Maltese politics crumbling children's lives

Recent developments in the Maltese Foster Care System

For the first time in Maltese history, in July of 2019, the Maltese parliament approved new legislation for child protection which came into force in July 2020.

The new law is known as The Minor Protection (Alternative Care) Act and is chapter 602 in the laws of Malta.

The Minor Protection Act stipulates that there would be two directorates; The Directorate for Alternative Care and The Directorate for Child Protection.

All children's services are gathered under the Directorate for Alternative Care, which provides a service for all the children in alternative care and youths who are in vulnerable situations.

The Directorate for Child Protection makes decisions, according to the new law, determining whether a child has to be removed from a biological family either via a court order or via a social contract. These children will then come into the services of the Directorate for Alternative Care.

Before the new legislation, an agency called APOGG focused on children and families and therefore covered a variety of services such as child, family, health and adult services. With the creation of the new directorates, APOGG now solely focuses on adult services such as the support line and the national helpline.

I spoke to Ms Remenda Grech, the current director for the Directorate of Alternative Care.

I asked Ms Grech whether the Maltese government is investing more money into foster care. She told me that recently the government has been taking fostering much more seriously.

In the last two years, there has been an increase in the fostering allowance, which hasn't happened for years. She explained the new law gives more legal rights to the children in care meaning the government has to invest more into foster care.

Ms Grech said she believes everything they have done in the last year shows that the directorate truly believes in fostering and believes in the best interest of the child. That it's not all talk, but they are actually enacting on things now. She said "we are seeing children who are really benefitting from what we are doing."

A new aspect that is included in the law is permanency.

What is meant by permanency? When a child is fostered, depending on the circumstances, there is always a possibility that they can return to their biological parents. Permanency plans prepare a child for long-term care in out of home placements (this can be in foster care or institutions). Thus giving the child a sense of security and stability.

Ms Grech said "as a directorate, we believe in our own heart that a child should go back to the biological family." However if they have tried everything and there is no possibility of reintegration, they want to give security to the children and that's exactly that the new permanency clause does.

So far, 37 permanency plans have been approved by court from July last year until now and there are more being processed.

This would seem like the right way forward, however after speaking to multiple people in Malta, they feel biological parents are given too many rights.

These permanency plans aren't offered until the directorate have tried everything in their power to get the child back with their biological family. This is where people believe the issues lie.

Therese Galea, who was institutionalised from birth until the age of nine, was forced at the age of five, to stay with her biological family for a weekend. This weekend traumatised Therese and ended with the police taking her back to the orphanage.

She passionately expressed "I don't care about the mother, I care about the kids. The kids are there to have their life, not to suffer the problems that their parents had."

(Read more about Therese's story here.)

Mr John Role, the man who started the Foster Care System in Malta, agrees with Therese and thinks the new law focuses too much on the rights of the biological parents. He explained how he has seen biological parents promising their kids that they will take care of them and, in his experience, rarely did so.

I had an interview with Mr Edgar Galea Curmi, a professor of Social Policy and Social Work in the Faculty for Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta. Mr Galea Curmi said that this issue was officially pointed out by a minister who said that a balance between the rights of the foster carers and the biological parents needed to be found.

Mr Galea Curmi believes that foster carers aren't seen as colleagues, but as competitors to the biological parents. If the directorate believes a child should maintain a relationship with the biological parents, the best way is to involve the foster carers. Foster carers are a resource for the social services and should be viewed that way.

Mr Galea Curmi explained this has been an ongoing issue in Malta. He shared an article that was published in 2015, in the Times of Malta, about foster carers being anxious that permanent fostering would be removed from the proposed changes to the Child Protection Bill and where the Prime Minister, at the time, says that permanent fostering is "not à la carte".

Although these issues were expressed to me, everyone told me that they are happy that the new directorate have actually enforced these permanency plans as it shows that there is change being made and it is a good way forward.

After hearing about these issues with the biological parents, I asked Ms Grech what was being done for the children that don't want to visit their biological families.

Ms Grech said they are being more specific on what will happen to the child once they are removed from care.

She mentioned when a child will be returning to the biological parents, there are social contracts that would stipulate that the child will be going back to their biological parents in a years time (for example) but certain stated actions have to happen before they go back.

