October 8, 2014
Manitoba Government Receives Interim Report from AMR Planning and Consulting
– – –Province to Enhance Resources to Keep Families Together, Improve Services for Children at Risk: Minister Irvin-Ross
The Manitoba government has received the interim report from AMR Planning and Consulting, the independent firm hired to provide options for implementing and responding to the remaining recommendations from the Hughes inquiry, Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross said today, noting many of the recommendations from the Hughes inquiry are already being implemented. The minister added the government is also introducing new initiatives to improve the quality of care for vulnerable children.
“The safety of children is our primary concern. We know the work being done by AMR Planning and Consulting on the remaining recommendations of the Hughes inquiry will help us as we continue to strengthen the child-welfare system,” Minister Irvin-Ross said. “While AMR is working on its analysis, we are completing work on the 31 other recommendations and are launching new initiatives to protect children.”
While AMR’s work is ongoing, the minister noted the province is:
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expanding programs that help build strong, healthy families including:
- introducing more funding flexibility to take into account family size, complexity of needs, geography and other individual factors;
- offering more support services that address the needs of the most vulnerable families, parents and children; and
- ensuring services are provided to families as early as possible to reduce the number of children coming into care;
- introducing legislation in the coming session that will allow greater public reporting of critical incidents and increased sharing of information with families and the public; and
- fully implementing the Social Work Profession Act by summer of 2015.
“We are looking forward to seeing AMR’s final report in January so we can continue implementing the recommendations from Commissioner Ted Hughes,” Minister Irvin-Ross said. “Commissioner Hughes provided us with an invaluable roadmap that is helping us strengthen protections for children, while providing more supports for Manitoba Child and Family Services agencies, families and communities.”
AMR’s interim report outlines the work done so far with Aboriginal and other communities and organizations. It includes interviews and consultations with groups and individuals, community visits and two major consultations held in the northern and southern parts of the province.
AMR is analyzing information gathered from the consultations in the context of the recommendations of the Hughes inquiry. The final report will present options for implementing and responding to those recommendations. It will be presented to government by the end of January 2015 and released to the public.
“We are very grateful to the elders, youth, agencies, authorities, organizations, department personnel, and others who have participated in and contributed to the consultations we’ve completed to date. The insights, ideas and suggestions they’ve shared with us have laid solid ground for the plan with options for action that will be included in our final report,” said Barbara Bruce, implementation team leader, AMR.
As well as implementing or responding to some of the suggestions presented in the AMR report, the Manitoba government is initiating other changes to protect children including:
- opening a new, secure, six-bed facility to shelter high-risk girls;
- reviewing service contracts with firms that supervise children in hotels and group homes; and
- working more closely with police and Street Reach to improve protocols dealing with high-risk youth.
Minister Irvin-Ross said improvements to the child welfare system will be built on earlier initiatives, particularly Changes for Children, the child protection action plan that implemented recommendations stemming from six reviews of the Manitoba Child and Family Services system after the murder of Phoenix Sinclair in 2005.
Changes for Childrenconsisted of budget increases, better foster care, child safety and improving accountability. The plan expanded on the work done to improve the Manitoba Child and Family Services system initiated under the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry – Child Welfare Initiative. Of the 295 recommendations, 95 per cent are complete.
Background information on the Hughes inquiry, its recommendations, Changes for Children and the ALL Aboard poverty reduction strategy can be found at www.gov.mb.ca/fs/index.html.
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