Child Welfare Votes

Over half the families receiving CAS services in Ontario live in socio-economic hardship. When child protection services are needed, it often means other services have not been successful or even available to address chronic health and social issues.

Ontario’s child protection system depends on a robust social and health infrastructure in communities across the province. Services for children, youth, and adults are needed in the areas of health, addictions, counselling, housing support, domestic violence, and poverty mitigation to ensure the same level of safety and well-being for all Ontario communities.

Child and adult mental health require particular attention as they are key drivers of child protection involvement. Nearly half of families receiving CAS services have challenges with mental health and/or addictions. A recent survey undertaken by Children’s Mental Health Ontario shows that 76% of families experiencing mental health issues say it is difficult to know where to get help. This represents a severe shortage of mental health services. The problem is particularly acute in remote communities, the North, and in First Nations. This means that many Indigenous children have to travel far from their communities, culture, and language to receive mental health services and supports.

This means properly funding the restoration of the child protection mandate to Indigenous communities, as well as the health and social services, housing, and other social infrastructure unacceptably lacking in many communities. It also means stepping up to acknowledge the province's role in the Sixties Scoop and ongoing harm to Indigenous children, youth, and families.

Specifically, child welfare investments are needed for the following:

• Restoration of the child protection mandate
• Sustainability of newly designated agencies
• Funding for pre-mandated agencies and transition from legacy agencies
• Government apology for role in 60s Scoop, historic and ongoing harm to Indigenous people

We fully support the requests of ANCFSAO and its members, as well as Indigenous leaders, that the funding model must be reviewed to ensure equity of funding and sustainability, such that it supports seamless delivery of services. Currently, agencies are using child welfare operating dollars to address child protection concerns arising from lack of infrastructure to address basic needs, as well as significant complex care and treatment needs of children and families in their community. Areas of infrastructure requiring government support include, but are not limited to:

• Clean water, functioning plumbing and heating
• Better access to healthy and affordable food
• Transportation
• Reliable internet connectivity
• Cultural resources (Elders, cultural workers, language interpreters)
• Separate and discrete prevention funding with clear guidelines for its use

It is especially traumatic for Indigenous children and families to be removed from their culture and language, given the legacies of residential schools and the Sixties Scoop. Additionally, Indigenous CASs have difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified staff given the lack of appropriate accommodation for staff in fly-in communities and the danger involved in travelling to remote and northern areas of the province.

Twenty-two CASs are currently using CPIN, with 6 more to “go-live” by May 2018. Over half of all cases are now completed through CPIN. Costs for full deployment, sustainment, and system adaptations are currently outpacing available resources. While we have been working closely with MCYS on deployment and sustainment of the CPIN application, the funding provided to CASs has not been adequate to fund these activities fully. As a result, CASs are required to redirect operating funds from direct service to support CPIN activities. Critical decisions for children's safety depend on a fully capable and resourced enterprise system.

Part X of the new CYFSA has new and significant changes to disclosure privacy rules for child welfare, including the introduction of an oversight role for the Ontario Privacy Commissioner. Child welfare records are complex and involve an entire family, not just an individual, which can impact the process of disclosure. With these new regulations, CASs will need appropriate funding.

OACAS and CASs advocated for this change for decades. It represents significant change management for the sector, which will require new funding. Other public sectors are properly resourced to make this scale of change, and child welfare should be no different.

Child welfare in Ontario is committed to keeping children and youth close to their families and communities. Last year, more than 3,600 children found safe, secure, nurturing homes with kin families in Ontario. Research shows that children living with people they know do better. They have fewer attachment disorders and mental health issues, and report a greater sense of overall well-being.

But bringing children into the home is costly. Kin families are often grandparents living on a pension. Research shows that kin families experience a higher rate of poverty than foster and adoptive families. Kin who step up to support children they know need to receive the services and funding supports that make this a viable option.