The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Gender has identified key policy and operational gaps in the placement and care of children with special needs in shelters, especially the privately-run ones.

During an assessment tour of selected child welfare institutions in the Greater Accra Region last Wednesday, the committee observed that vulnerable children, including those with learning and developmental disabilities, were being housed in the same facilities as orphaned or street-connected children, despite the differing care requirements that such groups demand.

It said those actions endangered children's well-being and violated established standards of care.

Visit

The visit marked the commencement of a three-day region-wide assessment by the committee, in collaboration with officers from the Social Welfare Department and the Department of Children, to assess the conditions and standards of care in orphanages and shelters.

It also identified key challenges within the system and explored how parliament could support the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection in resolving them.

Other priority areas highlighted included the regulation and allocation of shelters, tackling issues of child neglect and abuse, and strengthening interagency collaboration to improve the overall delivery of child welfare services.

The group visited the Save Them Young Orphanage Home, the New Life Nungua Children’s Home and Great Mission International. 

Situation

The Chairperson of the Committee, Helen Adjoa Ntoso, observed that the shelters visited were not staffed with trained professionals capable of handling children with learning disabilities such as autism, epilepsy and speech or hearing impairments, which she said would make it difficult to provide specialised care to those children.

Ms Ntoso said that the government needed to take responsibility for the situation and construct separate and properly equipped shelters for children with disabilities and those without parents. 

Resource constraints

Ms Ntoso, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Krachi West, further said that the reduction in the Department of Social Welfare’s budget posed a significant obstacle to effective monitoring and service delivery.

She mentioned the lack of resources and state oversight, coupled with the reliance on underfunded private entities to care for vulnerable children, as some of the challenges that needed immediate attention.

The chairperson, therefore, called on the government to increase funding during the upcoming budget review. 
“If the state is giving children to a private entity, then it means that you've got to resource them. If you don't and keep sending the children, where are they going to get resources? That's why they are struggling. So if the state is relinquishing its responsibilities to a private entity, the state will take absolute responsibility for these children,” she said.