OCR, CDA merge to form new child protection agency
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Floyd Green, today announced that the Child Development Agency (CDA) and the Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) have now merged to form the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA).
The CDA is mandated to provide care and protection for children at risk while the OCR is to receive and record, assess and refer all cases of child abuse, to which was added in 2013 the Ananda Alert programme dealing with missing children. After receiving these reports, the Child Development Agency (CDA) and the Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) follow up for investigation and action.
The ministry, in a release this afternoon, said the merger has come about to create a more efficient child protection sector with emphasis on pooling resources, timeliness and eventual increase in staff complement in the field services division.
The name change to the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) reflects the oversight committee’s strong consensus reflection after multiple civil society consultations and supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information on the mandate of the expanded organisation and the opportunity for even further leveraging of its new mandate going forward, the release said.
Head of the oversight committee, Mr Michael McAnuff Jones said it both provides an outcome reference for, as well as underlines Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s perspective that “Family is the ultimate partnership”.
A press briefing will be held next week to further outline the phases of the merger.