 40 children in the care of the CDA participated in the development of the CDA’s Corporate Strategic Plan 2009 – 2012

* Pre- and post-testing of child-friendly guides to the Child Care & Protection Act among the targeted age groups (7-12 and 13-17) done with children.

* Life in Care Exit Instrument developed with the input of 60 children in the CDA’s care.

* Monitoring officers mandated to engage in discussions with children in the care of the CDA. In 2006/2007, monitoring officers met with 2,204 children individually, and in 2007/2008, they met with 4,515 children.

* 50 in focus groups sessions at the regional level.

* 150 participated in commemoration of World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse.

Continues tomorrow