This makes sure that the child knows when they are going back and what is being done for them to go back. This wasn't happening before but they now make it very clear and transparent, which the new law insists on.

The other aspects she mentioned was coparenting. This is used in situations where they know that reintegration is possible, but not straight away and so the foster parents and biological parents will coparent until the child can return to the biological family.

This answer seems to back up what I have been told about the focus on biological parents.

On the flip side, the coparenting aspect does show that foster parents are being seen as a resource rather than a competitor.

Something that the directorate is doing to support foster carers more is investing in specialised fostering.

Families that are fostering more than one sibling are offered a package, called specialised fostering, where they are given more support and where the government gives them more allowances.

Something Mr John Role mentioned multiple times was that foster carers weren't legally recognised so they weren't getting any protection at all in the past.

When speaking about the present, Mr Role said the new law supposedly protects foster carers.

Mr Role believes, however, that the new law is a mash-up of a care orders act, a child protection act, fostering and residential care. There isn't a Foster Care Act, per-say, where it states that foster carers should be protected.

Mr Role believes that Foster carers should get more support as they are providing a 24-hour service, he said "I don't think you can ever give foster carers enough support."

Mr Role told me that foster carers receive online training once a month, however it doesn't seem to be completely effective as foster carers have formed a separate facebook group where they discuss complaints and issues.

I knew about the group Mr John Role was speaking about, in fact I am a member of the group. I joined so I could get an idea of what these foster carers were struggling with and what areas they need more support with.

Due to Malta being a very small country, making people and specific situations easily identifiable, I will not be divulging any information that was shared with me.

I had people from the group come forward to speak to me and then days later, messaging me, worried that they would be recognised by their story and asking me to retract them. They were worried it could cause harm to them or their foster children if the wrong people got access to the information.

This immediately rang alarm bells about freedom of speech and possible repercussions in a very small community.

Mr Galea Curmi reaffirmed that foster carers are a major resource that social services should be working with. Once they are seen as colleagues and people to support and finance, there can be real change.

Mr Galea Curmi shared a diagram called 'Circles of Support'.

As shown above, the graph consists of four circles; the core, which is the circle of intimacy, the circle of friendship, the circle of participation and finally, the outer circle which is the circle of exchange.

Children in care tend to have most of their support in the outer circle, but they need the core in order to try and live a normal life.

He explained that formal services are limited in what they can do to replace or replicate what families do for people, with the exception of Foster Care and Adoption.

The system can have the best professionals but they can't give these children a sense of security, belonging, purpose or self actualisation which give them their self identity. He said "There is no professional that could give to a child, what a foster family can give."

This is why Mr Galea Curmi thinks it's a shame that the system is missing this support towards foster carers.

Ms Remenda Grech spoke about other important aspects of the new law. One of these being the possibility of adoptions.

Incited in the law, foster carers who have been fostering a child for five years and in some cases three, can adopt the child. She mentioned "this is going a step further and having foster families adopt the child and thus the child having a legal family to call their own."

​This is another sensitive area and once again, to outsiders who haven't experienced what children in care go though or what foster carers go through, this seems very positive. It gives a chance to see whether the child can fit into the family properly and then they can officially become apart of this family.

However, from someone who has the experience of being in care, it doesn't seem good enough.

Therese Galea told me that she believes a foster family shouldn't have to wait as long as five years to adopt a child and that if the child fits into the foster family nicely, they should be able to legally become a part of that family.

Ms Grech said something the directorate needs to focus more on is to properly prepare the children by listening to the children's views.

This is something that needs to change in Malta because the mentality is that children cannot be heard, but they can. She said "Adults cannot make a decision, on the behalf of a child, without actually hearing what the child has to say."

Ms Grech spoke about a recent restructuring of supervised access visits, where she sent her manager to go and speak to the children, to get their views on how the service should change.

A supervised access visit is "when a parent can only visit their child under supervision of someone, this could either be a family member or social worker. The visits can take place in the parents home, the foster parents home or a designated visitation facility."

​Ms Grech believes that as a children's directorate, to create positive change, she has to discuss with the children and hear what they want. This is something that the directorate is working on.

An issue that was raised to me by Heidi and Maria, was that Maria was stripped of the chance to grow up with her sister. I asked Ms Grech how they are avoiding situations like these.

