During the pandemic, the Children’s Authority has noticed an increase in the number of “children displaying challenging behaviour”, who need more supervision than parents or guardians can handle.
These children frequently disobey their parents’ orders, routinely do not attend school, regularly cannot be controlled by caregivers, act in a way that is dangerous to themselves or others, or have committed an offence applicable only to children.
Elizabeth Lewis, acting deputy director of Legal and Regulatory, told Sunday Newsday as a result, the authority needed to readjust in order to provide the best support for those children.
[caption id="attachment_940636" align="alignnone" width="593"] Elizabeth Lewis, acting deputy director of Legal and Regulatory. -[/caption]
Therefore, in June 2021, it restructured its programming and engaged its Child Justice Unit in dealing with and responding to children in need of supervision, previously referred to as “beyond control children.”
“For obvious reasons the name changed because it was recognised they are children who would require a lot more supervision and assistance as opposed to terming them ‘beyond control.’ Because they can be controlled, it’s just that they have to be provided with the proper support and interventions.”
Keisha Mitchel-Daly, manager of the Child Justice Unit said the organisation gets reports of children displaying challenging behaviour through its Registry Unit where parents go directly to the authority to get help, or through court orders.
[caption id="attachment_940637" align="alignnone" width="768"] Keisha Mitchel-Daly, manager Child Justice Unit. -[/caption]
“Through the Registry Unit, the authority will be providing assistance without the intervention of the court. We try to encourage parents and families to focus on resolving their problems and working out the challenges they are facing within and using the support networks of the community as well as services like the authority and other NGOs.”
She explained that children in need of supervision are categorised by the courts. So even if a child displays the behaviours listed above, they would not be categorised as such unless a parent or guardian applies to the courts for assistance and the court deems them children in need of supervision and orders particular services from the Children’s Authority.
She said from May 18, 2015 to August 31, 2021, the authority received about 30,000 cases of which 5.9 per cent were children in need of supervision. She added that, from October 2018 to October 2019, 37 per cent of cases were reported for substance abuse, 25 per cent for aggressive behaviour such as bullying, intimidation, and verbal fights, 36 per cent were involved in physical fights, and ten per cent were involved in gang activities.
She stressed that the numbers are not a full representation of what is actually happening in the country as many cases are not reported.
“As such, we haven’t seen a spike of applications for children in need of supervision. Rather, we’ve seen a s
