The death of a one-year-old child due to abuse at the hands of his caregivers is not an isolated case and underscores the systemic failure of childcare in Taiwan, the Control Yuan said in a report yesterday.
An investigation showed that the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which investigated the incident, had failed to provide sufficient oversight in the case involving the death of a boy nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), it said.
Kai Kai was allegedly tortured to death in 2023 by his licensed at-home caregiver, Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱), and her sister, Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳).
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The Taipei District Court on May 13 sentenced Liu Tsai-hsuan to life in prison and handed Liu Jou-lin an 18-year sentence.
The Control Yuan report said that the ministry had found seven shortcomings during its investigation of the Child Welfare League Foundation, which contracted the caregivers, including terms of service, procedure and systemic failings.
The ministry also found that the foundation lacked measures to manage its babysitters and train social workers, and had evident shortcomings in its oversight, the report said.
The New Taipei City Shu Ying Social Welfare Center, which processed the referral of Kai Kai to the Liu sisters through the foundation, had not visited the sisters or used other methods to ascertain the well-being of the child, so it was not able to intervene nor prevent the tragedy, the report said.
There is an evident need to address regulations in the overseeing of care for children from disadvantaged families before adoption, the Control Yuan said.
The report also said that the New Taipei City Government failed to implement key policies under the Social Safety Net program, which was designed to support disadvantaged families and provide oversight in such cases.
The child was registered in January 2023, but his file was only reviewed in February last year, highlighting the New Taipei City Government’s lack of urgency in reviewing a time-sensitive case, in which a child was in a period of shifting environment and identity, the report said.
The city government’s reaction was also too slow, as it only launched reviews after media began reporting on the incident in March last year, it added.
The Liu sisters were also babysitters registered with the Taipei City Government, but were taking care of Kai Kai outside of that area, the report said.
The place where they were raising the child was filthy and reeked of smoke, which contravened childcare environmental regulations, it said.
Photographs taken by foundation social workers during a visit on Sept. 25, 2023, already showed large bruises on Kai Kai, yet the Taipei City Wenshan District (文山) Home Childcare Center’s visitation records on Sept. 26, 2023, showed no mention of the bruises, the report said.
That Kai Kai was abused to death after being referred to a facility through the foundation, which was overseen by the New Taipei City and Taipei City governments, underscores a severe lack of ability to prevent child abuse by those three organizations, the report said.
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