New acts advance social development
(CNS): Parliament adjourned on a relative high note, Monday, after government steered through a collection of bills advancing Cayman’s social development safety net. The amendment bills were largely the work of the former minister, Andrè Ebanks (WBS) and deal with improvements to child safeguarding and protecting the elderly.
The MP said the Children (Amendment) Bill was particularly important and designed to “give our children a fighting chance” especially when they don’t have a safety net at home.
The bill is one of four pieces of legislation drafted to improve the social support and protection for the country’s more vulnerable families including the Maintenance (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the Adoption Bill, 2024 and the Older Persons (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
The bills were presented by Minister Kenneth Bryan who took over the social development portfolio in November following the resignation of Ebanks and three of his colleagues as a result of unrelated fundamental differences of opinion with the remaining UPM government. Bryan detailed the clauses in the bills and their stated aims.
But Ebanks had worked on all four bills for several years. Throughout his time as the minister for social welfare he has completely overhauled the system to establish a new regime to assist all families in Cayman who are struggling to make a living. As he spoke about the amount of work that had gone into these new acts and their importance he said that there was still a lot of work to do to fully develop the country’s welfare safety net.
“It burns on the inside with the amount of wealth that is in this country…that we need a food bank and that food bank struggles to meet the demand,” he said.
Overall, the four bills which modernise the way we protect children and the elderly offer new and increased support and resources to the most vulnerable people in the community. Ebanks said, they “significantly enhanced” the country’s social development framework. “I was honoured to marshall (the bills) from proposal to publication …and grateful the minority government brought these forward for debate and passage by Parliament,” he added.
In total some 64 clauses in the Children Act have been amended including a last minute change paving the way for kids who lose a parent in road collision to get compensation. Posting on social media after parliament adjourned Ebanks said the landmark amendment enables the courts to order financial compensation from individuals found liable for the death of a child’s parent due to certain criminal acts. This compensation will be directed towards the child’s maintenance and upbringing, and it is referred to as the Shemiah Grant order. “Hopefully this helps, as a deterrent, to make our roads safer,” he added.
Grant was killed in a road collision in West Bay in May 2021 and was the sole breadwinner for his family which has struggled not only with the emotional trauma of losing a loved one but also to make ends meet in the absence of any compensation. Jordon Telford was convicted of causing Grant’s death through dangerous driving as he was texting at the time but no compensation order was made by the courts.
Telford was s serial traffic offender and was jailed for almost four and a half years for killing Grant but with the loss of his job after the crash and his incarceration there was no expectation that Telford would be able to make any financial restitution – a problem the courts will still have to face even under the new legislation. In future government will need to begin looking at developing its own compensation fund to assist families in need who lose working parents to accidents on the road or at work where there is no means for the family to secure compensation from those responsible.
The Children act also establishes a commissioner for children and younger persons, parental rights and adoption of children by persons in marriages and civil partnerships, foster care, child maintenance, the powers of the court when restricting the liberty of a child and the repealing of various aspects of the previous law.
The maintenance act focuses on streamlining provisions for child maintenance by consolidating financial orders and removes dated references and provisions while ensuring protections for children and young people. The new adoption act strengthens adoption laws to uphold rights and ensure safeguards for all involved in the process with the establishment of an adoption board and enables Cayman to participate in the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention making it easier for local families to adopt children from overseas.
See the details of the bills on the parliament website and watch the proceedings on CIGTV Youtube channel below starting with the Children’s bill.
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Category: Local News
Regarding the new same sex parental rights:
Will same sex parents now have to be married in order to be recognized.. and gay males as well as female couples?
What happens to the rights of the natural fathers??
Will the unmarried Gay couples have permanant residency protections as new co parents?
Sorry Andre …you cannot take credit for this. The heavy lifting was done by a few hard working civil servants.
Why was it not done in the past 20 years then?
Continued social decline
Not development.Band aids
“… a last minute change paving the way for kids who lose a parent in road collision to get compensation.”
