Child Care Board to get additional workers this year to better serve children

Several posts requested by the Child Care Board will soon be filled and, according to Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey, it will make a significant difference in the lives of Barbados’ children.

During his remarks to launch Child Month 2024 at a church service at the People’s Cathedral, Collymore Rock, St Michael, he said the Child Care Board will be hiring additional staff, including a clinical psychiatrist, psychologist, specialised social workers and nurses.

“Those positions will now be filled during the course of the year… to allow us to serve the children a bit better than we have in the past,” he said.

Humphrey added that community leaders, past employees of the Child Care Board, teachers and others working together could contribute to making “a significant difference” in the lives of children across the island.

He said that while there had been a lot of “micro-intervention”, there was a need to also have “a more macro understanding of where we stand”.

“I say so because I think a lot of what we can achieve in Barbados depends on us working with other groups, working with the community groups, the community leaders, working with other agencies to have that large-scale intervention to prevent things from happening, to help build our society up and make it stronger.

“I look forward to a more macro level intervention. I believe it’s going to make a difference in Barbados. And I think that is why the amalgamation of the social services is so important. I think that would allow us to have a macro-scale intervention to work at the community level and to bring change. And, I also think that that is why the new child protection legislation is extremely important,” the minister said.

The new Child Protection Bill, he added, will be before the House of Assembly again on May 14. He said the intention is to “debate the new legislation on May 14, and hopefully to pass it to allow us to protect the children of this country because the children of this country deserve protection”.

Child Month is being celebrated in May under the theme, Our Children: Building Hope and Resilience for Tomorrow.

Minister Humphrey told the congregation at the special service that despite some children going down the wrong path, many others were doing positive deeds.

“I look at the youngsters in this audience and I anticipate that most of you, if not all of you, will go on to do yourselves, your family, your country extremely well. We are very proud of the children of Barbados. I also recognise, however, that even as some of us are doing well, there are some of us who are doing not so well,” he said.

(SZB/BGIS)