THE Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) will be inaugurated next Wednesday at Pegasus Hotel, in Kingston, Georgetown, as part of the Administration’s commitment to comprehensively reform and implement changes in children affairs.

Making the announcement yesterday, Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon reminded his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) 2006 elections manifesto committed the Government to implement changes in the handling of children’s affairs by the State.

He noted that, since January this year, Parliament has enacted the Child Care and Protection Agency Act, Child Protection Agency Act and the Status of Children Agency Act and, soon to be completed are deliberations, at the Select Committee stage on the Custody Bill and the Child Care Development Service Bill.

The Cabinet Secretary said, at its Wednesday meeting, Cabinet was advised that the manifesto’s emphasis on implementation of the reform and the measures would now be addressed.

He said, on Wednesday, July 22, Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Ms. Priya Manikchand announced the launching of the Child Care and Protection Agency, provided for in the law, with responsibilities to address the concerns and the decisions of the various boards create under the Children Act.

Luncheon said the implementing would be supported by an agency fully resourced and with the inventory to address the issues.

“Now that the judiciary has identified the location of the promised Family Court, expectations are high that all Court matters affecting children will be held in that Family Court,” he acknowledged.

The Child Care and Protection Agency Bill was passed in the National Assembly in January.

Minister Manickchand, who led the debate during the second reading of the bill in Parliament, had stressed that child protection is a priority of the Government, as children, by nature are vulnerable and, therefore, it is necessary to ensure they are safe and properly protected.

The bill provided for the establishment of a child care and protection agency; set out its functions, including the monitoring of child care facilities to allow the agency to intervene in cases where there is child abuse to protect vulnerable children and for the minister, the director and other officers and employees who shall be responsible for the management of the agency.

Manickchand had told the National Assembly that the policy is to place vulnerable children in foster care and reintegrate them with families, as far as possible and put them into orphanages and such institutions, only as a last resort.