A law will aim to free more children in care for adoption.

Children living in foster care may finally have the peace of mind that comes with a stable home under a proposed law that will allow permanent fostering.

The law, still in draft stage, will introduce mechanisms to free up children living in residential care for adoption in cases where all attempts to reunite them with their birth parents have failed.

It also transfers the issuing of care orders, currently the responsibility of the Family Ministry, to the law courts and suggests the setting up of court services to cater for children in care.

Family Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca yesterday presented the draft law – which tackles children who live in out-of-home care – to Justice Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici who will kick-start the process to produce the legislation.

This, the minister said, was the “first chapter” of the long-awaited Children’s Act that had been in the pipeline since 2000.

This was the first chapter of the long-awaited Children’s Act

The Act will collect all relevant children’s provisions that are currently fragmented across different laws and should come into force by the end of this year.

Ms Coleiro Preca said the draft was put together by a dedicated team following vast consultation with children, birth parents, foster carers, professionals, judges and the Attorney General.

Over the years foster carers have been calling for a more stable option for children they care for.

As things stand today, only temporary foster care exists, with foster carers having to face a review every six months. Introducing permanent fostering would remove this uncertainty and allow for future planning.

As opposed to adoption, foster carers do not have parental rights. Children in care are rarely freed up for adoption and the law aims to address this issue.

Under the current system, for a child who lives in a residential home to be adopted, there first has to be a request to adopt them.

If adoption is considered to be in the child’s interest, the biological parents’ consent is sought – and this often blocks adoptions as the courts can only override parents in certain cases, such as instances of abuse.

Biological parents can currently refuse to give consent

Sketchy details of the draft law were yesterday outlined by Ruth Farrugia, who chairs the National Commission for the Development of Strategy and Policy for Children.

She said the draft introduced the concept of shared parenting and broadened the type of care orders that could be issued to cater for specific circumstances.

It suggested setting up Child Court Services that would strengthen the child advocate system and introduce guardians and mediators.

The draft law also suggested having a register in court specifically dealing with cases of child protection, and making it mandatory for people who worked with children to report abuse or negligence, or face a fine.

A child assessment centre would also be set up where a social worker would assess where a child should be placed.

This would also apply in the case of migrant children.

A Children’s House would be set up to serve as a hub where children would be assessed and all services given.