Older youth still supported
Young people get help until age 26 under new changes to legislation
Miranda Scotland
Northern News Services
Published Monday, April 7, 2014
IQALUIT
Nunavut's child protection system has received a lot of criticism over the years but it is ahead of the curve in one aspect.
Recently implemented changes to the Child and Family Services Act require the government to continue supporting youth in the child welfare system until they hit age 26.
Previously, youth were ejected from the system upon reaching the age of majority.
Numerous research studies have shown that youth in care struggle with transitioning to independent living. As a result, they often end up homeless, unemployed or involved in the justice system.
"Many young people who leave care fail to make the transition to independent living because of underdeveloped living skills, inadequate education, lower levels of physical and emotional well-being and lack of supports and resources that most young people rely on when moving into adulthood," according to a 2014 report titled Coming of Age.
Author Stephen Gaetz suggests government could help smooth the transition by supporting children in care until at least age 21 or, if they're in school, to age 25.
There are 396 youth in Nunavut's child welfare system. Of those, 270 are in foster care or kinship care and another 65 are placed outside the territory because they require special care that's not available in Nunavut.
Two or three youth were set to age out of the system in January or February but as a result of the amendment are still receiving assistance from the department.
Support is offered in various forms. Family Services will help youth access services necessary for continuing on to post-secondary education, provide ongoing access to a social worker and pay for counselling or other programs.
The department will also provide funds for youth to live with their foster family until age 26 or pay for students, who are going to school outside of Nunavut, to fly into visit with their foster family.
Extending support has an added cost but Peter Dudding, director of Children and Family Services, said he expects the department will be able to absorb it within its current budget.
"On the other hand, where the cost savings come is we know we either prevent and support people to succeed, or there is usually the much higher cost in terms of dealing with the consequences of failure, i.e. somebody ending up before the courts or ending up in jail or ending up in the hospital," said Dudding.
"So although there is an immediate cost in terms of our Child and Family Services budget, there is an overall net savings to other service areas and of course a huge net saving in terms of avoiding the negative social costs."
Although the move is a step in the right direction, a recently released followup report on a 2011 audit conducted by the auditor general of Canada shows more improvements must be made to the system.
Although Family Services has managed to hire more community social service workers and supervisors, the department still isn't meeting key child protection standards.
In 2013, workers carried out criminal checks and home studies in 40 per cent of extended family foster homes and 60 per cent of non-family foster homes, according to the report.
The auditor general also found many child case files and foster family files contained very little information or were incomplete.
Further, the department could only produce one quarter of the monthly reports that should have been submitted by communities between April 2011 and July 2013, auditors found.
"Our trend analysis indicated that some communities consistently met their reporting requirement, while others went months without submitting any information on the children in their care," the document states. "We found very limited evidence of followup by headquarters or the regions to address the missing reports.
"As a result of the lapses in reporting, the Department of Family Services could not confirm the accuracy of even the most basic information on children and youth in protective care."
The report contains six recommendations to address gaps in the system.
Family Services Minister Jeannie Ugyuk said her department accepts the report and will continue to work toward improving the system.
"In addressing the auditor general report, we have representatives working with Nunavut Arctic College to undertake a review of the social services worker program.
"We have made considerable progress in improving the mandatory statutory training staff requires in the field of child protection work, are in the process of discussing the best approach to expand the current training tracking system, and concentrating efforts on resources to conduct facility inspections," Ugyuk said.
"We are reviewing the report and identifying immediate, mid and long-term plans to address recommendations."
Auditor general says
Recommendations from the auditor general of Canada on improving Nunavut's child protection services:
- The Department of Family Services should continue to collaborate with the Department of Finance and the regions to ensure that community social service worker positions are filled with permanent staff in all communities. It should also monitor vacancies and staffing activity and should address any systemic recruitment and retention issues that affect its ability to sustain capacity.
- The Department of Family Services should set and monitor workload standards and take steps to ensure that these standards are met.
- The Department of Family Services should track the community social service workers who receive or require mandatory training, and it should establish a regular training schedule to ensure that everyone who needs the training completes the program in a timely manner.
- The Department of Family Services should ensure compliance with standards established for case file management, facility inspections, foster home reviews, and the director's annual audit.
- The Department of Family Services should ensure timely and consistent collection and sharing of basic information about the children in its care by closely monitoring community reporting and taking corrective follow-up action as required.
- The Department of Family Services should actively engage parents and communities in developing strategies for keeping children safe.
