Residential child care in Malta

Abstract

The first assumption is that every child has a right to a family of his own. Preferably, the family should be the one into which the child is born since it is here that his need for committed affection, as well as for security is most likely to be met. If the child's parents are unwilling or unable, even with help,to provide fer his basic emotional and material needs, society must try to provide satisfactory alternative care, either as an emergency while his own family is helped back to adequate functioning or as a permanent substitute. The second assumption is that the emphasis on the family does not discredit residential care. It may indeed be the placement of choice for some children. But for the young child, group care without his parents can only be considered satisfactory if it is very brief, as a part of a plan for diagnosis or treatment, or as a stage in the rehabilitation of either child or family. There are various areas of exploration in which the causes for variations in the proportions of children in care can be sought, such as: needs, services, the structure, the policies and the work itself. So this particular study is viewed from a limited and inevitably artificial framework. These artificial limits nevertheless focus attention upon an important area and era of the social policy regarding child residential care in Malta. Also, due to the constraints of time and resources only the views and opinions of the caregiver were elicited. Bearing in mind that the voice of the child in care should be an important determinant in having a more holistic view of the situation. But the limitations to the objectivity of the study which arise as a result of an exclusive focus on children in care, are not necessarily of a serious nature. There is every reason to believe that the people on the sending end are in a way accurate in their assessments and judgements, and in their recall of past events. This type of subjective information was kept to a minimum where it was possible.