The Commissioner for Children, Carmen Zammit, was critical yesterday of how children had been uprooted from Gozo's Lourdes Home, adding that her office was planning an in-depth analysis of out-of-home care.
She expressed concern at the closing of Lourdes Home, which has been surrounded by controversy for weeks after a report, commissioned by the Gozo Curia, established that there had been cases of inadmissible behaviour involving minors.
Residential care is close to Ms Zammit's heart, having worked in the sector for a number of years. But despite her experience in the area, Ms Zammit yesterday lamented that her proposal for the government to step in to keep the home open to avoid unnecessary turmoil for the youngsters had fallen on deaf ears.
Ms Zammit said she had proposed that lay people would continue taking care of the youngsters at the home they had grown used to until the situation was carefully examined and a long-term solution found. But she felt that her proposal was not given any weight, she told The Times.
Shortly after the Gozo Curia made a public apology - although it stopped short of publishing the report - the Dominican Sisters who ran the Home in Għajnsielem decided they could no longer continue working with minors, for whom new homes had to be found. Last week, the CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, Joe Gerada said the process to move the 10 youngsters to homes in Malta had started and the children - aged between eight and 15 - would be re-homed in the shortest time possible.
In a strongly-worded statement, the Children's Commissioner expressed concern about the fate of the children and the effect that the move from the home in Gozo had on them.
"The transition from the family home to a residential care institution is a traumatic occurrence in itself for the children involved, without having to be exacerbated by cutting the ties that the children would have formed while in Lourdes Home.
"The children have not only changed their residence but have also been separated from one another, changed schools in the run-up to the exam period and moved to a neighbouring island. These factors already present difficulties when considered separately and are magnified when they are imposed on these children simultaneously."
Ms Zammit said the children, whom she has met, expressed concern about how they could keep in touch with the Sisters who ran the home.
They were also worried about the fact that they would be separated from their friends after having lived together for a while.
"Social workers must give all the professional help that the children need and I hope that the youngsters are properly listened to," she said.
Aside from this particular case, Ms Zammit said the fact that Gozo has ended up without a single residential Home needed to be looked into. She pointed out that, while fostering remained the best option for out-of-home care, there would always be children who did not fit within foster care, making a residential set-up essential, even if only to cater for crisis cases. Ms Zammit said it was important for the country to have a strategic plan for children who no longer live in their natural home.
Her office was looking into how the analysis could be carried out. "I can give my input in this sector," she said.
Last week, Mr Gerada stressed that no decisions were taken without first consulting the children and the youngsters were also taken to visit their new home on a number of occasions to get them acquainted with the social workers and the other children living there before the move was finalised.
He also pointed out that this was not the first time children were being moved from one residential home to another because many Church homes only kept children until they reached a certain age before moving them to a new home when they grew older.
The Social Policy Ministry has not yet reacted to Ms Zammit's statement.