A complete overhaul of the children’s home institutions will begin in September as Government has scrapped a plan to place cameras in homes. In an interview yesterday, Minister in the Ministry of Gender and Child Development Raziah Ahmed said the ministry recognised that the systems in children’s homes were outdated. “The nature of the issues that children go to these homes with today are very different from the issues that were there when the state first partnered with NGOs to fund these institutions,” Ahmed said.
She said the staff at most institutions were not properly trained or equipped to deal with children. “The entire system at these institutions are being overhauled,” she added. This comes after a report confirmed that Brandon Hargreaves, 14, died as a result of being beaten to death at the St Michaels’ Home for Boys. For several years there have been allegations of sexual, mental and physical abuse of children in homes by staff members.
Last year, former Minister of Gender and Child Development Marlene Coudray said there was a plan to place cameras in children’s homes while touring the St Mary’s Children’s Home, Tacarigua. Yesterday, Ahmed said that plan had not progressed. “The privacy of the children would have been compromised. We are still discussing the possibility of using cameras in the external environment. Placing them in the yard and in corridors may still be an option,” Ahmed said.
She said the Children’s Authority, which was expected to become fully operational by the end of September, will be setting up a pilot assessment centre in Mt Hope next month.
“Currently, when children go through the court system, they have to be assessed in different places by a number of people. “What changes is that these assessment centres will be sort of a one-stop shop for all of that and will be very child-friendly. “There will be plainclothes police officers, properly trained staff and I know that the Judiciary is also having training sessions for their staff,” Ahmed said.
She said in the past institutions had been staffed by people who did not possess adequate training to deal with children. “We have institutions being run by nuns who are not trained to deal with the new issues that we have to deal with, like drug use by children. We need people with specialised training,” she added. The assessment centres, which will be operated by the Children’s Authority, will house specialised social workers, police and judicial officers and doctors who are sensitised to deal with children, Ahmed said. Two additional centres are expected to be set up in Chaguanas and Manahambre before next year.