Three-quarters of child neglect or abuse cases reported to the authorities in recent years were bogus, official figures show.
According to the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, 4,106 reports of child neglect or abuse, collectively referred to as child protection, were investigated between 2014 and the first half of last year, with actual wrongdoing by parents or guardians being established in just over 1,000 of the reported cases. Unconfirmed figures for the second half of last year, which still need further analysis, indicate that about 93 per cent of the 350 claims investigated by social workers were false.
The figures were tabled in Parliament on Tuesday by Family Minister Michael Farrugia in reply to a question from Nationalist MP Robert Cutajar.
FSWS chief executive Alfred Grixti told the Times of Malta yesterday that although many of the reports received showed no actual abuse or neglect, people were still encouraged to come forward.
“We have a culture where people often err on the side of caution, hence we get a number of reports that don’t result in anything. However, this is better than having a culture where people do not speak out,” he said.
Mr Grixti said the foundation received reports from various sources, including the 179 support line, the police, schools, neighbours and next of kin.
There was also an “unquantifiable element” that affected the number of bogus reports received.
“We have a number of reports related to separation, where parents will be using the child as a pawn in the breakup,”Mr Grixti said.
He added that the number of such cases was “not small”, though it did not account for all the baseless reports.
Mr Cutajar tabled his question in Parliament in the wake of a news report last month which said that 850 to 900 cases of child neglect were investigated by the authorities every year.
Many of the cases involved parents who sent their children to school with a meagre lunch.
Asked about this, Mr Grixti said the foundation investigated cases flagged by teachers or other school staff. In fact, it had an agreement with the education authorities to work together on such matters.
“The definition of neglect is rather open ended and can vary from serious abuse to sending a child to school with an inadequate lunch. Now of course, there is neglect and there is neglect, but we investigate all the reports we receive,” he said.
Mr Grixti pointed out there was a difference between children being sent to school with an unhealthy or paltry lunch on occasion and “parents who didn’t give their children lunch to be able to afford a new phone”.
The figures tabled in Parliament included a breakdown of the localities where reports of abuse and neglect had come from. Although fairly evenly spread across the island, St Paul’s Bay has generated the most reports every year since 2014. Complaints from Cospicua, Birkirkara and Qormi were also higher than in other localities.