A COMPUTER SYSTEM IS NOT MCFD's ONLY PROBLEM

A Colossal Failure - That's the System that Manages 
Child Protection in B.C.

Today I am featuring a blog remark by Ray Ferris who is responding to a Victoria Times Colonist article written by Lindsay Kines and entitled Children's watchdog says computer system for social workers a “colossal failure,” dated January 25, 2013.  Hers is a copyrighted piece so Ms. Kines credited remarks are seen in red. Ray’s are seen in blue.

DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

The article is subtitled, MARY ELLEN TURPEL-LAFOND, THE REPRESENTATIVE FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, SAYS A DEEPER LOOK AT THE PROVINCE'S INTEGRATED CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IS NEEDED.  

“We’re in deep trouble,” she said. “This is a deeply serious problem,” were the words of Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, in response to a consultant’s report released by the province on Thursday, which confirms her warning from a year ago that the $182-million integrate case management system is woefully deficient and inefficient. 

LISTEN TO THE CHILDREN / Part 355 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

Listen to the Children

I am advocating for three children taken as an infant, a toddler and a small boy, the eldest of whom is now six years of age and each of these children in the same family have been outside their parental home for exactly three years. Children have memories. Some memories are indelible. The two oldest children have recently had many memory buttons pushed as they have been permitted by a Judge's order, to have visitation with their parents in the parental home for six hours each Saturday. These children have been thrilled to see familiar items, furniture, toys. Despite the change of houses in the children's absence, there are sufficient reminders of a home life to which these children are responding with longing for permanency. The regional Ministry of Children department should be gratified by the high comfort level these children have with their birth parents. That will be the just response. Social Workers whose interest is acknowledged to be in the child's best interests should be pleased with this strong indication of compatibility between children and parents and the home environment. That will be the professional response.

We are well beyond this point already in this case, but the social workers and supervisors associated with the Bayne file should be trashing their previous risk assessment of Paul and Zabeth, and taking a fresh, transparent look at these parents and their children and their family and home. Among the thousands of cases MCFD handles each year in British Columbia, the Bayne family stands out as one with incredible promise for success and happiness. MCFD should be pleased to say to the Bayne family, “We wish you well.”

But “It's before the courts.” Yes, indeed it is. MCFD made sure of that, but only after almost three years had passed. It should not have come to this. The Baynes should not be on pins and needles now, waiting to learn whether or not these three children will have their hopes extinguished and their memories forever scarred. It should not have come to this, and the Baynes are not to blame, certainly not the children, and arguably not the parents. Paul and Zabeth will not harm their children. Paul and Zabeth did not harm their child in the past. That's what they said – three years ago in 2007, and in 2008 and 2009 and still in 2010. No evidence exists to contradict that testimony.

We are in an awkward time here, a disgusting period of waiting for a judicial response to legal presentations wherein these parents have been compelled to defend their entitlement as the parents of these three. No effort and no amount of words were spared to convince a judge that Paul and Zabeth had forfeited their rights to parent these children. It was ugly. It is ugly.

Listen to the children. “Can we stay now?”

HON. MARY POLAK / Part 297 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

MLA Hon. Mary Polak Langley Minister of Children and Family Development and Minister Responsible for Child Care

As recently as June 2010, Times Colonist columnist Lindsay Kines reported that the NDP was calling for Mary Polak to resign as Minister of Children and Family Development. Frankly, that is no solution to anything about which we have been writing for months. Ministers come and go with regularity as it is. This opposition attack against a Liberal Minister came as a result of the tensions between MCFD and Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, the Representative for Children and Youth. More specifically it related to the safety of children in the Child in the Home of a Relative program. Turpel-Lafond's claim was that a great many of the children could be at risk within the program. Maurine Karagianis, NDP children's critic jumped on this, saying that Turpel-Lafond had provided convincing evidence that many caregivers were never background checked and some have criminal records and that one in three children might be at risk. Polak pointed out that while the program is subsumed by her ministry, these are really not children in the care of the province. They are in the care of family, some of whom require income assistance. Further, in any specific case where risk is indicated, the Ministry is quick to do assessment and respond appropriately. I found interesting the response by the B.C. Association of Social Workers who echoed Karagianis's concern over what it called Polak's “dismissive” response to the Representative's report. That was in June and of course Mary Polak did not resign in the face of that political manoeuvre nor should she have.

Political gamesmanship does not address our issues with MCFD case stories. The subject of our complaints is the decisions made within communities by MCFD Directors and social workers as they daily interpret their governing ACT.  Our focus is upon the empowerment mandated to MCFD by the ACT that creates such heartache for families which do not require such invasive intervention. Mary Polak needs to sit with troubled parents for many days and just listen. Then she needs to lead the campaign to enact true legislative changes which effectively reduce this constant criticism of MCFD by compelling accountable and compassionate child, youth and family social work. She needs to create dialogue with Turpel-Lafond so that the two agencies harmonize efforts to improve lives. She may need to stand up to some of her colleagues to say, this is the way we are going to do things. Is she up to that task? That's the question. Her credentials are weighty. Do they qualify her or signify the right stuff to truly make a difference to children and families? I sincerely hope so. Minister's don't have much time in these offices to affect great change.

(Bio Material from her site) She was re-elected to the B.C. Legislature in 2009, having represented the constituents of Langley since 2005. On June 10, 2009, Mary Polak was appointed Minister of Children and Family Development and Minister Responsible for Child Care. She serves on the Executive Council of the Government of B.C. Prior to her Cabinet post she served as the Minister of Healthy Living and Sport and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health for the Conversation on Health. Ms. Polak previously sat on the Cabinet Committee on New Relationship Coordination and the Government Caucus Committee on Social Development as well as on the Government Caucus Committee for Natural Resources and the Economy, the Select Standing Committees for Children and Youth, Education and Public Accounts, the Cabinet Committee on Agenda Development and the Special Committee to Review the Personal Information Protection Act.

Prior to being elected to the Legislative Assembly, Mary Polak was director of operations for a small polling and research firm and was a trustee and former chair of the Surrey School Board. Under her leadership, Surrey became the first school district in B.C. to balance its books according to generally accepted accounting principles. She led an initiative to make Surrey the first school district in the province to publish school-by-school results for both elementary and secondary schools. Throughout her nine years in local government, Mary worked with many regional and provincial organizations. As a representative to the Lower Mainland Consortium of School Districts for Successful Settlement, she twice presented briefs to the Federal Immigration Commission. In the mid 1990s, Mary chaired the Council of British Columbia School Districts and in 2003, was elected to the board of directors of the British Columbia School Trustees Association. Mary enjoys living in Langley's Willoughby area.