Hessa bint Essa Buhumaid, Minister of Community Development, chaired the first meeting of the Coordination Council for Family Policies in 2022 to discuss the presentations of the council members from different family-relevant authorities, the licensing of family counselling and the results of the brainstorming sessions concerning the coordination council strategy, organised earlier.
The meeting was held in the presence of Hessa Abdul Rahman Tahlak, Assistant Under-Secretary of Social Development at the Ministry of Community Development and Chair of the Coordination Council for Family Policies, council members from various competent ministries, local family government departments and authorities.
Opening the meeting, Buhumaid welcomed the participants noting the importance of the Coordination Council for Family Policies, which is highly supported by the cabinet due to the family issues that the government gives top priority.
She also emphasised the need to work together with all relevant authorities in the field and benefit from the various experiences and applied initiatives that benefit all members of society.
Buhumaid stated that the initiatives and projects presented by council members to support and promote the happiness and stability of the family would be circulated among members based on a time frame plan and implementation mechanism.
She also commended the initiatives presented by the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah to establish stability and family coherence.
She noted the necessity of putting a time frame for these initiatives and providing the council with a parallel plan to expand the implementation of such programmes and measure their impact at the government level.
At the meeting, Tahlak spoke about the decision of licencing the family counselling profession and the most important provisions and executive plan such as practising conditions of the family counselling profession, tasks and duties, licencing conditions, categories, qualifications and required experiences, new licencing graduates, licence application and duration, continuing vocational education, and licence renewal.
She also presented the executive plan of the decision of family counselling advisors, implementation steps, implementation responsibility, participants and proposed time frame.
Tahlak stressed the importance of joint work among the council members to support the decision’s activation and implementation of provisions at a federal level.
As part of the council members’ initiatives, Sheikha Kholoud bint Saqr Al Qassimi, Assistant Under-Secretary of the Supervision Sector at the Ministry of Education, made a presentation about the most prominent strategic initiatives and activities adopted in the ministry related to the family such as Child Protection System, "National Guidance Wellbeing System and Student Capacity Building" and "National System of Inclusive Education for People of Determination".
Additionally, Moza Saif Al Shehhi, Director of the Family Reform Department of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah, made a detailed presentation about e-strategy, vision and the new mission of the department and highlighted the most prominent initiatives of the council, such as, "Conscious Initiative" "Social Bonds Initiative", "Successful Marriage Initiative"; "Dialogue Initiative" "Happy Family Initiative" and other initiatives supporting family stability.
News Source: Emirates News Agency
