Thank you, Madam Chair. The department is considering adopting a series of tools called structured decision-making. These are standardized forms which child protection workers can complete in order to assess both the immediate safety risk and longer-term risk and future harm.
Several Canadian jurisdictions recently adopted these tools, and the director of territorial services is in touch with his counterparts to receive guidance on lessons learned in other jurisdictions. One of the first lessons that was learned is that it will take several years to adapt the tools to our particular jurisdiction and to validate the tools for use within our population. We intend to move this process forward as fast as possible and explore what interim guidance can be provided to child protection workers, but at the end of the day, as we move towards a system that supports families in a different and more proactive way, we will need to make sure that these tools are appropriate and it will take a bit of time. Thank you, Madam Chair.