Introducing mandatory reporting has widened visibility around child abuse, but has also triggered a surge in referrals - including many tied to parental conflict - placing unprecedented pressure on Malta's Child Protection Officers, Director of Child Protection Services within the Foundation for Social Welfare Services Antonella Mizzi said.
Malta's Directorate for Child Protection Services (CPS) is facing a wave of more complex cases, fuelled by the mandatory reporting obligation, family disputes, multicultural pressures and a surge in risks emerging from children's digital lives, Mizzi told The Malta Independent on Sunday.
She said the system is under severe strain, with malicious reports clogging investigations, high-risk cases delayed, and an understaffed workforce battling burnout.
Mizzi was asked if in the past years, the Directorate has seen different trends in child protection cases, if they are becoming more complex, more severe, or simply just numerous, and what were the main drivers behind any shift.
Last year marked the 30th anniversary of Malta's Child Protection Services, but Mizzi said that the core realities remain.
"I would say that the statistics are still similar. Overall, around one in every four children is likely to have experienced abuse in some way or another," she said.
While numbers remain high, what has changed dramatically is complexity, she said.
"What we are seeing now is more complexity, as the cases are more complex. The types of abuse rarely happen distinctively from each other. We usually see multiple types of abuse - physical abuse with emotional and psychological abuse, children witnessing domestic violence, and that has become very important on our agenda," Mizzi said.
Mizzi said Malta is experiencing a shift driven by greater awareness, public discussion, and professionals' clearer understanding of what constitutes harm.
"Over 20 years ago, it was still a taboo. What has shifted over time is the availability and the visibility. Now there is more awareness, more discussion about abuse, and more knowledge on who to talk to," she said.
Another structural change was the Protection of Minors (Alternative Care) Act, which introduced mandatory reporting in July 2020.
"Mandatory reporting brought about a surge of referrals, because now we are responsibilising every professional in our society to take action," Mizzi said.
In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday last June, FSWS CEO Alfred Grixti had warned that mandatory reporting is being abused by parents in conflict or going through a separation, saying that this created a backlog of nearly 900 reports, nearly half of which are suspected to be weaponised reports during separations.
She was asked if she agreed, and if she saw any mandatory reports that were clearly strategic and malicious.
"I would say that is a big, huge headache for the directorate. If these reports are malicious, until the investigation goes through, that is taking up a lot of resources from an otherwise understaffed directorate," she said.
"A child who is highly at risk may be put down in the rank because of other malicious reports," Mizzi said, adding that the Directorate is still legally obliged to investigate every allegation.
"Chapter 602 makes it clear that it is in the interest of every child to be protected. So, when reports are made, the Directorate has to decide whether those allegations are true or not," Mizzi said.
Professionals are reporting more, including lawyers
Fear of penalties, including fines or even imprisonment, has changed reporting behaviour across professions, Mizzi said.
"We have seen an increase in the number of reports made by professionals, including lawyers, who could also be involved in separation cases," Mizzi said.
To help reduce unnecessary reports, CPS has introduced a special consultative role for professionals, Mizzi said.
"This experienced person guides professionals on whether a situation merits a referral and henceforth an investigation. Only one out of seven consultations actually go through to being a formal report thanks to the directorate's robust risk assessment framework," Mizzi explained.
She did say that some countries have aborted mandatory reporting simply because it was being abused.
Beyond mandatory reporting, Mizzi identified new social pressures complicating child protection, as the increase in separation cases often traps children in conflict.
"The process tends to be lengthy in the family Court, and with that comes more damage and more harm caused to the child," she said.
Malta's expanding population is also affecting dynamics, with Mizzi saying that there are a lot of different cultures, and with that, different methods of parenting and discipline.
"Sometimes it is difficult even to reach out, because most of them seem to be working long hours," she said.
Digital risks also form a significant part of CPS caseloads, with Mizzi saying that social media and any online platform is a potential risk to minors who are unsupervised or spending long stretches of time online.
She warned that exposure to adult content - including children appearing unintentionally in parents' videos - is often overlooked.
"I think we are not very sensitive to how adults put themselves online, but in the background the child might be there, exposing the minor as well," she said.
"Exploitation and grooming are a real threat, and the directorate constantly has to deal with that," Mizzi said.
She said that CPS works closely with FSWS's Be Smart Online service, which refers digital risk cases for investigation; however, there is still a constant challenge.
"New platforms are constantly emerging, there is always something else coming up, no matter the training we provide," Mizzi said.
Understaffed, burnt out, overwhelmed
Mizzi spoke of the directorate's workload, which is quite large.
"In the first six months of this year, the directorate worked on almost 4,000 cases," Mizzi said.
"We are short-staffed to deal with the emergency, and no matter how efficient we are, I think we are always going to be stretched," Mizzi said.
She said that CPS currently has around 50 professionals, including social workers and social welfare professionals working at their maximum potential, but needs 20 to 30 more to be at full capacity to address the demands.
"Working in child protection brings about burnout. No undergraduate course prepares workers enough for the complexity we face," she said.
Mizzi said that though the directorate invests heavily in its in-house induction training programme, the demand constantly outpaces capacity.
"The supply and demand are never matching up," Mizzi said.
'It takes a village to protect a child,' Mizzi says
Mizzi said that CPS follows a hybrid approach, which includes forensic investigations, combined with intensive family support.
"Although a lot of people have this misconception that the role of Child Protection is about removing children from the care of the family, we try to move away from that. The Directorate does have a very strong forensic and investigative element, where it gathers evidence, which in 5% of the cases do result in some type of removal order from the Court, but 95% of the other cases are resolved in other ways through supportive measures," Mizzi said.
Mizzi said that interventions range from teaching parents basic skills such as cleaning, to providing essentials such as food, to coordinating with community services.
"We liaise with other services in the community as well, because it takes a village to protect the child, so we try as much as possible to tap on other existing services," Mizzi said.
She said that it is about breaking the cycle, and while she would not say that Malta is lacking in the therapeutic realm, supporting children who are victims of child abuse requires a specialisation, and an understanding of the complexity of the family dynamic as well.
"If we are supporting unaccompanied minors, for example, we have to liaise with the experts in the field. We are constantly working with other entities to make sure that the most vulnerable are supported in the best way possible," Mizzi said.