Children to be made 'a national priority'

The government's action plan for next year specifically targets children as a national priority area, especially those children at risk of social exclusion, said Joe Gerada, chief executive officer of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services.

He was addressing over 130 professionals from various fields, including education, social work, psychology and health, as well as representatives from local councils, non-governmental organisations and the Office of the Children's Commissioner, who attended a two-day seminar on Giving Children A Voice, organised by the Foundation for Social Welfare Services in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Mr Gerada said the seminar was part of a collective effort to reach the government's target.

"The training that our staff is getting is taking them one step higher in the quality of service they provide. Moreover, we have also invited employees of other organisations and NGOs to benefit from the input of lecturers, who are among the best in the UK in the field at the moment."

During yesterday's seminar, Jane Aldgate and Wendy Rose, renowned UK consultants from The Open University, discussed how the well-being of children could be improved in policy and practice and emphasised the importance of listening to children. They also spoke about the importance of children's rights, drawing on the Scottish experience.

The seminar also celebrated children's talents through the participation of Spinelli's Angels Choir.

The seminar was concluded by Commissioner for Children Sonia Camilleri, who pointed out that children had many opportunities to develop their talents at school and in the community.

A number of structures are in place, specifically to help children and their families, she said, while student councils are sprouting in a considerable number of schools, thanks to the Democracy in Schools Unit in the Department of Education.

As regards the national helpline, 179, where children call in to register their complaints, Ms Camilleri said it has had considerable success in that child victims of abuse are now reporting their aggressors almost immediately, whereas, in the past, they would live in silence, with their traumas and their self-inflicted guilt.

The problem is that "we don't really know what they (the children) say because we have not yet given them enough tools to come out in the open and tell us what they are feeling".

Listing the negative points, she said only two local newspapers have a children's page, where children are invited to write in; there are no children's news programmes on radio or TV and few school magazines, written by students for students. Only a couple of children's TV programmes are produced in collaboration with children and very few schools teach media education.

Ms Camilleri also pointed out that only one local council has a council for children which meets regularly and carries some weight and only 11 local councils have a temporary youth council.

Ms Camilleri said that children in court are still not heard in spite of the cosmetic structures introduced, while their cries for less school-related work seem to be falling on deaf ears.

Their extreme distress in the case of the separation of parents is not being addressed and, above all, over 350 children have reached out for help but have only been put on a waiting list because there are not enough professionals to deal with their cases.

"We seem to be heading towards child participation, but we have not got there yet, and our efforts still smack of tokenism. Families are still over-protecting their children when we should be empowering them more to speak for themselves, while we take more time to listen to them."

Quoting a real example, Ms Camilleri told the story of a seven-year-old girl who is preparing for her First Holy Communion. "A victim of past domestic violence, the traumas she went through changed her from a normal little girl to one with very serious psychological problems. No one has heard her speak since she saw the worst knife attack on her mother by her father.

"Her mother says that she does communicate with her when they are alone, and that she has lately seen her make some progress as she prepares with her friends for the coming happy occasion.

"All this changed dramatically when they got to know that the father plans to gate-crash her First Holy Communion celebration. As a father, he has a right to be present, but the girl is terrified and has gone back to bed-wetting. The mother has begged the father not to come but he is determined to be present."

The mother contacted Appogg and the Office of the Commissioner for Children, but the only thing she could do was file an urgent court request to ask that the father be prevented from coming near the child.

"She did this yesterday, but it is her word against her husband's. The celebration is soon. Will the court act in time? Will it believe the mother? Will it uphold the voice of a girl who cannot even speak?", the Commissioner for Children questioned.