Like countless other foster carers, Daniella Zerafa’s heart sank when the news emerged last week that foster care team leader John Rolè was to be removed from his long-standing post at Aġenzija Appoġġ.
And while the fostering expert was reinstated following a massive public outcry, many deemed the incident to be the ultimate wake-up call, reflecting the flaws which have increasingly plagued the system.
Ms Zerafa is positioned uniquely to describe and comment on the state of Malta’s fostering system. Apart from being a foster carer, she spent 10 years, between 1998 and 2008, as a social worker at Appoġġ, working closely with children throughout. For three of those years, she worked directly with fostered children.
She also lectures social policy and social work at the University of Malta and is reading for her PhD in social work, focusing on child protection services’ decision making.
“As foster carers, we feel neglected and ignored – the system does not take into account our voice whenever a decision affecting the child’s life is taken,” Ms Zerafa tells The Sunday Times of Malta.
The system does not take into account our voice whenever a decision affecting the child’s life is taken
“We have the children living with us 24/7. It is we who see the effects of the traumatic experiences they have gone through come to life. We are the ones comforting the children when they wake up screaming in the middle of the night; we are the ones who quell their fears after a particularly upsetting visit with their birth parents causes them to regress and become incontinent throughout the day.”
It is not enough, the 38-year-old continues, for foster carers to be told that they are doing an invaluable job by the powers that be, only for the system to go on taking decisions without due consideration being given to their feedback.
“The children we take care of deserve better. They need us to be key actors in the team of people who take decisions in their favour – nobody can bring their voice to life the way we can.
“John Rolè’s ‘fault’ was that he saw this and never stopped pressing for it.”
Ms Zerafa’s eyes light up with pride and love whenever she speaks of Gina*, the six-year-old child she has been fostering together with her husband for the past three years. Framed photos of the smiling child decorate the mantelpiece and walls of her home.
“To put matters into context, let us first make it clear that it is very difficult for children to be removed from their birth families. The care order decision is taken after many years of social workers closely following the families and offering support.
“Children are only removed from their birth families in extreme cases which offer no hope for improvement.”
Children are often brought to foster families in heart wrenching conditions. They are often sick, malnourished, unkempt, incontinent and lice infested – all of which Ms Zerafa has witnessed personally.
“I remember a three-year-old who was incontinent and was not dressed in a nappy. She kept urinating in her jeans – they would dry and she would urinate in them again. Her body resembled one open wound.”
Some even bear the marks of physical abuse such as bruises along their spine and cigarette burns. The current law does not make it mandatory for child abuse cases to be reported to the police, although this should change once the draft Child Protection Bill comes into effect.
Some children even suffer from lasting impairments, such as partial blindness after a pre-school squint is neglected. The emotional scars are among the longer lasting repercussions, Ms Zerafa says.
Once a child is put into foster care, a social worker is assigned to the foster carers while another social worker is assigned to the child.
Children see their birth parents through supervised access visits, where children are taken to a safe environment to spend some time with their birth parents. Here, they are joined by yet another person, referred to as a supervised access visit supervisor, who writes a short report about each visit, which is then passed to the other social workers.
The frequency of visits is case dependent – some children view their parents once a week while others see them monthly.
The child’s case is reviewed every six months by the Children and Young Persons Advisory Board, which is tasked with taking important decisions for the child’s well-being, such as whether the contact time with his or her birth parents should be increased.
“Children are ushered into a room before unfamiliar faces and asked intimate questions, such as how they perceive their visits with their birth parents to be progressing. Children need time and a context to build a trustful relationship. Gina, for instance, only opens up when we’re cuddling after I’ve just read her a bedtime story which has struck a particular chord with her.
“Relying on what a child says in those 15 minutes before the Board is a superficial way of going about it. That’s why our voice as foster carers is so important. Unfortunately, we are only called in after waiting for hours outside the room where the decision has been taken. They listen to us as a matter of formality but do not truly take what we say on board.
“Sometimes, we’re made to feel like we’re there to cash in – foster carers receive €70 a week. Some foster carers save it up for the child while others – as is perfectly acceptable – spend it on the child. Gina goes to a Church school and I send her to ballet and gymnastics classes.
“You do expect people to treat you as more than a mere babysitter.”
The myth, Ms Zerafa continues, is that foster carers do not like it when children have contact with their birth parents.
This is absolutely not the case – it was the way that visits were managed which foster carers often took issue with. Foster carers are not provided with immediate feedback of how the visit went.
“The children are just deposited back at our homes without as much as a word of how the visit progressed. Sometimes we realise from the children that something distressing has happened – in that case, we need immediate feedback to support the child.
It’s always difficult for foster carers when children are returned to their birth families but our top priority remains the child’s interest
“Sometimes, the painstaking process of making the children feel safe and secure can be dismantled after one visit and we need to start again from scratch, with the children fearing they will be taken away from us.”
Ms Zerafa can only imagine how difficult the experience must be for the birth parents to have their children taken away from them and then to see them thriving with another family.
However, she explains, this should not let us get side tracked from always keeping the child at the centre of decisions.
“It’s always difficult for foster carers when children are returned to their birth families, but our top priority remains the child’s interest.
“So I’d be thrilled and would wholeheartedly support Gina if she were to return to an environment which is just as good as, or better than, what she has found here.
“But we should stop viewing children as an extension of their parents. We talk a lot about parental rights – but the law gives you those rights with all the responsibilities attached to them. If you do not fulfil those responsibilities, then you forfeit those rights.
“After all that a child who ends up in foster care would have gone through, the child’s well-being should never be put at risk again.”
The law is needed to back the decision makers, but the change in the law alone is not enough, Ms Zerafa says. A change in attitude is needed.
“Social workers and board members change throughout the years – Gina is into her third social worker.
“Foster carers are the constant people who live with the child 24/7. Who knows them best?”
*The child’s name has been changed to protect her identity.