The action plan to improve care and conditions at the nation’s children’s homes is expected to receive Cabinet approval next week.
“I hope we will resolve all issues by next Thursday,” Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister assigned to Gender Affairs, Ayanna Webster-Roy, told Guardian Media yesterday.
The Minister confirmed that the recommendations are still before Cabinet’s Finance and General Purpose (F&GP) Committee.
The plan has been at the F&GP stage since July, after the recommendations on the way forward were submitted by a Cabinet-appointed task force on June 17, 2022.
The work of the task force began on May 5 and its mandate was to submit a plan to facilitate the implementation of recommendations following the Justice Judith Jones report into children’s homes titled “Safeguarding Children in Community Residences and Child Support Centres in Trinidad and Tobago.”
Minister Webster-Roy explained why the Cabinet was taking its time with this matter.
“F&GP is a Cabinet committee that gives further scrutiny to Notes so that a recommendation can be made to the Cabinet. I am sure you will agree that the nature of the Note and the implications of the policy directives would warrant close scrutiny. You know the saying; measure twice, cut once.”
Guardian Media was reliably informed that a major submission by the Task Force is the establishment of an Office of the Children’s Commissioner. This was recommended several times by the Judith Jones committee, which believes that the Children’s Authority of T&T needs an oversight body.
Webster-Roy had previously indicated that the plan would be operationalised immediately following Cabinet approval.
Meanwhile, head of the Special Victims Department of the T&T Police Service (TTPS), Claire Guy-Alleyne, told Guardian Media that no one has yet come forward to make a report based on the crimes highlighted in the 2021 Justice Jones report.
Asked if the reason nobody is yet to come to the police to report crimes against them in the 2021 report is because they are still wards of the State and in many cases, minors, Guy-Alleyne said, “We are looking into that report as well. So, we will see.”
However, on September 2, a 51-year-old man was charged in connection with allegations of sexually abusing more than 30 boys at the St Dominic’s Children’s Home almost 25 years ago. His alleged crimes were detailed in a 1997 report prepared by a Robert Sabga-led task force which also reviewed the operations of children’s homes and institutions in T&T.