New CPFSA CEO to be named soon

The Office of the Services Commissions is in the process of interviewing candidates for the post of chief executive officer at the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA).

Minister of Education and Youth, Fayval Williams, told Wednesday's post-Cabinet press briefing that the successful candidate will be named in short order.

Michelle McIntosh Harvey, the CPFSA's director of finance, has been the interim CEO since April.

The position of CEO became vacant in January when Rosalee Gage-Grey was asked to step down from the role amid controversy following a damaging report surrounding American Carl Robanske and his agency, Embracing Orphans.

An investigation by the Office of the Children's Advocate (OCA) cited gross breach of care in the controversial partnership between the CPFSA and Robanske, who was flagged in the United States over inappropriate sexual contact with a child.

Children's Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison's 93-page report contains 10 findings and four recommendations, one of which is for disciplinary action to be taken against Gage-Grey for her “gross breach of the duty of care owed to wards of the State and former wards.”

Williams said support for child protection will be bolstered as Marsha Smith was recently appointed state minister at the education ministry with a focus on the child protection sector.

“It's a huge sector. It's an important sector. Annually, just the staggering number of children who are abused in our society, we have to get out there into communities with programmes to help the adults in the lives of these children understand their role as caregivers, not as abusers,” the education and youth minister said. 

- Judana Murphy 

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