Huge rise in child services cases

Cases handled by Agenzija Appogg involving children rose by 78 per cent between 2001 and 2003, the agency's latest report shows.

The report, published every two years, shows that the agency's caseload increased by 23 per cent from 2001 to 2002 and by 21 per cent from 2002 to last year.

This year the agency is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Chief executive Joe Gerada said yesterday that at the end of last December the total caseload stood at 6,263, with 2,560 of them related to children's services.

Mr Gerada said there was a high increase in child protection services, not because there was necessarily an increase in abuse but because the service was more accessible.

Mr Gerada said there was a "big rate of expansion". He explained that the agency was very sensitive to ever-changing client needs and it was aware that it needed to change to better cater for clients or else become outdated. In the past two years the agency became "trend-setters" in the social welfare sector.

Mr Gerada said that as part of the ongoing restructuring of the agency, extensive training was given to the staff, who, he said, went the extra mile and their work made a difference in the quality of service. He stressed the importance of training across the board since social work was a chain of services.

"Appogg cannot be seen in isolation but as one of the important tools in the social inclusion framework," he said.

Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina said that in the past 10 years Malta evolved from a welfare state to a social society. It had moved beyond providing monetary assistance to those who fall behind and instead was providing quality social welfare services, through which it was ensuring social and tangible protection to people in need.

Ms Cristina said one of the agency's main achievements in the past two years was to raise awareness of zero tolerance against abuse. She said the agency looked at the person, the problem and the solution from a holistic point of view.

She spoke about seeing clients as people and not just numbers adding that sometimes she lost sleep thinking about children's problems.

On the subject of children, Ms Cristina said some were growing up with problems and it was imperative to take care of them. She said that at present there were about 160 children under a care order - about 30 of whom were unaccompanied child illegal immigrants. She said fostering was a success story enjoying high demand.