Minister of Social Care, Christopher Sinckler, addressing the Welfare Department’s Welfare to Work Graduation Ceremony at the Llyod Erskine Sandiford Centre.

A National Social Care Information Management System should soon be implemented to allow all social care agencies to carry out their work with greater efficiency.

Word of this came last evening from Minister of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment, Urban and Rural Development, Christopher Sinckler, during his address at the Welfare Department’s Welfare to Work Graduation Ceremony, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

Stating that plans were on stream for such a system, to allow for the efficient and effective collection, retrieval and sharing of vital information in the work of the Ministry,  Mr. Sinckler said: “In other words, when persons who are disaffected by poverty enter any department or institution under the care of the Ministry, copious information would be taken from those persons, which will be kept in a central database to ensure that all departments can have that information available to them for treatment of the persons whom they see.”

Pointing out how such a system would work, he used the example of the Child Care Board intervening in a family situation where there was alleged child abuse. 

“The Child Care Board… may be called upon to enter a home because it is alleged that a child has been abused, but when that person gets there he/she may find a whole set of other things, other than the alleged abuse. They may find poverty, unemployment, bad housing and bad living conditions. The goal, therefore, of that person cannot be only to deal with the abused child, but to ensure through analysis, every aspect of failure within that family environment is treated by the relevant departments,” Mr Sinckler explained.

The Minister also mentioned other plans his Government had to perpetuate a social development environment that fosters upliftment, enablement and empowerment.  He referred to the transformation of the Personal Social Services Sector and a new operational framework being created for persons using these services. 

According to him, this framework has four stages – assessment/identification, stabilisation, enablement and empowerment- and it will be supported by a Universal Intake Form, which will act as a referral instrument, and save persons needing help from being sent from one social care agency to another. 

emcclean@barbados.gov.bb

Pin It on Pinterest