PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Immediate Withdrawal and Complete Overhaul of CDA Job Description Needed

Monday, March 8, 2010,

Kingston, Jamaica – Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) and Hear the Children’s Cry call for the IMMEDIAT E withdrawal and complete overhaul of the job description of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Child Development Agency (CDA) as outlined on the Ministry of Health’s website.

The job description posted on the website of the Ministry of Health appears oblivious of the need for the CDA head to have as his or her primary responsibility the ‘best interests of the nation’s children’ but instead focuses on what is best for the CDA in attaining its ‘corporate goals and objectives.’ The job description outlined also fails to insist on training and practical experience in social work or child psychology as a requirement for the job. The Ministry of Health and the Office of the Services Commission appear to have their priorities skewed. The positioning of the care and protection of Jamaica’s children should be the first and foremost responsibility of the CEO of the CDA instead of being as now outlined, the ninth, thirteenth and fourteenth priorities.

As outlined, this job description is unlikely to attract capable and committed persons, with the requisite skills, integrity and commitment to the development of children rather than the development of the CDA.

Need we remind the Minister of Health and the Chief Personnel Officer at the Office of the Services Commission that the number one responsibility of the CEO of the CDA, is to provide care and protection for the nation’s children? Need we remind the Minister of the ‘Armadale’ tragedy and the continuing abuse of children occurring under the watch of the CDA, an agency under his direction and control, and the imperative to correct these deficiencies? Must we point out the need to ensure that the CDA is properly structured, led and managed to enable it to properly protect the children presently in its care and ensure the efficient management of the services to be transferred to it?

We insist that the Ministry immediately withdraw the advertisement and replace it with one which will clearly outline the primacy of the protection of children in the job of the CEO of the CDA.  We insist that the Government use the opportunity provided by the recruitment of a new CEO for the CDA to remedy the mistakes of the past, not repeat them.

For more information contact:

Carolyn Gomes, Executive Director, JFJ:

(876) 755-4524-6/382-8583

Betty-Ann Blaine, Convener, Hear the Children’s Cry: (876) 462-0628