Victoria MLA in the hot seat after critical report issued

An alarming new No Time to Wait report released on Tuesday by the Representative for Children and Youth (RCY) indicates over 80% of social workers employed in the BC child welfare system say they are unable to do their jobs properly because their caseloads with the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) are too high.

“Social workers in this province have incredibly difficult jobs and to see how understaffed and overworked they are is truly disturbing,” said representative Jennifer Charlesworth. “We have known about chronic understaffing at this ministry for decades, yet successive governments have not addressed these challenges.”

This leaves the most vulnerable children in the province at risk of falling through gaps in ways that can be tragic and even lethal. The story is not new.

Nearly 10 years ago in 2015, the office of the Representative for Children and Youth reported that, because of their heavy workloads, social workers were “unable to consistently meet MCFD standards.” Not a single person interviewed for their review “said that he or she could meet the required timelines most of the time.” Ministry data showed none of the 13 regions in BC audited in 2020 or 2021 met 50% compliance in service practices.

Not much has changed. BC’s foster care system continues to fail vulnerable children, particularly Indigenous children. As of 2022, 68% of kids in care in BC were Indigenous.

The MCFD has come under intense scrutiny in more recent years with the revelation of several cases of abuse of children in government care in the province. Charlesworth’s latest report is being published in the wake of details surrounding the tragic circumstances of the death of a boy named “Colby” (a pseudonym) who, in 2021, were tortured and murdered at the hands of caregivers in 2021.

Colby’s story spotlights what the RCY office says is a “disturbing lack of compliance with child protection policies and practices, most notably a lack of staff backfill for extended medical leaves.” In a gathering of acknowledgement of contributors to the RCY report, Irwin Elman, child advocate and Laidlaw Foundation fellow said,“This is not just a BC story, his story is so many children across Canada so I am urging the BC government to step into its own circle.”

Esquimalt-Metchosin MLA Mitzi Dean was minister at the time of Colby’s murder and, facing overwhelming pressure from the Indigenous community, was asked to resign. Beacon Hill MLA Grace Lore took her place in January 2024. In the months after she became minister, the Representative’s office collected feedback and data from social worker focus groups, community engagement sessions, and a review of relevant ministry literature, documentation and data—all of which went into the RCY report.

Referring to an evaluation audit her office recently released, she said “99% of kids are being seen that we are getting those visits.” However, the 2023/24  Provincial Community Youth Justice practice audit showed only 11% service plan follow up with youth and caregivers and only 29% compliance in supervision contacts.

The RCY report found that 77% of social workers don’t have timely and adequate access to family and community support to help the children and families they are working with and 90% said they were experiencing very high degrees of stress.

A workload analysis tool that measures how many social workers the province requires to provide its services was abandoned by the MCFD in 2021.

When Lore was asked at a virtual presser on Tuesday how the ministry was going to improve staffing challenges she said, “Over the last couple of years, our staffing on the front line doing direct service has increased by 17%.” When asked to clarify the numbers, Lore said the ministry had increased staffing numbers by 200+ since September, bringing total direct service staff numbers up to 3.6K.

The Representative’s office recommended hundreds be added to staff numbers in order to meet current system needs.

“Recruiting and retaining and supporting staff has to stay a priority, but so is making sure that they as social workers, as frontline staff have access to the services and supports that families need. We need to build on the $138M investment in new staff,” Lore said.

A breakdown of MCFD budget allocations for child safety, family support and children in care services show an increase from $834.3M in 2022 to $935M for 2024 and a projected $949M for 2026, representing a budget increase of $115 million. Service delivery support also increased by $10M from $161M in 2022 to $171M by 2026. - somewhat shy of Lore’s suggested boost of $138M.

Charlesworth is calling on the government to stop tinkering at the edges of an outdated system that does not work for too many children and families. After years of its failing to address systemic issues, “Let this be the moment,” said Elwin.