A 2am call and the search for a foster family

A call comes in at 2am. A toddler needs an urgent placement by morning. It is not a rare occurrence, according to Remenda Grech, the director overseeing Malta’s alternative care system. Indeed, “it’s part of the job”, she says.

Grech is director for alternative care at the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, a government agency.

Interviewed by MaltaToday, she says that despite foster care accounting for the majority of child placements, the system always needs more families.

“The need is always there. It is never enough,” she says. “Sometimes, we get an emergency call at 2am and we need to find a placement for a two-year-old, or a three-year-old.”

Children are removed from their families for a range of reasons, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and parental substance misuse. “It is rarely just one factor,” Grech says.

However, she insists it is only the court that has the power to issue an interim and long-term care orders. Care orders are intended to protect children at risk of significant harm by placing them in safer arrangements.

Official figures show that 508 children and young people currently live in alternative care. The number has remained broadly stable over recent years. Of these, 375 are under the age of 18.

The figures show that 199 under-18s, or 53%, are in foster care, while 129 are in residential care, 43 in community homes, and the remainder in other placements.

Grech says that of the 129 children in residential care, she could identify “tens of them”, who would benefit from a foster placement.

One barrier to recruitment is the fear among prospective carers of becoming attached to a child who is later returned to their biological family. Grech says this is managed through a structured transition plans and no child is ever removed abruptly.

She also cautions that love alone is not enough. Foster carers need to understand that the children coming to them have passed through a trauma.

Trauma-informed parenting, she says is essential, because the “brains of children who have experienced abuse are wired differently”.

“You will have children who, for something very small, will have a huge tantrum; others who start bedwetting again,” Grech says. “Sometimes it’s not because something is happening. It’s because they are in a safe environment for them to start exhibiting this behaviour.”

The directorate now runs 11 community homes, small apartments or houses in residential areas, that house around four to five children each, as part of a broader move away from large institutional settings.

“We make sure that each and every young person has a care plan,” Grech says. But the support does not end abruptly when a child turns 18. “We assist them in whatever they need,” she adds.

There are currently 54 young people aged between 18 and 21 receiving aftercare support—28 in foster care and 26 in residential or community homes.

Grech says staff members remain in contact with young people even after they formally leave the system, while referring those who struggle with mental health issues or independent living, to other organisations for assisted living support.

The directorate also works with the Housing Authority to help young adults access schemes for first-time residents and encourages them to pursue education or part-time employment before transitioning out.

“We calculate that normally by the age of 21, they would have finished their studies, and they would then transition into independent living,” Grech says. “We support them a lot.”

Some, she adds, choose to return to their biological families upon turning 18. “There are some 18-year-olds who tell us, ‘it is now time for me to go back and live with my family’ and we will definitely respect that. But they know that we are here for them.”