Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@guardian.co.tt

De­spite a three-month ex­ten­sion, some chil­dren’s homes will fail to make the Ju­ly 1 dead­line for li­cen­sure and will be au­to­mat­i­cal­ly shut down by law.

As a re­sult of this, plans are be­ing made to find al­ter­na­tive lo­ca­tions for the wards of the state at three of 13 un­li­censed homes who have in­di­cat­ed they will be un­able to meet the re­quire­ments and are opt­ing out of the process.

Guardian Me­dia was al­so told that plans are al­so be­ing made to re­lo­cate the St Jude’s Home for Girls from its cur­rent lo­ca­tion in Bel­mont.

Ini­tial­ly, the un­li­censed homes were told to have their li­cences in hand by March 31 or they would face clo­sure. How­ev­er, a three-month ex­ten­sion was giv­en by Min­is­ter Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy to 13 fa­cil­i­ties. At that time, Web­ster-Roy said it would not be in the best in­ter­est of the 214 chil­dren at these fa­cil­i­ties to re­move them from a fa­mil­iar space, giv­en that these lo­ca­tions were very near qual­i­fi­ca­tion for their li­cences

The fa­cil­i­ties that were giv­en the ex­ten­sions were the St Jude’s School for Girls, St Mary’s Chil­dren’s Home, Mary Care Cen­tre, La­dy Ho­choy Home, the Tran­si­tion­al Home for Mi­grant Girls, Casa De Cora­zon, Jairah/Raf­fa House, Fer­n­dean’s Place, Chick­land Chil­dren’s Home, Joshua Home for Boys, Cyril Ross Nurs­ery, Op­er­a­tion Smile and Mar­i­an House.

Yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter Web­ster-Roy con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia that there will be no fur­ther ex­ten­sion be­yond Ju­ly 1.

“We are work­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty and the var­i­ous homes to pre­pare them, there are al­ready some homes that would have sig­nalled that they will not be ready and not be a part of the process,” she said.

Guardian Me­dia re­quest­ed from the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CATT) a list of the fa­cil­i­ties which will be shut down af­ter Ju­ly 1, when the Gov­ern­ment will pro­claim sec­tions 3(1), 2 and 17 of the Chil­dren’s Com­mu­ni­ty Res­i­dences, Fos­ter Care and Nurs­eries Act. This law will make it il­le­gal for any un­li­cenced fa­cil­i­ty to be in op­er­a­tion or have chil­dren in its care.

How­ev­er, the CATT failed to pro­vide specifics and in­stead stat­ed, “At this time, there are ten chil­dren’s homes work­ing as­sid­u­ous­ly to ob­tain li­cen­sure. The au­thor­i­ty has been col­lab­o­rat­ing with oth­er min­istries and agen­cies to sup­port these homes, in the fi­nal stages of the process to­wards li­cen­sure. The au­thor­i­ty con­tin­ues to close­ly mon­i­tor all chil­dren’s homes in their pro­vi­sion of op­ti­mal care to the res­i­dents.”

When asked what will hap­pen to the chil­dren in the three homes who have giv­en up on the process and the oth­ers who may not make the dead­line, the CATT said, “The au­thor­i­ty has al­so been seek­ing to rein­te­grate chil­dren with their fam­i­lies or pro­vide al­ter­na­tive place­ment op­tions, where pos­si­ble, ap­pro­pri­ate and in the best in­ter­est of the child.”

That ques­tion was al­so put to Min­is­ter Web­ster-Roy, who added that fos­ter care, the kin­ship pro­gramme and re­lo­ca­tion to li­cenced fa­cil­i­ties are al­so vi­able op­tions.

Nei­ther the Min­is­ter nor the CATT could pro­vide an ex­act num­ber of chil­dren who would be af­fect­ed.

How­ev­er, Min­is­ter Web­ster-Roy al­so re­vealed that the St Jude’s Home for Girls in Bel­mont will not make the Ju­ly 1 dead­line.

Yes­ter­day, the home’s man­ag­er, De­o­raj Sookdeo, said a fire on April 29 on the sec­ond floor of a main build­ing at the fa­cil­i­ty had set them back great­ly. But Sookdeo said a pro­posed change in lo­ca­tion could save the day.

“They have been look­ing at re­lo­ca­tion, that has been the thrust of the min­istry, to re­lo­cate to a fa­cil­i­ty that is more suit­able for li­cen­sure, the girls con­tin­ue to be here, and we are hop­ing to meet the dead­line be­fore the Ju­ly 1 date of procla­ma­tion,” Sookdeo ex­plained.

With the dead­line loom­ing, Sookdeo said he is hop­ing the state finds a lo­ca­tion soon. He said he an­tic­i­pates that with­in two weeks, they will have a clear­er idea as to their fu­ture lo­ca­tion.

In Oc­to­ber 2022, Min­is­ter Web­ster-Roy first an­nounced to Guardian Me­dia that plans to shut down the home’s Bel­mont lo­ca­tion were un­der­way, with the search for a new site on­go­ing.

Mean­while, Sookdeo sought to re­mind Guardian Me­dia that at least six­ty per cent of his pop­u­la­tion are chil­dren in need of su­per­vi­sion (CHINS) and their care should fall un­der the au­thor­i­ty of the Min­istry of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice.

“That min­istry does not even have a place for boys as yet, so far less for the girls, such a fa­cil­i­ty has not been es­tab­lished yet and that’s why those girls are still with us, so I don’t know at the min­is­te­r­i­al lev­el where that process is,” De­o­raj said.

Guardian Me­dia at­tempt­ed to get a re­sponse from Min­is­ter of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice Fos­ter Cum­mings, but he did not re­spond to our ques­tions.