Overview

It became evident during the review that the department and its authorities face several major administrative challenges, including human resource management, supervision and oversight, monitoring and evaluation, data collection, technical support, and policy development. New approaches and strategies are required.

Case management and social work practice are also challenging the department, authorities and individual workers, reinforcing the need for regulation of social work practice, capacity building, and the development of new policies and procedures.

One of the primary functions of the department is to provide services that lessen the suffering and hardship of children, families and communities. The committee's findings show that poor program management and failed implementation of the act contribute to the challenges and hardships of residents of the North. To address this, the department must be able to provide, as a minimum, adequate services to children and youth in care and, ideally, services that help these individuals to thrive.

One key finding of the review is that youth are under-served by the Department of Health and Social Services, and other departments, and are falling into poverty, homelessness, violence and crime. This gap must be addressed, as unequal government services and supports for youth is a violation of their basic human rights.

To reduce child maltreatment and abuse across the territory, quality interventions and support services are required in every community. In the long term, quality interventions at an early stage will replace the volume of crisis-response interventions, which will eventually reduce both the human and financial costs of child protection.

Child and Family Services Administration

36. Amend the act to:

a) require the Legislative Assembly or a

committee of the Legislative Assembly designated or established by it to review the provisions and delivery of the Child and Family Services Act at the next session following each successive fifth anniversary of the tabling of this review in the Legislative Assembly;

b) require the director to develop a

monitoring and evaluation framework, reviewed and updated on a regular basis;

c) ensure regular reviews and updating of

policy and standards.

Required policy updates include:

i. apprehension

guidelines;

ii. guidelines for collaborative processes,

collaborative planning and dispute resolution;

iii. requiring the supervisors to approve

interventions;

iv. policy and guidelines for using least

intrusive measures;

v. guidelines for using supervision

agreements, voluntary services agreements and plan of care agreements as part of early intervention;

vi. guidelines on privacy and information

sharing that clearly indicate when, what and how to allow access to case information;

vii. guidelines for the provision of services

and supports for prevention and early intervention, after apprehension and after the child has been returned to the care of the parent(s);

viii. policy and procedures that minimize

the number of moves experienced by children in care.

37. Develop policy and guidelines that prevent

inappropriate and potentially harmful placements.

38. Develop a human resource strategy that

includes:

a) reducing

caseloads;

b) hiring more child protection workers and

social workers, with special focus on aboriginal recruitment;

c) using more lay workers where possible;

d) retention

planning;

e) providing regular and ongoing training and

support to child protection workers and social workers;

f)

using legal clerks to assist staff with court documents.

39. Make updating the policy and standards

manual a priority by assigning staff to lead and manage the project, and complete it within a reasonable time frame.

40. Improve supervision and oversight by requiring

regular meetings, supervisory approval of interventions, and increasing visibility of supervisors.

41. Develop policy and standards for monitoring

and evaluation activities.

42.

Replace the Child and Family Information System (CFIS) with a computer program that is up to date, user-friendly, and able to assist the department in improving case management, monitoring and evaluation, data collection, and planning.

Social Services Practice

43. Amend the act to mandate cultural training for

social workers and child protection workers.

44. Finalize the social work regulation process;

once complete, all designated child protection workers must be certified social workers.

45. Training for child protection workers should be

expanded, regular, and ongoing, and should include:

a) building practical understanding of the act

and familiarization with the policies, procedures and regulations;

b) training on human rights, the law, legal

processes and court documentation;

c) focus on understanding the options and

processes available under the act;

d) how to refer clients for prevention and

support services;

e) practical training in communication,

collaborative process and dispute resolution;

f)

cross-cultural training relevant to the NWT;

g) case management and lease intrusive

measures;

h) training on the implementation of the

Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (ATIPP) and how to share information within the limits of both ATIPP and the Child and Family Services Act.

46, Improve case management by developing

policy that includes:

a) regular meetings with clients, case review

and progress monitoring;

b) regular visits to children in care;

c) providing early intervention and prevention

services and supports for clients.

47. Ensure that expertise in mediation and dispute

resolution is available to both the department, and at the community level.

48. Create a “Best Interests Assessment” for use

by child protection workers during intervention planning to ensure that interventions are done in the best interests of the child.

49. Instead of the child protection worker, another

HSS staff person with training in collaborative processes and dispute resolution should have the responsibility of informing parents about the child protection process, their rights and responsibilities, and generally to provide assistance to parents and families.

Placement Services

50. Amend the act to:

a) allow the judge overseeing a protection

hearing to consider returning a child to a non-custodial parent or an extended family member who has regular care or contact with the child;

b) allow short-term extended family foster

placements with an expedited community screening process;

c) allow assisted fostering by extended

family, and develop policy to carry it out;

d) include the consideration of custom

adoption as a placement option and develop policy to implement it;

e) allow

assisted

adoptions;

f) include that the court can consider

placement and make a non-binding recommendation to the director;

g) require the child protection worker to

consider consulting the child’s extended family on placement arrangements and options.

51. Develop a database that flags case files when

children become eligible for adoption.

52. Enhance the foster family placement and

recruitment program to include:

a) a focus on aboriginal recruitment;

b) a more appropriate vetting process;

c) greater placement flexibility;

d) greater financial, social and other supports

for foster families;

e) emphasis on local placement.

53. Create more short-term non-foster placement

options, allowing flexibility for community input.

54. Develop therapeutic placement services that

include regular counselling and supervision, proper assessments and treatment of disabilities and special needs, and provide the special care that children in care generally require and deserve.

55. In policy, allow foster families to maintain

contact with children and, where possible, place children with the same foster families they have been placed with previously.

56. Develop policy and practice to keep siblings

together in placements to the greatest extent possible.

57. Develop policy and procedures to provide

financial, respite, training, and other services and supports to foster families.

Protection Services for Youth

58. Amend the act to:

a) require the director to offer the same

services to youth as to children;

b) define youth as a person from age 16

through 18, who may opt out of services and supports offered by the director, and opt back into services at a later time;

c) extend the director’s parental responsibility

for permanent wards to the age of 23 years;

d) require the director to provide services and

supports to children and youth

transitioning out of care and develop supporting policy.

59. Develop policy and standards that include

following up on children and youth after they have left the care of the director.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to pass the reading on to my colleague, Mr. Krutko. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.