NewzMINISTER with responsibility for youth Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon says the current leadership shake-up at the island’s two primary State family services agencies results from the activation of a dated Cabinet decision to merge the two entities. The Jamaica Observer on Wednesday reported that the ministry had cut ties with the heads of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) and the National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC) to undertake a major shift in their operations. Consequently, the contract of CPFSA Chief Executive Officer Laurette Adams-Thomas — who took the helm of the agency in October 2023 — has not been renewed.
Similarly the Observer has confirmed that the contract of NPSC head Kaysia Kerr — who took the reins of the agency in 2017 — had also not been renewed and she is no longer with the entity. Responding to questions from the Observer following the weekly post-Cabinet media briefing on Wednesday, Morris Dixon said the planned merger is in keeping with the ongoing rationalisation of the public sector which has been placed in the hands of the Transformation Implementation Unit. “So many years ago, long before my time, there would have been efforts to look at how we can rationalise the public sector, and there were certain entities that were flagged for merger, and these two entities were flagged for merger many years ago, and so the ministry is implementing that plan.
“The permanent secretary is doing the day-to-day work and working with the Ministry of Finance on that merger in keeping with the rationalisation of the public sector,” Morris Dixon explained. She said, as a consequence, the posts of the two agency heads were impacted. The CPFSA, an executive agency, is already an amalgamation having been formed from t…
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