By Jarryl BryanMinister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence and People Progressive Party (PPP) Member of Parliament,Social Protection Minister,Wholesale Jerseys Online, Volda LawrenceDr. Vindhya Persaud had lively exchanges in the National Assembly over the ability of the Early Childhood Department to carry out its duties with only five staffers.During Monday night’s session examining the budget estimates, Persaud questioned the Minister about how many staffers were ensconced in the department and whether there were plans to increase the amount of social workers and skilled workers who specifically deal with children and child-related issues,Wholesale Hockey Jerseys 2018, including child abuse.“There are a number of institutions where caregivers are placed,” Persaud noted. “Are there enough caregivers in these institutions?”“We would like to fill as many vacancies as we can,” Lawrence responded. “But we await the Public Service Commission to fill the vacancies that we presently have. And also, we have requested the creation of some other positions, so we can have the persons filling them to assist us.”Persaud at that point demanded to know the positions that were being created. Lawrence revealed that these would consist of child counselors, licensing officers for the Early Child Health Department and Probation Officers for regions 8 and 9.Persaud also queried whether directors were in place as yet in the Early Childhood Department and how many vacancies were in the department. She also queried whether those numbers would be enough to fulfill the mandate of the ministry, across the Regions.“Presently we have five persons in total (as staff),” the Minister said. “There is the Manager, the Executive Officer and three staff officers. And now we are moving to create those positions.”“We believe that this is a number that we can start with,” Lawrence continued.PPP MP Vindhya Persaud“Given the fact that most of the centres are on the coast…And so we will be able to manage with this component as a start.”Lawrence was also asked about other technical staffing matters in her ministry. Persaud enquired what were the designations of other staffers taken on there and where they would be placed. She noted that the new staffers represented Junior Probation Officers assigned to Regions two, three, four, five, six and seven.“We have five vacancies,Bill Lee Jersey, two of which have been filled recently, and they are placed in Regions three and four. And the emoluments will be $81,000 (each).”ADEQUACY OF BUDGETED SUMDr. Persaud also questioned whether the budgeted sum of $12M, under Agency 49, Ministry of Social Protection, would be adequate enough considering the amount of programmes envisioned for the year 2016.“With a number of programmes envisioned for this year, I noticed the sum of $12M,Cheap NFL Jerseys China,” Persaud queried. “Is that enough to (facilitate) all these programmes for 2016? And who will benefit from this?”“We would like to do a lot of things, but we did budget for this,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, and I am happy that the Minister of Finance gave us what we asked for,” she said. “So with this $12M, we will look at building capacity for staff, for parents and caregivers. Not to mention that we do get assistance from other agencies.”At this point, Persaud demanded to know the methodology that would be employed to determine who would benefit from the allocations, and whether it would be countrywide. Lawrence noted that not only would the caregivers countrywide benefit, but also parents in the adoption and foster care programmes.Back in September of last year, the Early Childhood Development Project was launched to the tune of US$1.7M, with the objective of improving early literacy and numeracy capabilities for children from the Nursery level upward, and their siblings not yet ready for school.The project will also look at the increased supply teaching and learning materials, and also the procurement and distribution of resource kits. It will also look at reinforcing parents’ abilities to promote children learning at home.