Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the health and social services authorities, in consultation with the Department of Health and Social Services, develop a tool to ensure that longer-term risks to children are formally assessed to determine a child’s safety as required under the Child and Family Services Act; and further, that this tool be ready for use by front-line workers within the current fiscal year; and furthermore, to expedite the process the department look to other jurisdictions for guidance. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.
Again, this motion is very straightforward in regards to the type of tools that we want to develop to ensure that long-term risk to children is formally assessed properly and determine the safety of our children. It was noted in the Auditor General’s report that there were some deficiencies in this area. So, again, I look forward to the department’s work. There is a demand on here for front-line workers within the current fiscal year and that this process be expedited by other jurisdictions. I want to have the same thing as we’re asking for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Minister Abernethy.
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.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I feel very strongly about this particular deficiency and want to speak to it. In the files that the Auditor General examined, none of them had done a long-term risk assessment of the child’s safety. It struck me as being particularly deficient, for lack of a better word. I understand the Minister’s comment that the department is looking at something and that it’s going to take a long time in order to get a tool in place, but there has to be something in the interim. We can’t continue the way we have for umpteen years, not doing long-term assessments of the safety of children when they are apprehended or even when there’s an intervention being done of some sort whether they remain in the home or not.
I can understand that to take a tool and adapt it for our particular northern situation may take a while, but in the interim, the Minister has to ensure that long-term assessments are being done and there needs to be an interim tool. During the hearings, we were advised that it could take up to a year for the department to get tools in place, and that’s way too long. So I wanted to just state that it is up to the Minister to find something that will ensure that workers are doing long-term assessments of children until we get this risk assessment tool formally identified. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Yakeleya.