Why the last minute? This should have been the first change, not the last. And not only those who lose a parent in a road collision, but every child who lost one or both parents regardless of the cause of their death.
hey andre..what about making it ok for illegidimate parent of a chuld born outta wedlock to foreign parent and caymanian? ya all forgetting these? i will ask u personally when i see u…as we know each other…
The Adeptus Ridiculous has way too much free time and appears to have a superiority complex which Dr. Google says is a mechanism to help cope with the actual problem – an inferiority complex.
Food banks on island are struggling due to imported poverty. They seem to service more expats from neighboring countries than Caymanians.
Same with modern-day NAU. Just go check out the lines there just about any day
just remember that NAU is not a caymanian public servant .if you are a foreigner then you have a 100% percent chance of getting your service .this is an example to all caymanians. if you need service from NAU .prepare to face a lot of red tape .if you are from a foreign country. they are the ones that gets the green lights.
Eyes roll! 🙄 Cayman is ages behind the rest of civilized world!
In many countries children who lose a parent are eligible for a “survivor pension” which is considered a social pension, providing a basic flat-rate benefit that is paid to each eligible survivor, with a higher amount for full orphans; this benefit is typically payable until the child reaches 17 years old, or 23 if they are a full-time student. The parent(s) death cause doesn’t matter.
Survivor pensions are indexed for inflation.
Depending on the family’s circumstances, additional social assistance programs available to help with living expenses.
In some countries orphans who reach 18 provided a permanent residence free of charge.
YES, SIMPLE LIKE THAT!
Our child issues will fail for the warped civil courts maintain a decades long prosecution of Caymanian males..and it matters not if they ar blameless.
The similarly aligned family department services are equally horrendous in this regard..and most others.
Title: The Adeptus Ridiculous Strikes Again: Cayman is Not Your Second Family’s Vacation Fund!
People of Cayman, lend me your ears!
Let us peel back the curtains of this tragicomedy: beneath the warm glow of our sunsets and the gentle lap of turquoise waters lies a truth as old as maritime mischief. Yes, we speak of the phantom fathers—those who stroll our shores, charming as sirens, while back home in far-off lands, their lawful wives and unsuspecting children await, unaware of the new “family” subsidized by their husband’s tropical escapades.
Here they come, oh so casually—“temporary fathers,” “unofficial husbands,” or perhaps just men who prefer a “sunset clause” in their relationships. They live large, dine well, and vanish faster than a cold Carib on a hot day, leaving single mothers holding court summons and empty wallets.
But no more!
With the legislative hammer of the Maintenance (Amendment) Bill, these wandering sons of irresponsibility will find Cayman less a playground and more a purging ground. The Adeptus Ridiculous calls it like it is:
Your wife’s holiday budget back home will no longer be propped up by your silence here.
To the men who think the islands are but a convenient blind spot: your time is up. These laws shine like a lighthouse cutting through the fog of deceit, guiding accountability straight to your doorstep. Cayman shall no longer be a place where you hide your indiscretions behind rum punches and poetic excuses.
To the women of our islands, the Adeptus Ridiculous extends solidarity. We see you, we hear you, and we celebrate the dawn of a system that recognizes your struggles and demands that those who step into parenthood must wear the mantle fully, or not at all.
And to the “family men” who sailed here on whispers of freedom while leaving their legally binding families behind:
Your game is up. Cayman is not your alimony loophole. Pay what you owe. Fatherhood is not optional.
The Adeptus Ridiculous raises its holy gavel:
“May justice find you, your wallet empty faster than your excuses, and your flights one-way to where your families await—duly informed.”
Signed,
The Adeptus Ridiculous
Executor of Truth, Scourge of Double Lives, Warden of the Wallet
“One father. One family. Zero nonsense.”
You are mixing several things.
A deceased parent(s) is a deceased parent(s). A Mother or a Father, doesn’t matter. The cause of death doesn’t matter. It’s called a surviving child benefit.
I’m surprised that Cayman have just realized that this type of assistance doesn’t exist in Cayman .
Sad cases make poor law. Did Andre not learn that in law school?
Agree. The law already ezisted [civil liability]. Andre at all jist codifying it to win votws. At this rate they call codify entire tort law.