Roundtable announced to delve into changes to children-in-care system

The independent voice given by the provincial government to stand up for children in care was noticeably absent when Human Services Minister David Hancock gathered workers in the child welfare system around him to address concerns about deaths in care.

Youth and Child Advocate Del Graff says he was neither made aware of the conference on Nov. 27 nor invited to attend.
That did not stop Hancock from counting the establishment of the Office of the Youth and Child Advocate as an independent office under Premier Alison Redford’s leadership as an accomplishment.

Hancock called the news conference in response to a series of investigative articles run recently by the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald stating that 145 children in Alberta had died in foster care since 1999. Of the 94 children whose ethnicity was recorded, 74 were Aboriginal.

Those figures don’t shock Graff.

“It just really saddened me, the volume of young people who lost their lives and the impact on families,” he said. “It’s really concerning the type of pain that families are still experiencing as a result of those losses.”

While Aboriginal youth comprise only nine per cent of Alberta’s population, they account for close to 60 per cent of children in care. According to figures from the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate, four times as many Aboriginal children are being served by child intervention services compared to their non-Aboriginal counterparts; six times as many are in temporary care; and eight times as many are in permanent care. As well, Aboriginal children stay in care longer than non-Aboriginal children.

In a news release issued by Treaty 8 First Nations, Grand Chief Richard Kappo stated, “We have quite a few children lost in the Alberta system, away from their communities and culture, where the assumption on what we have been told is that they are being treated well. These articles have left us to wonder if that is truly the case.”

In light of the newspapers’ investigation, Hancock announced a roundtable would take place in January. He dismissed the call for a public inquiry, saying the process had too many constraints.
“Quite frankly I don’t want to take another two years to do that. I think we know a lot about this,” said Hancock.

Graff says whatever vehicle is used to gather information is not important.

“If the dialogue leads to recommendations that are acted upon then certainly it’s a value,” he said. “I’m hopeful that the dialogue that does take place moves us along. And sometimes it does … but we struggle sometimes to recognize when is there going to be action and when isn’t there.”

In the annual report Graff recently tabled in the Legislature, he wrote, “I believe the Ministry of Human Services can and should take more concrete action on the recommendations made in my reports that will improve services and outcomes for vulnerable children.”

According to the newspapers’ investigations, the government has received 258 non-binding recommendations since 1999 through a variety of offices, forums and reports on how to improve the system.

Hancock said the quality assurance council, which he also noted as an achievement under Redford, has recommended, and he has accepted, that a process be put in place to track those recommendations to determine which have been acted upon and the outcomes.

The January roundtable will focus on at least two items, says Hancock. One will be how to determine the best balance in sharing information with the public and maintaining privacy, and the other will be determining if the review system for deaths in care is appropriate.

Since April, all child deaths in care have been reported to the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate. Whether this review system is adequate Graff says is “still in (too) early days of our mandate” to determine.

Hancock says recommendations from the roundtable will be reported to the Legislature.

Graff says he has been made aware of the roundtable and it “has been suggested that I would attend…. My role is to represent the rights, interests and viewpoints of young people and however I can do that, I will do that.”