No jobs will be lost when the Welfare Department, the National Assistance Board, the Child Care Board (CCB) and the National Disabilities Unit are amalgamated to form the Department of Family Services.
This assurance came from Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Kirk Humphrey, even as Government is in the process of conducting a job analysis exercise through The University of the West Indies to determine what jobs will be necessary going forward.
Mr. Humphrey was addressing a press briefing to mark the start of Child Month under the theme Nurturing Children, Strengthening Families, at the Ministry’s Warrens, St. Michael office, today.
“We have already made a commitment that nobody is going to lose their jobs. You are going to get transferred out, if you do not want to stay, [but] we are not sending home anybody,” he stated.
The Minister explained that the job analysis exercise would highlight the jobs needed for the new entity to best deliver social services to the people who need it the most.
Under the new agency, Mr. Humphrey outlined that social workers would be able to work across the board, whether it be with persons with disabilities, children, or the elderly.
He noted that the legislation was old; the institutional architecture was weak, and the silos, in terms of the leadership, was too much. He added that the amalgamation would make a big difference.
Mr. Humphrey lamented that there was a silos approach in government, where different agencies, such as those involving social workers, because of the way institutions were structured, have no working relationship beyond the set formats.
The Minister disclosed that his Ministry had already “tightened” its relationship with the Ministry of Education and the CCB, to make social workers available as necessary to address a number of issues in schools, such as bullying.
“The Minister of Education, along with myself, has been working together on the secure treatment facility so that the children who are not in the system could also benefit from the support of the child care system.
“The whole idea is just to deal with these children before they come into contact with the justice system…, and to ensure that we offer them the best opportunities,” he said.