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A new Child and Family Welfare Policy is expected to be made public by the end of the year, Mr. Sylvester Kyei-Gyamfi, Head of the Research and Advocacy Division of the Department of Children, disclosed this on Monday. He said the zero-draft of the policy is ready but further consultations on the policy with stakeholders are being held throughout the country. Mr. Kyei-Gyamfi, a member of the National Child Protection Advisory Committee, who was speaking at a sub-national consultative workshop on the policy at Takoradi, explained that the nationwide consultation is to validate the framework of the new policy, create awareness and galvanize support for the policy development process. Mr. Kyei-Gyamfi said the policy will address problems confronting families in taking care of their children, and will improve the situation of children. He pointed out that the policy is focused on the family rather than the individual, and it is to ensure that quality and accessible services are provided to children and families needing special support, especially when the existing community structures and mechanisms have not been able to provide solutions. The policy, Mr. Kyei-Gyamfi said, is also to increase access to social, economic and emotional support for families, especially those facing difficulties to adequately protect and respond to the needs and welfare of their members especially children. Mrs. Comfort Asare, a Deputy Director at the Department of Social Welfare, said the policy is in response to Child Protection Systems Mapping conducted in 2010, which highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the systems and identified areas that could be enhanced. She said the policy is to ensure that the Child and Family Protection system becomes more effective, sustainable, socio-culturally appropriate and relevant for Ghana. Mrs Asare said such a system is expected to better protect children from all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation. Mrs. Faustina Yorke-Awotwi, Regional Director of the Department of Children, said the development of children depended on every adult. She said children continue to face abuses such as child marriage, child labour, child trafficking, lack of parental care and control and discrimination, among others, the very adults who have the duty to protect them in the family and community at large. Mrs. Yorke-Awotwi said Child Protection Network, Child Panel, Family Tribunals and Orphans and Vulnerable Committees have been formed to seek the protection and welfare of children in the Western Region. She said there was the need to protect children in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goal and the Better Ghana Agenda.