As many as 164 children at risk of being abused or neglected are waiting for protection services offered by the government’s support agency.
The main reason for this is lack of human resources and the numbers speak for themselves.
Appoġġ Agency’s child protection service tackles the serious cases of abuse, including of a physical and sexual nature, and severe neglect.
A total of 687 children used the service manned by 17 full-timers and one part-timer between January and June last year, according to figures obtained from the agency.
The long waiting lists at Appoġġ were discussed earlier this month during a conference on disadvantaged children.
YMCA Homeless chairman Jean Paul Mifsud questioned why children were being placed on waiting lists and Chris Fearne, from Celebrities for Kids, stressed on the importance of having services that immediately targeted their individual needs.
Former Children’s Commissioner Sonia Camilleri had said: “Children are now. We can’t keep waiting.”
Apart from child protection, other children’s services offered by Appoġġ also have waiting lists.
The initial response service follows less severe cases of neglect that may, for example, involve a child who is not sent to school or left home alone.
Social workers assist both the child and the family.
This service has a waiting list of 78 children from 43 families. Last year, the seven full-timers who run the service worked with 1,385 adults and children.
When it comes to ensuring the well-being of children in care – be it adopted, fostered or living in a residential home – the looked after children service is following 370 children. Forty-four are on the waiting list. The team is manned by 15 full-timers and a part-timer.
Then there is the youth in focus service that works with adolescents having emotional and behavioural problems, including child delinquents. There is a waiting list of 60 children and 10 full-timers tackled 278 cases between January and June 2011.
The agency said priority was given to children under the age of three, cases of sexual abuse, children living in chaotic environments, children under care orders and young people with substance abuse problems.
“Cases that, upon assessment, are deemed to be less urgent and, due to human resources constraints, cannot be dealt with immediately are put on a waiting list,” the agency said.
In some cases, children were placed on waiting lists while the social worker consulted other professionals before intervening. The agency stressed that children on the various waiting lists could not be added up because there were cases of the same child needing different services.
Last year, an inquiry board that looked into the services offered to juvenile offenders found that Appoġġ had a big workload that did not allow social workers to follow a case thoroughly. Each social worker deals with about 40 cases when the recommended caseload is of 10 to 15 children per social worker.
The government has just reduced the Family Ministry’s budget by €1.7 million as part of the €40 million Malta had to cut from the Budget for 2012.
Family Affairs Minister Chris Said said the budget of Appoġġ would drop by €178,000 to €3.4 million. The government is insisting that, despite the cut, the 2012 allocation remains higher than that of previous years.