October 13, 2006
"Changes For Children" Action Plan Outlined; $42 Million Initially Committed To Strengthening Child Welfare
A Changes for Children action plan has been launched to implement the more than 220 recommendations of the children’s advocate and the ombudsman following Wednesday’s release of reports into the child welfare system, Family Services and Housing Minister Gord Mackintosh announced today.
“The government takes the recommendations made in the external reviews very seriously and our commitment to make meaningful change must be backed by an effective implementation plan,” said Mackintosh. “I am confident that Dr. Catherine Cook, regional director of Aboriginal health at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and Reg Toews, M.S.W., founder of the former Children and Youth Secretariat, have the expertise needed to improve Manitoba’s child welfare system.”
“The AMC is pleased to see that the reviews have supported the devolution process as a means of strengthening the child welfare system within Manitoba,” Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Ron Evans said. “The old saying ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ definitely applies to many of the issues facing First Nation families and children.”
“As the reports confirm, I believe the AJI-CWI (Aboriginal Justice Inquiry – Child Welfare Initiative) gives us an opportunity to address the inefficiencies in the services and to improve on them, which in most part pre-date the AJI-CWI. I also welcome the additional $40 million announced by the Government of Manitoba. The primary concern of MKO is to realize the vision laid out in the AJI-CWI, which is to service our families wherever they may reside, and to create a child and family system that meets the cultural needs of our communities,” said Grand Chief Sydney Garrioch of Manitoba Keewatinook Ininew Okimowin.
“We have to ensure that all children are protected with the best policies and the best investments and actions plans that we can put in place on behalf of our province. I think this is the right approach,” said David Chartrand, president, Manitoba Métis Federation.
The four child welfare authorities, which have responsibility for managing and delivering child welfare services in Manitoba, will have the support and assistance of the Changes for Children co-chairs Cook and Toews, said Mackintosh. The co-chairs will have responsibility for advising the minister, monitoring progress and co-ordinating implementation among the authorities, relevant government departments and stakeholders.
As well, Mackintosh announced $42 million will be invested initially to implement the recommendations of the report in three priority areas of workload relief, training and prevention:
Immediate Action: $5 million
· Immediately, crisis response and first contact with the system will be strengthened with additional staff and 24-hour response will be enhanced.
· Family preservation initiatives, workload relief, information system upgrades and critical incident debriefing and supports to families in response to tragedies will be established.
· A significant first effort in the area of foster care will be made to accelerate the recruitment for emergency foster beds.
· Additional professionals will be hired to develop and strengthen standards, prevention measures, early intervention programming and to design and implement training initiatives.
· The province and First Nations leadership will also immediately pursue a meeting with the federal minister of Indian and northern affairs to address funding inequity and jurisdictional disputes.
Workload Relief and Front-line Support: $11.5 million over three years
· Funding for up to 150 new positions will provide workload relief through both a targeted initiative and the new focus on prevention.
· Child-tracking computer-system upgrades, enhanced information sharing and governance, and emotional and counselling supports will be provided for caregivers and workers and action will continue on fostering, suicide prevention and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
Prevention and Early Intervention: $22 million over three years
· Early intervention services will be provided to help troubled families before problems become crises and children are maltreated.
Training: $3.5 million over three years
· Standards, case management and suicide prevention training will be provided for frontline staff.
Public accountability for action on the recommendations will be enhanced with report cards on action taken to be released by the children’s advocate on the child death review and the ombudsman on the review of the child welfare system for the fiscal years 2007-08 and 2008-09. As well, ongoing actions will be reported publicly on a website, www.changesforchildren.ca. The new website, which will go live early in the new year, will link the recommendations made by the external reviews with corresponding action.
Further investments will be announced as specific action plans are concluded to address other themes in the external reviews.