Ms Grech said the government is investing heavily into community homes and residential homes.

When a child is put into care, there are multiple options. Foster care, community homes, and residential homes. These also fall under the Directorate for Alternative Care.

The Directorate runs eight community homes, some have one child, some have two children and some have four children. Many having homes with only siblings.

Ms Grech explained that if they don't find foster families for siblings, they can go to these community homes where they become apart of the community and live with carers.

Ms Grech and I spoke about the importance of social workers and how the directorate makes sure a child is comfortable with their social worker.

She said if a child isn't bonding with the social worker properly, they make sure the child has a support person, someone meaningful, that the child can go too. Sometimes this is another social worker, a mentor, a youth worker or the foster carer.

Ms Grech focuses on the importance of the child having someone there to support them who they can form an emotional bond with.

At the moment Malta is facing a lot of struggles with regard to social workers.

Ms Grech explained that in the past they had no resources or money to invest in social workers, however at the moment she has the money and the approval, but can't find the people.

She said there is a shortage of social workers and that the University of Malta isn't producing enough.

However, as a foundation they have the best collective agreement in Maltese history and there was never a time where the social workers were remunerated in the way that they are now.

She explains that the CEO worked incredibly hard to get them a good package. The social workers are provided with CPD (Continuing professional development- helps the social workers maintain and improve their practice), training and the option to move around services, while still be retained in the foundation.

I asked Ms Grech how they support children in care once they are of age. She told me that last year, her directorate started an aftercare service.

Once the child attains the age of 15, whether in foster care or residential care, they are followed by the aftercare service until they are 18. The service makes sure that there is a good plan set out after they turn 18. Whether they want to stay in training, remain in education, if they want to find employment or if they want to stay with their foster carer.

The directorate has the youth services within it, to focus on this and help struggling children later in life.

The youth workers and professional help struggling youths not only with finding jobs but with social skills and reintegration in society. They have numerous services such as drama groups, interventions and detached youth work.

There is a project which is funded by Norway to give an opportunity for children to enter into skills training or employment.

I spoke to Anna Azzopardi, Therese Galea's foster mother and she expressed her concerns with the after care services.

Anna believes that these children need more support after they reach the age of 18 because they don't simply grow up over night.

Something I heard from almost everyone I spoke to was the importance of placing a child straight into a home from brith. That babies should not be placed in a children's home.

Anna Azzopardi has the experience of fostering a child that was institutionalised until the age of nine, as well as fostering a child who was given to her as a baby. She notices a clear difference and sees the damage caused by children being institutionalised.

As a child who was institutionalised until the age of nine, Therese Galea also feels very strongly about this.

She said that if a child has the possibility of being placed into a home from birth, they should get that chance because otherwise they will miss out on all of the things that she did. She doesn't understand why these children cant be given to these foster families that are opening their hearts to help these children.

I asked Ms Grech about this and she spoke about a new policy that her directorate has taken. The policy makes sure that any child under the age of three, that needs a placement, is given a foster placement. She said "We believe that a child as young as three, has to have a family."

She said they are working very hard on it and in the last few months they have managed to place every child under three, in Foster Care.

I was told by many that Malta as a country, struggles with support for mental health. A lot of children in care tend to develop mental health issues because of all the traumas they have been through. I asked Mr Grech how her directorate is supporting these children.

Much like others had told me, Ms Grech said that Malta has huge difficulties in this area. However she explained that the new law regulates a secure therapeutic unit which should help.

The unit has not yet come into force because to set it up you have to find a place and have the right training, which all takes time. She told me that "We are working on this in Malta."

The last area that Ms Grech and I discuss is the issues that they have with not having enough foster carers in Malta to meet the amount of children who need foster homes.

She said the directorate is planning a fostering campaign to try and urge more people to foster children. She highlights the campaign will clearly show the difference between fostering and adoption, as not everyone seems to understand this fundamental difference.

She explained how this is another culture change that is needed in Malta as they have had situation where the foster carers were not open for the child to go back to the biological family and this made things difficult. She said "Most often the case will be respite until the child is ready to go back to their biological parents."

Ms Grech said people need to understand that fostering may not be long term, and if they aren't happy with short term, they should adopt. The campaign will make this very clear.