Sunbeam Children’s Home threatens legal action after delicensing by CPFSA

The management of Sunbeam Children’s Home in St Catherine says it is considering legal action against the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) over what it says was the agency’s dereliction of due process in deciding to delicense the facility.

The CPFSA, in a statement Monday night, said it was pulling the licence of the 48-year-old facility amid instances of child abuse and had taken steps to relocate the 52 children housed there.

“As the agency leading the charge against child abuse, it is imperative that we take a zero tolerance approach to any and all forms of child abuse, especially all instances that may happen under state care. The safety of the nation’s children is our top priority and the agency will continue to do everything within its power to ensure that their well being is secured,” CPFSA CEO Laurette Adams-Thomas said.

However Desmond Whitely, manager of the children’s home, said no communication of the CPFSA’s intention was made to them.

“I am disappointed, and quite frankly, I am aghast that the agency has acted in this manner. The fact of the matter is that up until the notice yesterday (Monday), we have had no idea that this was going to happen,” he told The Gleaner.

“Now, if the allegations are made, then there has to be due process, and the process would involve and include meeting with the staff members to get their point of view and the veracity of the allegations. To my mind, none of that has been done,” he added.

Accused ‘Left the job’

According to him, he was made aware of allegations of abuse regarding four members of his staff between 2022 and 2023, which he said came out of an internal review conducted by the agency.

“Based on correspondence that we have received from the CPFSA, these (allegations of abuse) go back as far back as 2020. The CPFSA wrote to us last year, asking for the interdiction of four of our members. We responded to the CPFSA to say we cannot do so without due process, meaning if there are allegations against our members, we ought to be provided with the evidence on which to act,” he said.

Further, Whitely stated that at the time the interdiction request came, three of the staff members identified had left the job “of their own volition”. He said the fourth person singled out by the CPFSA was not a staff member, but a former ward of the state who lived at the home and had migrated overseas and was visiting.

He is also disputing the CPFSA’s assertion that it conducted various intervention methods with the facility to curb the issue of abuse.

“One meeting was held with the staff. We were not told that this was a training relating to any abuse, we felt that this was out of … this is a partnership that we have with the agency. From time to time the agency conducts training,” he said.

Whitely said the Sunbeam Children’s Home had “continuous training of staff”, to keep abreast with “the change in the policy direction of the CPFSA and the difficulties of the children”.

He added: “Caring for the nation’s children, especially wards of the state, is difficult. They possess challenges that we have to confront daily, and in the process of our imputing and carrying out our jobs, mistakes are made, and when those mistakes are made, the home always takes corrective steps to ensure the security and the safety of the children, our records speak to that,” he said.

However, Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison told The Gleaner that her office has also been investigating Sunbeam Children’s Home after receiving reports of physical abuse taking place at the facility and had indicated such to the CPFSA.

“From last year we made contact with the CPFSA in terms of the leadership based on what our investigations were revealing, and so this particular action is not just a one shot thing, but it really is a series of investigations with the OCA (Office of the Children’s Advocate) in its own right and the CPFSA, and with the agreement of the minister (of education) that this decision should actually take place,” she said.

Meanwhile, Adams-Thomas said some of the children at Sunbeam will be placed at other residential childcare facilities, while others will be placed in foster care as well as in the care of their families. The agency has also commenced sensitisation of the children regarding their transition out of the home.

Additional psychological and psychosocial support to the children to aid in their transition out of Sunbeam has also been provided, she said.

Adams-Thomas noted that section 49, subsection 3 of the Child Care and Protection Act (CCPA) allows the minister of education to cancel any licence issued to a home if the minister is of the opinion that there has been any contravention of any of the provisions of this Act, such as child abuse, and may apply to the court under section 57 (2) for an order or an interim order for the removal of any child from the home”.

The CPFSA head said that process has been initiated.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com