Irvine Best, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Family and Sports.
Going on record
3/11/2010
Government to lay protocol for mandatory reporting of child abuse
By Regina Selman Moore
Government is moving to set in place a National Reporting Protocol for the Prevention, Reporting and Management of Child Abuse.
Irvine Best, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Family and Sports, outlined the need for such to participants drawn from various sectors including health, the legal fraternity, and religious and social care agencies, at the opening of the Ministry’s Consultation on a National Reporting Protocol on Child Abuse, held at the Hilton Barbados yesterday.
Best stressed that while the number of children in Barbados who are abused and neglected can be deemed as “staggering”, the true extent of child abuse and neglect is not completely known and it is suspected that government statistics only “tip the iceberg” where abuse is concerned.
While professional groups and agencies such as the Child Care Board, the Royal Barbados Police Force, the medical fraternity and those involved in education and the general care of children may have protocols outlining the moral ethical and professional responsibility to report cases of abuse, they are not officially mandated under the law to report such. Hence the need for a National Reporting Protocol, outlining set policies, standards and procedures that would guide the work of all stakeholders.
“Such a system would assist agencies and departments to receive and respond to reports of all possible child abuse and neglect. It is a system whereby professionals and concerned citizens would be able to report suspected cases of child abuse to the Child Care Board or the police and have their concerns recorded in a central database, thereby ensuring that children have the best possible opportunity to have their traumatic experiences addressed,” Best outlined.
“The National Reporting Protocol is a mechanism whereby members of the public will be informed of what they can expect to happen when alleged abuse is reported, in that, concrete practical procedures for handling matters are identified and clearly articulated. The roles of all of the stakeholders would be clarified and identified, so that there would be no confusion or duplication of resources,” the PS added.
It is hoped that by establishing these guidelines the trauma associated with physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect will be reduced by improving inter-agency collaboration and that mandatory reporting of abuse will become an aspect of the system or procedures to be put in place.
Meanwhile, Maureen Graham, Chairman of the Child Care Board, has described the consultation as “relevant and timely” and she urged key stakeholders to give their input on the development of the Protocol.
Tom Olsen, Area Representative with UNICEF, in acknowledging the state’s response to protect its children, noted that while the National Reporting Protocol on its own cannot act as a “magic wand” to solve all the problems related to child abuse, it would still serve Barbados well to implement it, abide by it and live up to it.
