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ORDERS OF THE DAY — Continued
No. 71 — Wednesday, May 30, 2018 — 1.30 p.m.
2 Mr. Throness to ask the Hon. Minister of Children and Family Development the following questions: —
1. Could the Minister provide a description of recruiting efforts for foster homes undertaken by her ministry, including:
a) the amount spent on recruiting in each of the latest five fiscal years of record;
b) a copy of the recruiting plan, which includes a list and brief description of all activities undertaken in the latest fiscal year of record;
c) the number of foster homes successfully recruited in each of the past five fiscal years, in two categories: those over age 64 and those under age 64;
d) the number of foster homes lost in each of the past five fiscal years, in two categories: those over age 64 and those under age 64;
e) the number of foster homes lost between March 31, 2017 to date, in two categories: those over age 64 and those under age 64; and
f) details of any further plans for future recruitment and expenditure.
2. I would like to have information on adoptions in B.C., including:
a) The elements and activities of the recruitment campaign for adoption since July 18, 2017, the expenditures each element receives, and any plans for future recruitment, with budgets;
b) An accounting of how the $3 million in extra funding in this fiscal year for the purpose of adoption year was spent;
c) The number of children adopted since July 18, 2017;
d) A copy of the policy that social workers use in order to guide them through the adoption assessment process; and
e) How many adoptable children over 12, which currently have a waiting time of 84 months, never find an adopted family? Could I have this figure for the past three fiscal years?
3. I want to ask with respect to progress in hiring 520 new personnel as set out in the budget of February 2017:
a) Can the Minister confirm that as of February 2018, 300 new front-line workers had been added to the Ministry since the previous fiscal year?
b) What is the progress on the February 2017 budget’s commitment to hire another 100 front-line support workers and 120 child and youth mental health workers across the Province?
c) I would like a map or a list that shows where these 520 new people are actually living and working.
d) I would like to know how many additional staff have been hired to work within Indigenous communities.
e) How many of the 520 new staff are Indigenous? And of them, how many are working within Indigenous communities?
4. With regard to the unit still open and maintained by the Ministry at the Victoria Youth Custody Centre:
a) How many children can the unit handle at one time?
b) How many children are there now?
c) What is the average number of children and/or youth there per month, over the previous twelve months?
d) How many staff serve the unit? Do they work full time there?
e) What is the annual cost of maintaining this unit?
f) Has the Minister concluded an agreement with local police to hold youth in custody in the same way that police hold youth in custody in other areas of B.C., or is this a special arrangement? If so, may I have a copy of any written agreement?
5. I would like more information about the Multi-Year Action Plan of the Ministry. The Plan states: The Multi-Year Action Plan is an overarching framework that sets out the key strategies that we will take over the next three years to achieve our long-term vision. Detailed operational plans at the divisional level within the ministry will support this framework.
I am requesting a copy of the detailed operational plans that support the framework of the Multi-Year Action Plan.
6. With regard to the approximately 39,000 child protection reports received in the last fiscal year, how many resulted in a referral to support services, how many in a referral to the provision of ongoing services, and how many resulted in no action at all? The response could be grouped into other categories as appropriate.
7. There is discussion on page 27 of the latest Performance Management Report of 67 surveys of client satisfaction. With relation to these surveys: was an independent contractor tasked with doing the surveys and if so, who was the contractor and what are the details of the contract, who was surveyed, what were the circumstances in which the survey was distributed, who decided who was selected to complete the surveys, from what larger population was the survey taken, how many surveys were filled out in total and how was it decided that the number of surveys should be 67, when were the surveys taken, and were survey respondents self-selected or selected at random?
8. Could I have a copy of the policy of the Ministry used by social workers with respect to parents who apply corporal punishment to their children?
9. The latest Performance Management Report of the Ministry lists a cost of $34 million for Youth Justice. Could I have a description, with costs, of each program that makes up this amount?
10. With regard to the Domestic Violence Plan (second annual report 2016):
a) What was the total cost of the Plan?
b) Is the incidence of domestic violence increasing or decreasing? I would point out that the Performance Report is filled with statistics, but there are none on domestic violence. Why are they not included, either there or in this report? Will the Minister commit to putting domestic violence statistics into the annual report or the performance report so we can see how successful the program is?
c) Statistics Canada’s regular publication Juristat, in an article entitled: Family Violence in Canada: A statistical profile 2015, released February 16, 2017, p. 37, states that B.C.’s rate of family violence increased by 2% over the previous year. How does the Minister claim that her programs are working?
d) Please provide the policy document explaining how the Ministry evaluates the success of each element of the Domestic Violence program, particularly with regard to programs’ impacts on domestic violence statistics.
e) What are the top 3–4 contributors to family violence, according to the data, and in what way do these contributors correlate with the elements of the program? For example, on page 20 of the Report, alcohol consumption is a ‘major’ contributor to domestic violence, but only $300,000 was devoted to it. If so, why do programs fighting alcohol abuse not compose a greater part of the program?
f) The Minister promised $4M for the program this year and $8M the next. What happened to those allocations and can the Minister explain why these amounts were not supplied?
11. With respect to the MCFD Service Plan 2017/18–2019/20, could the Minister detail the progress of the system-wide approach involving cross-sectoral partners to support mental health and wellness for children and youth?
12. With respect to the Performance Management Report of 2017, there are 2,876 FTEs listed in the chart on page 8 but on page 6 there are 4,713 employees listed. Could the Minister explain the difference?
13. Of the cheques that are regularly disbursed by the Ministry in ongoing payments, how many payments are deposited electronically, and how many are sent in paper form by mail?
14. In the Performance Report, page 60, 29% of children in care in the Northwest Service Delivery area were moved two or more times to different foster homes within a year. What extra resources are we applying to this most-needy area?
15. In 2012 the Residential Review Project Final Report related as a matter of concern, that 40% of children who left continuing care in 2011/12 had 4 or more moves, and 11% had 10 or more moves. What are the latest figures of record on this? Could the Minister explain why this was not included as a performance measure in the MCFD Service Plan or the Performance Management Report, and would the Minister give consideration to including this as an ongoing publicly-reported category?
16. On page 28 of the Plecas Report, Mr. Plecas noted that training is meagre for staff, who receive just three weeks of classroom training. He noted that social workers can go into a home without warrant and seize a child, which is a very strong and unusual power for public servants to have, yet their training is minimal. What is the Minister doing to rectify this? Could the Minister detail the training staff now receive?
17. Mr. Plecas, on page 43 of his report, suggested a four year plan with milestones to address the Ministry’s problems. Has the Minister embarked on such a plan? Could I have a copy of it?
18. On page 17, Mr. Plecas noted the sheer weight of the policy manual for social workers. Could I receive a copy of this manual?
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