All children are happy, healthy and confident that their rights are respected,
protected and promoted to facilitate their holistic development towards achieving
their fullest potential as constructive members of society now and in the future.
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FAQs
Children are loved, fully accepted and appreciated for their unique qualities and being.
Children are valued, their needs are prioritized and their best interests are given paramount consideration
Children are nurtured and grow in healthy, safe environments which promote and foster their well-being and optimal development.
Children are protected from harm, violence and exploitation and their legal rights are upheld.
Children are empowered and given opportunities to play an active role as contributors to the society.
Children are supported and provided with quality services and necessary support.
All children are happy, healthy and confident that their rights are respected, protected and promoted to facilitate their holistic development towards achieving their fullest potential as constructive members of society now and in the future.
To work collectively to promote and ensure the positive development, well-being, best-interests and empowerment of all children. This will be done through the recognition of their importance, prioritisation of their needs, respect and protection of their rights, and encouragement of their active participation. It will be ensured through the strengthening of their families and community environments, and provision of quality, efficient and specialized support and services.
The core driving force in the Nation’s desire to protect, support, value, empower and
nurture the children of Trinidad and Tobago is LOVE. As social creatures all human
beings are instinctively compelled to foster relationships with others. Theorists and
research have long recognised that love is not a luxury but rather a core need in
human development.
Children come into the world with a basic emotional need to
feel loved. As they grow, children continue to need love, acceptance and attention.
Through the development of loving relationships children build trust in other people, learn
to love themselves and see the world as safe and positive. To this end, the Policy commits to establishing
mechanisms through which children are able to develop a strong sense of self-acceptance and love, develop
strong, caring, trusting social connections.
The eight (8) guiding philosophies underlining the National Child Policy are:
All children deserve the best: All children regardless of their sex, nationality, race, religion, language, ability and socio-economic status should be afforded the best opportunities, equipped with the essential skills and capacities, and provided the necessary support to fulfil their maximum potential. Their rights, as outlined in the CRC, must be upheld, promoted and protected to ensure positive outcomes for our children and our nation. Children should be safeguarded from all risks of exclusion, whether material, social or emotional, and provided with quality, targeted and specialised services to address their vulnerabilities, needs and interests
Children are our most valuable treasure: The best interests of children must be given primary consideration in all matters. This requires expanding the narrow focus on issues relating to children and instead necessitates a recognition that all matters affect children to some extent, either directly or indirectly, now or in the future. Therefore their heterogeneity, interests, needs and views should be considered, and assessments should be systematically conducted to determine the resulting impact of laws, policies, actions, budgetary allocations and practices on children
Child-centred, Family Focused: Positive outcomes for children are best fortified within loving, resilient and wellfunctioning families and/or family environments. Focusing on creating a positive family environment and ensuring that families and caregivers are equipped with effective parenting skills, nurturing capacities and necessary support systems and assistance is crucial. Family and family environments are most conducive for the all-round development of children and children’s placement in alternative settings should be avoided at all means and only be undertaken as a last resort.
It takes a Village: The community plays a vital role in the development and well-being of children. Community participation, ownership and social mobilization are key in supporting families in the care, protection and development of our nation’s children. The development of safe child-friendly communities, the strengthening of community-based approaches, and the provision of strong social safety nets to support families are sure ways to reinforce the social fabric of our nation.
Children should be seen and heard: Childhood is an integral phase of life with a value of its own. Children are active social agents and should be heard and have their voices taken into account in matters that affect their lives. Ensuring opportunities for their active participation renders new perspectives and unique insights, fosters collective solutions, empowers them and encourages them to break the silence about child abuse. It is important to ensure meaningful involvement of children in key decision-making and the design, implementation and monitoring of programmes, policies and budget processes that affect them
Together We Achieve: To achieve positive outcomes for our children true partnership is required. There should be collaboration and coordination within and across government ministries and between the government and civil society, and between development partners, private sector, civil society and government ministries. This would optimize the implementation of the Policy by ensuring joint planning, complementarity between various activities, integration of activities with other interventions and services relating to the care and welfare of children and making sufficient resources available for scaling up of successful interventions.
Evidence-Informed, Results-Based and SMART: All national stakeholders must be committed to collecting and sharing data, developing and implementing evidence-informed SMART approaches, and contributing to the generation of evidence of what works, how, where and why. This is critical to effective planning, measuring progress, promoting continuous learning, fueling improvement and achieving desired goals.
Walking the talk: Achieving this Policy’s objectives requires a fundamental shift in the awareness, norms, attitudes and practices of ALL social actors. The State must ensure the necessary legislative and policy frameworks, physical, human and financial resources, services and capacities are provided. Communities must stand cohesively, families and family environments must embody positive values and practices, and children must enjoy being children.
