3 November 2014 | Comments
St Helena Government is in the process of creating a new Safeguarding Directorate. The purpose of the Safeguarding Directorate is – To protect and safeguard vulnerable children, young people and adults at risk or suffering from abuse.
From 1 December 2014 the new Safeguarding Directorate will assume social services and safeguarding functions from the Health and Social Services Directorate, and further develop social services on the Island.
Assistant Chief Secretary (Performance), Paul McGinnety said:
“The current Health and Social Services Directorate has a wide range of statutory and specialist functions that impact on the lives of vulnerable people on the Island. Although health and social services are intrinsically linked it is uncommon for the functions to sit under one part of an organisation.
“To ensure that the right support, leadership and service delivery are obtained from both functions a separate Safeguarding Directorate is being developed to focus purely on social services and safeguarding which will allow the health functions to be managed separately.”
Social Services staff, including those based at Barn View, CBU and the Family Centre, will form part of the new Safeguarding Directorate from 1 December. The CCC and Older Persons Services will transfer to the new Directorate by the end of the financial year.
The Directorate will be led by an experienced Social Care Manager and will be supported by local and overseas dedicated staff as well as final year Social Work students from the UK. The Directorate will be committed to developing staff and the new arrangements will see local staff accessing UK training and exposure.
Day-to-day roles and responsibilities of current staff will initially remain the same while the new Directorate takes shape. In the short term staff will remain in the existing buildings, although new buildings are being constructed in Half Tree Hollow to provide new accommodation for Sundale residents and possibly other elements of Safeguarding.
SHG
3 November 2014
Comments