Responding to a report on Monday that a one-year-old boy had allegedly been abused to death by a licensed in-home childcare provider, the Taipei Department of Social Welfare yesterday said that it is planning reforms, while the Ministry of Health and Welfare said it would hold a review meeting on Friday.
The boy, whose household registration is in New Taipei City, was placed with an in-home childcare provider in Taipei after his single mother was imprisoned and his grandmother asked the local social welfare department to put him up for adoption.
The department referred the case to the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF), which temporarily placed the boy in the home of a contracted caregiver surnamed Liu (劉) while it tried to find him an adoptive family. The boy was allegedly abused to death by Liu in December last year.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The CWLF in a statement on Monday expressed “shock and regret” over the boy’s death and extended its condolences and apologies to his family.
The foundation said it had contracted a licensed in-home childcare provider with whom it had worked once before to temporarily look after the boy in September last year, and CWLF social workers had checked in on him in September, October and November.
Social workers rescheduled their monthly visit in December after the caregiver said another child who she was caring for was ill.
The CWLF said it received the “tragic news” of the boy’s death at the end of that month, pledging to cooperate with prosecutors investigating the case.
The department on Monday said that Liu received her caretaking license in October 2022, and after the city’s in-home childcare service center received a report about the boy, it made a home visit within a month, according to regulations, but no abnormalities were found.
Describing the boy’s death as “infuriating, heartbreaking and sad,” Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday said the health ministry would look into the case and increase the frequency of visits to children under the age of two being looked after by an in-home childcare provider, as kids are unable to express themselves at that age.
According to the regulations, social workers are required to make at least four home visits to an in-home childcare provider within the first year of a child being placed with them, including once in the first 30 days.
The department yesterday said there are 4,272 in-home childcare providers registered in Taipei, 2,756 of whom are currently providing services.
As the actions of one of them were regrettably heartbreaking, it is planning reforms, the department said.
It said it has proposed more training than the 126 hours needed before someone can provide in-home child care and the 18 hours of on-the-job training required each year, as well as six to 10 hours of training for people who have a license, but have not looked after a child in a year.
It has also proposed that if children are placed under the care of an in-home childcare provider, home visits by social workers should be increased from once to twice a month.
As some parents require 24-hour daycare services, childcare inspections should be increased to six times per year, or once every two months, the department said, adding that it would launch an in-home childcare provider recommendation mechanism for parents looking for reputable caregivers.
It also said it would host support activities at the city’s in-home childcare service center so that caregivers could talk to each other and the center could observe them, and provide stress relief courses for childcare providers.
The ministry’s Social and Family Affairs Administration said it held an internal meeting yesterday, at which it decided that the necessity of putting a child up for adoption should be assessed by local governments and not be handed over entirely to civic groups.
Children should not be put up for adoption solely due to a family’s financial situation, and local governments should work closely with adoption facilitators and designate a dedicated social worker for each case, it said.
For children who have been placed in care prior to adoption or 24-hour daycare, especially orphans under the age of three, the government should implement stricter requirements for caregiver and increase the frequency of home visits, the administration said.
The central and local governments should work closely to monitor home visits and improve social workers’ ability to pick up on any abnormalities, it said.
It said it has invited specialists, local government officials and the CWLF to review the case on Friday.
Separately, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Liao Wei-hsiang (廖偉翔) said that a person found guilty of abuse resulting in death only faces five years to life in prison under Criminal Code.
He said he would propose amending the law to add the crime of “child murder,” which would be punishable by death, and revise the Criminal Code so that perpetrators of child abuse resulting in severe injury or death should not receive parole.
Additional reporting by CNA
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS