Meet the Team
The Safeguarding Commission primarily works within the Church in Malta. However, we also offer support to other organisations through policy development, training, and risk assessments on individuals against who an allegation was made. Our aim is to support you to create a positive and safe environment for minors and vulnerable adults.
The safeguarding commission is made up of the Safeguarding Advisory Board, the Head of Safeguarding, the Safeguarding Office, and the Safeguarding Review board.
The Safeguarding Advisory Board is composed of six experienced professionals, including a paediatrician, psychiatrist, social workers, and a warranted clinical psychologist. They are also assisted by a lawyer.
The Head of Safeguarding is responsible for overseeing the Safeguarding Office, serves as the primary liaison with the Maltese Episcopal Conference and the Conference of Major Religious Superiors, and is the direct link between all Church Entities, the statutory authorities and the Safeguarding Commission.
The Safeguarding Office is formed of a group of professionals subdivided in three different teams. These teams are the prevention and training team, the victim care and advocacy team and the investigation and assessment team.
The Safeguarding Review Board is composed of four members set up by the Maltese Episcopal Conference to be used on an ad hoc basis. Safeguarding Review Board – Maltese Ecclesiastical Province (srb.mt)
Safeguarding Office
Mark Pellicano
Head of Safeguarding
B.A. (Hons) Social Work (Melit.), M. Couns. (Melit.)
+(356) 2247 0950
mark.pellicano@safeguarding.mt
Mark is a qualified social worker and specialises in safeguarding children and counselling. Most recently Mark served as Children’s Services Senior Manager at Fondazzjoni Sebħ – a Church organisation offering residence services for children unable to live with their families. Mark, who holds a warrant in Social Work and in Counselling, has extensive experience in the field, providing counselling at Richmond Foundation, and having occupied several related positions as well lecturing at the Faculty for Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta. Mark is the Head of the Safeguarding Commission.
+(356) 2247 0950
mark.pellicano@safeguarding.mt
Mark is a qualified social worker and specialises in safeguarding children and counselling. Most recently Mark served as Children’s Services Senior Manager at Fondazzjoni Sebħ – a Church organisation offering residence services for children unable to live with their families. Mark, who holds a warrant in Social Work and in Counselling, has extensive experience in the field, providing counselling at Richmond Foundation, and having occupied several related positions as well lecturing at the Faculty for Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta. Mark is the Head of the Safeguarding Commission.
Carly Zarb
Senior Safeguarding Officer
B.A. (Hons) Social Work (Melit.), MSc. Safeguarding in an International Context (Lancashire)
+(356) 2247 0951
carly.zarb@safeguarding.mt
Carly is a warranted social worker specialising in safeguarding after obtaining a MSc in Safeguarding in an International Context (UCLan, Lancashire). She started her social work practice within the Child Protection Directorate mostly focusing on child abuse investigations and working with children and their families. She then joined the Safeguarding Commission in 2021 as a Safeguarding Officer and in July 2023, she took up the role of Senior Safeguarding Officer within the Investigations and Assessment team of the Safeguarding Office. Carly was always involved in activism; at university level she occupied the role of Social Policy Officer within the student organisation TDM2000 Malta. She currently forms part of the Maltese Association of Social Workers Executive, previously holding the role of Secretary General and presently as the International Relations Officer.
+(356) 2247 0951
carly.zarb@safeguarding.mt
Carly is a warranted social worker specialising in safeguarding after obtaining a MSc in Safeguarding in an International Context (UCLan, Lancashire). She started her social work practice within the Child Protection Directorate mostly focusing on child abuse investigations and working with children and their families. She then joined the Safeguarding Commission in 2021 as a Safeguarding Officer and in July 2023, she took up the role of Senior Safeguarding Officer within the Investigations and Assessment team of the Safeguarding Office. Carly was always involved in activism; at university level she occupied the role of Social Policy Officer within the student organisation TDM2000 Malta. She currently forms part of the Maltese Association of Social Workers Executive, previously holding the role of Secretary General and presently as the International Relations Officer.
Fiona Cauchi
Safeguarding Secretary
+(356) 2247 0950
fiona@safeguarding.mt
fiona@safeguarding.mt
Safeguarding Advisory Board
Mark Pellicano
Head of Safeguarding & Chair
Mark is a qualified social worker and specialises in safeguarding children and counselling. Most recently Mark served as Children’s Services Senior Manager at Fondazzjoni Sebħ – a Church organisation offering residence services for children unable to live with their families. Mark, who holds a warrant in Social Work and in Counselling, has extensive experience in the field, providing counselling at Richmond Foundation, and having occupied several related positions as well lecturing at the Faculty for Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta. Mark is the Head of the Safeguarding Commission.
Rev. Antoine Farrugia S.D.B
Social Worker, Founding Member & Deputy Chair
A Salesian educator and registered social worker, Fr Antoine works with young people and families in difficult situations, specialising in residential services for youth and children without parental care. Having trained locally and in Europe, he worked with NGOs, educational institutions and government entities in Malta, Ireland and Brussels, at service delivery, management and policy levels. Fr Antoine is qualified in the supervision and training of social workers, care workers and volunteers providing services for young people in difficult situations. Having graduated with an MSc in Child Protection and Welfare from Trinity College, Dublin in 2011, he is currently serving as Chaplain of MCAST and Rector of the Salesian Community in Senglea
Dr Roberta Attard
Clinical Psychologist & Founding Member
Roberta is a chartered clinical psychologist and social worker with training in Applied Systemic Theory. She has extensive experience in the field of child and adolescent clinical disorders, child psychotherapy, child forensic psychology, child protection and child abuse investigation. Roberta has practiced in a variety of settings specialising in the use of drawings, play, and psychotherapeutic techniques in individual and group psychotherapy with traumatized children and adolescents. She provides supervision and consultation to other professionals and institutions and delivers training workshops focusing on creative ways of working therapeutically with children suffering from psychological, behavioural and social difficulties. She is a full-time lecturer with the Department of Counselling and a consultant for various State boards and State run programs seeking to provide aid to vulnerable minors.
Dr Natalie Kenely
Senior Lecturer in Social Work & Member
Natalie is a social worker by profession, having worked for a number of years with children in different settings. She is a resident senior lecturer in the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Malta. She acted as Chair of the National Commission for the Family until 2013 and also chaired the Faculty for Social Wellbeing Research Ethics Committee. She sat on the University Research Ethics Committee for a number of years and also served as a member of the Social Work Profession Board. She provides supervision to social workers as well as consultation and training to various organisations on transformational leadership, management and emotional intelligence. She has also provided training on Emotion Coaching to teachers and parents in schools and also coordinated the Practice Education of social work students, focusing on their personal and professional development. Her main areas of research interest are Emotional Intelligence; Compassion fatigue and burnout; Social Work management; Resilience; and Reflective Practice.
Dr Joseph Cassar
Consultant Psychiatrist & Member
Dr Joseph Cassar is a consultant psychiatrist who graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Malta and pursued his psychiatry training at Yale University, USA graduating as psychiatrist in 1998 and furthering his training in consult liaison psychiatry obtaining a fellowship in the field in1999. He is a senior lecturer at the University of Malta and is presently working at Mater Dei Hospital co-leading in emergency psychiatry and consult liaison psychiatry. He is a court expert in a number of cases involving alleged child and adolescent abuse in Malta and Gozo. This year the episopcal conference nominated him as President of Cana Movememt.
Dr Nicole Briffa
Legal Advisor
Nicole, the legal adviser of the Safeguarding Commission, graduated as Doctor of Laws at the University of Malta in November 2006 and was admitted to the bar in 2007. She has concentrated her practice on litigation and dispute resolution in the civil and family law fields.
Nicole worked in two major local law firms prior to starting to work as a sole practitioner in 2016.
Founding Members (2015-2017)
Andrew Azzopardi
Chair
Rev. Antoine Farrugia S.D.B
Deputy Chair
Dr Roberta Attard
Dr Clarissa Sammut Scerri
Dr Kevin Borg
Dr Nicole Briffa
Past Members
- Andrew Azzopardi
- Rev. Dr Joseph Farrugia
- Dr Joseph Sammut
- Dr Kevin Borg
- Dr Clarissa Sammut Scerri
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