Our social sector needs a good shake up – I have been saying this ad nauseam. In these last years we have morphed into our comfort zone thinking that all is well. We keep telling ourselves that we have a ‘generous’ welfare system, close-knit families, caring and considerate communities, a strong NGO presence and an affluent economy; and usually welfare sits high-up in the national agenda. So one might ask, what else do we need?

In a way this might be true, but how could one explain why we are riddled with so many glitches in our society? And it seems to be getting worse. For example;

1.       The problem of loneliness is engulfing our communities and affecting us in all age groups with an estimated 48% of people feeling lonely prior to the Covid-19 pandemic (data gathered by the Faculty for Social Wellbeing in a study dated 2019). During the pandemic this phenomenon exploded to double that percentage (data gathered during the March 2020 semi-lockdown). Most of the time, loneliness is the symptom of many other problems: isolation; financial problems; family separations; career pressures, just to name a few.  

2.       There is also an increase in the number of people in need of immediate support, namely homeless people and those suffering material poverty, which is impacting thousands of individuals and families – statistics speak volumes. The problem seems to be a more complex and intricate one. Just to give a small indication, in a recent interview I had with Fr Hillary Tagliaferro, during my radio show ‘Andrew Azzopardi on 103’ on 103 Malta’s Heart, he said that around 5 new families a month come to the Millennium Chapel asking for free clothing, boxes of food and other forms of support and this not to mention the work that FSWS does in this sector as well.  Now if we had to add to these the increase in people needing soup kitchens, which seem to be sprouting all over, and NGOs (for example those working with migrants) that are not keeping up with all the material requests, it makes the problem even more serious and urgent.

3.       True, there might be a slight decrease in recorded crime (as per crimemalta), but is this a true representation of criminality which is another symptom of a dysfunctioning economy (dark figures of crime are rarely mentioned)? Not to mention the prison population which is constantly growing, almost arriving at 900 inmates as we speak. 

4.       Apart from that, there are more people currently in our society claiming to have mental health problems than there ever have been, more people are attempting to commit suicide, and more are succeeding.

5.       The list of people in our society who are being dealt a bad hand is boundless; women who suffer domestic violence; people with disability who find themselves in an inaccessible environment; people living in sub-standard housing and so on and so forth. 

6.       If you had to start me talking about addictions I wouldn’t stop, whether it’s gambling, sexual, substance related or other.

 7.       The plight of children is also endless. I have written an article on this newspaper some weeks ago about the limitless list of dangers children are being faced with. It broke my heart to report such a reality.

As Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing I keep being pressured to ‘produce’ more social workers, youth workers, counsellors, psychologists, criminologists, social policy managers, family therapists, community workers, gerontologists every year, and this when we have circa 400 professionals graduating each year.  Add this to about 1 million worth of research to directly influence policy and an array of 35 courses, 50 PhD candidates and 1,200 ongoing students and you really start asking the big question:  Where are our efforts going? 

All of the rhetoric that Malta is one happy place where all is fine and dandy contrasts with the stories of people I keep hearing and the evidence our social service statistics surface. So, when we start adding up all of this and totaling a bill of roughly €2 billion worth of social benefits and socials services a year in this Country, it does put me into a conundrum.  Oh, and this is not counting the money that is saved thanks to the generosity of people in NGOs and telethons. What is really going wrong here?  Why is it that there are people within our community who remain at the bottom of the heap no matter the efforts of all and sundry? Why is it that people still seem to be generally unhappy, anxious and on tenterhooks? 

In my opinion these would be some of the reasons:

1.  We have an economy that is piling pressure on all of us to consume because we are simply valued by what we have, whether it’s money, status or estate.

2.  We don’t have a long-term social plan for this Country. It is understandable that life has become complex and difficult to juggle with, but we seem to be addressing issues in crisis management style rather than with a proper long-term plan. 

3.  We do not value the role of NGOs enough. They have become more of a mechanism that takes the burden of offering services from the State and being commissioned with all sorts of tasks rather than being allowed to perform their role, that of being a critical voice we need so much.

4.  We have too many Ministries and Parliamentary Secretariats who, in some way or other, are touching on the social aspect – my last count was at least 5 different Ministries. We need a transversal model that captures the essence of all that is happening and provides a strategy that converges these roles.

5.   There is a serious lack of leadership in the social sector. We need to replenish the people who stood out in this sector, people like Peppi Azzopardi, Joseph Gerada, Anthony Gatt, Nora Macelli, HE President Emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca and Stephania Dimech Sant. We need a new cohort of young people who can take leadership in this sector forward whilst the experience of the people I mentioned rubs off on them.

6.   The Commissions are not working – they need to be pulled out of the system, respond to Parliament, be rationalized and have a proper autonomous structure that ‘whips’ the Government, authorities and NGOs.

We really cannot afford to wait on this anymore.