The Public Prosecutor for Child Protection in Malaga, Francisco Javier García Rull, visited Mijas on Friday, where he met with the Councillor for Social Inclusion, Melisa Ceballos (PP), and the Social Services team at the offices of this municipal department in Las Lagunas. The aim of this meeting is to optimise and speed up the procedures for the timely eradication of problems such as truancy and other issues related to minors. These meetings are also held to carry out a more active follow-up of cases and to establish coordination channels so that response times and the resolution of problems are more efficient and quicker. 

“It is something essential, we must take our minors into account, care for them and look after them, therefore it is necessary to keep a close and constant collaboration with the Minors’ Prosecutor's Office”, said Ceballos, who added that “I think it is essential that they bring us some issues and, especially, clarify doubts that arise in the Social Services department on some specific issues, which are important to be addressed because that is what we find on a daily basis”. Among other issues, according to the councillor, is the lack of implication from the families, “these are some of the obstacles that we find and we have to address them because these children are at risk”, said the councillor.  

For his part, the Public Prosecutor for Child Protection stressed that “it is essential to coordinate measures in order to speed up the resolution of problems affecting minors who are at risk or unprotected in order to act rapidly, because sometimes we are a bit late or late”, adding that “age is important for minors, and time goes by very quickly. So we try to speed things up, always looking for the benefit of the child”. 

 

Truancy

One of the main problems that are usually dealt with by both the Child Protection Prosecutor's Office and the Social Services area is truancy. “The right to education is a right that minors have and parents have to ensure that this right is fulfilled. And in those cases that it is not fulfilled, there is a three-level procedure established. The first level is the educational centre, the second level is the area of Social Services, and the third level is the Public Prosecutor's Office for the Child Protection, which can initiate some kind of procedure for the protection of the child, always in response to a Social Services’ proposal, as long as there is no collaboration and truancy is not eradicated by the family”, explained the head of the Social Services area, Miguel Ángel López. 

In addition to truancy, the increase in crimes committed by minors is also of concern, “they are very frequent, there is an increase in crimes committed by 11, 12 and 13 year olds, we have to find a solution before they become more serious and families have a very important role to play in this”, said García Rull. 

Ceballos also highlighted the work carried out by the Social Services team, made up of 10 social workers, two psychologists and four advisors. “The social worker, the advisor and the psychologist do a very important job monitoring and not leaving the family, trying by all means to reach these families’ children in order to attend to them”.

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