Systemic Revisioning
Changes to child welfare service delivery are urgently needed. In response to a public consultation request, on July 14th, 2023, the Child Welfare Truth Telling Collective (CWTTC) submitted a brief to Ontario’s Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS) recommending revisions to the Child, Youth and Family Services Act (2017). We are requesting revisions that will facilitate the provision of services designed to prevent child abuse and neglect. Trends indicate that rates of investigation are increasing while services and supports that could prevent the escalation of stresses that lead to abuse are not provided (Fallon et al., 2023, p. p7). Reactive investigative approaches not only fuel system wide inequities, but they also wreak havoc in the lives of children, families, and communities.
Systematically, the results of superficial government tinkering have sidestepped the macro root causes of child abuse and neglect and ignored the programs and services that could prevent child abuse and neglect from occurring. The evidence is unequivocal that poverty is a risk factor for involvement in child welfare. Bywaters et al., (2022) speak to the heart of the matter:
The evidence is of a social gradient in child abuse and neglect which runs across
all families and places. Each step increase in family resources reduces children’s chances of abuse or neglect. The resources better off families can invest in securing their children’s wellbeing and development and the security and status that brings may be as important as what poorer families cannot afford and the consequent stresses. (p. 91)
A recent poll revealed that 91% of Canadians would prefer that measures were taken to ensure children remained with their families and were prevented from coming into the care of child welfare services, while 66% believed that additional financial support to these families would allow them to care for their children at home (Ipsos, 2023). A 2012 survey of Ontario’s Child Welfare Service Directors (n=37) showed that 95% believed that early preventative help should be a part of their mandate, while there was unanimity that families and children in need should be provided early help (p. 36).
Because of the continued paucity of preventative and structural reforms that could meaningfully address antecedents leading to the separation of children from families and the persistence of child neglect, the CWTTC recommends base funding for prevention services. Were the Act to be re-written, we propose the following: “Children’s Aid Societies will receive annualized funds from …[MCCSS], based on the actual Prevention Services [emphasis added] provided or approved by the…[MCCSS] in a budget year” (Freymond et al., 2023, p. 5). In addition, we suggest that this funding be insulated against politicized interference so that community stability and wellbeing are ensured and the needs of children and families are supported.
Adopting a child protection mandate that invests in the prevention of child abuse makes sense to experts, citizens, and workers. It is up to governments to generously fund the services and supports our children, families and communities need to effect the transformation we all hope for.
References
Bywaters, P., Skinner, G., Cooper, A., Kennedy, E., & Malik, A. (2022). The Relationship Between
Poverty and Child Abuse and Neglect: New Evidence. (Full and Final Report). University of
Huddersfield.https://research.hud.ac.uk/media/assets/document/hhs/
RelationshipBetweenPovertyChildAbuseandNeglect_Report.pdf
Fallon, B., Joh-Carnella, N., Houston, E., Livingston, E., & Trocmé, N. (2023). The more we
change the more we stay the same: Canadian child welfare systems’ response to
child well-being. Child Abuse & Neglect, 137, 106031–106031.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106031
Freymond, N., Koster, A., Handrigan, N., Saggafi, A., & Makse, M. (2023). Child Welfare Truth
Telling Collective recommendations towards the 2023 Review of the 'Child, Youth and
Family Services Act, 2017." Retrieved from the Child Welfare Truth Telling Collective's
Archive. https://docs. google.com/document/d/1am68Ns1XyG3HVs_ DZGAgLnj2Q_1DoWH7UwE9xZRyL5E/edit
Ipsos. (2023, October 10). Nine in ten (91%) Canadians agree that we should be doing more to
help kids continue to live at home and not enter the child welfare system. Ipsos News.
Retrieved October 16, 2023, from https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/91-canadians-agree-should-be-doing-more-to-
help-kids-continue-live-at-home-and-not-enter-welfare
Moore, D., Barr, M., Scott, A., & Spencer. K. (2012). Becoming the Help the Families Need:
Why early help makes sense for child welfare in Ontario. Provincial Projects Group.
Retrieved from the Child Welfare Truth Telling Collective Archives.