Children's residential homes at the dawn of the 21st century in Malta : an assessment of compliance to quality care standards

Abstract

The aim of this research is to acquire relevant feedback on the applicability of the proposed National Standards of Residential Childcare and the compliance of the residential Homes in Malta to such Standards. The research also seeks to identify the various limitations faced by the Homes to adhere to these Standards and surface any recommendations proposed by the same Homes to enhance compliance. These proposed Standards are outlined in a Consultation Document launched in February 2008. This study was carried out with Home managers of the existing twelve residential Homes in Malta, varying from those run by the Church, the State-owned and the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO's). Structured interviews held with residential Home managers have provided a very relevant contribution to the actual aim of my study. The responses depict a general consensus that the introduction of quality care standards regulating children's residential care, are actually very beneficial and provide very useful guidelines to caregivers. In fact, many respondents seemed enthusiastic about their actual implementation and have actively participated in a variety of focus groups held by the Department of Social Welfare Standards (DSWS). In light of this however, respondents also highlighted various aspects which they consider to be hindering them from fully adhering to the proposed Standards. The commonly featuring limitations are; the lack of financial and human resources available to the Homes, poor coordination between the Homes and the Agency responsible for the Welfare of the Child and inadequate support services available for both children residing in Care and their families. Some responses also highlighted the issues of lack of adequate in-house training available for caregivers and certain existing inequality practices between voluntary and involuntary admissions, amongst others. Furthermore, respondents have also provided relevant recommendations mostly based on their first-hand experiences. Some of the recommendations underlined the need for a wider support network system to be established for both children residing in Care and their parents and for pre-admission or emergency facilities to be set up, until the best placement of the child is determined. Some other recommendations were for increased Supervised Accessed Visits (SAV's) especially during weekends, and for more support to be provided to caregivers. Mainly all the respondents believe that for quality to be ensured and for quality Standards to be actually met, the State should provide residential Homes with the adequate tools and support systems, to be able to perform their caring role in the best possible manner. I consider my study to be of an added interest especially to policy-makers at this present time, mainly because of the particular time-frame in which it has been carried out. My study commenced some time after the Consultation Document for Residential Childcare Standards has been launched and has been concluded before the actual publication of the finalised Document. In light of this, policy-makers within the field of residential childcare may eventually make use of such study, seeking to extract core issues emerging from my research.