Social workers at the government support agency Appoġġ are working on a pilot project based on early intervention with children and families to “nip problems in the bud”.

It is not being envisaged that the existing waiting lists will increase because of any financial cutbacks

The six-month project is aimed at targeting the waiting list at Appoġġ Agency’s child protection service that tackles serious cases of abuse and severe neglect.

There are 164 children waiting for protection services. A total of 687 children used the service, which is manned by 17 full-timers and one part-timer, between January and June last year, according to figures obtained from the agency.

The Maltese Association of Social Workers has long been speaking about the need to take a preventative approach, as the pilot project is doing, and reaching out to families before the situation escalates.

A spokesman for the association stressed that parents of abused children usually required therapeutic and psychological help. However, there were long waiting lists for such services.

As a result, parents were being separated from their children, when placed in residential care, until their issues were tackled. Holistic, timely intervention was needed to ensure the parent-child bond was not broken.

Apart from child protection, other services offered by Appoġġ also have waiting lists, mainly because of lack of human resources.

A government spokesman said the recently-announced budget cut for Appoġġ would not affect waiting lists, service provision or staff recruitment because the funds remained higher than in previous years even after the cut.

Addressing a conference on disadvantaged children last month, former Children’s Commissioner Sonia Camilleri questioned why waiting lists remained year after year. What was the government doing about it, she wondered.

A spokesman for former Family Minister Dolores Cristina, who was responsible for social welfare until recently, said Appoġġ constantly developed programmes and services with the available resources to deal with the demand for services.

The budget allocated to the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, under which Appoġġ falls, increased every year since 2006 and new laws were enacted, such as the Fostering Act, the Adoption Act and the Domestic Violence Act, the spokesman said.

New initiatives were taken, such as the three new community services in Birkirkara, Qawra and Valletta, social benefits were improved and the government was working in partnership with NGOs and religious institutions.

A spokesman for the present Family Minister, Chris Said, pointed out that although the government was investing in the services, the demand was on the increase.

The government recently cut the ministry’s budget by €1.7 million as part of the €40 million the country had to cut from the Budget for 2012. The budget of Appoġġ dropped by €178,000 to €3.4 million.

“It is not being envisaged that the existing waiting lists will increase because of any financial cutbacks because both FSWS and Appoġġ are still receiving more funds than before (even after the cut),” he said.

“The number of employees within the agency will not be affected and FSWS and Appoġġ will still be able to increase the services offered over last year.

“Recruitment of other staff is envisaged for the next few months,” the spokesman said.