Staffing in place soon for new social agency

The Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs is a step closer to concluding negotiations for staffing the Social Empowerment Agency, which will merge four key departments.

Minister Kirk Humphrey said the government will soon begin the process of offering positions to staff. “Essentially, we are getting ready to offer the staff the new positions that we have settled on. Of course, we’re waiting for the unions to finally sign off on the new terms of reference for the jobs and to go over and approve the offers. I think that the unions so far have been happy with what we’ve done.”

Speaking during a recent engagement with Japanese officials at his ministry, he said he believes that in just over a month, the amalgamated services will be fully on stream. “We anticipate that by the middle of May — latest is the first of June — we’ll be in a position to announce the new social empowerment agency. Meanwhile, we are continuing the training. Our intention is that when people walk into this new entity on day one, they can feel a difference in the way that they are treated. They can feel a difference in the services that we offer, the speed in which we respond.”

He reiterated the government’s intention to have branches of the agency across the island. “As you already know, we’re locating these empowerment centres all over Barbados so that people can get services for all of these various things on location. That’s essentially where we are.”

Minister Humphrey also pointed to the need for better data systems to support policy and service delivery.

“The Government of Japan is very good at using data, collecting, retrieving, and using data,” he said.“Barbados has to get to that point where we can collect, use, and retrieve data in the same way, and that is where we can continue to partner and hopefully continue the training that we have started since 2023.”

Humphrey first announced the amalgamation of the Child Care Board, National Disabilities Unit, National Assistance Board (NAB), and the Welfare Department in February 2022. (LG)