PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS FOR CHILD PROTECTION.

Article by Ray Ferris. (Ray Ferris, my friend and fellow advocate is an expert on child protection and specifically the work of the Ministry of Children and Families in British Columbia (MCFD). He is the author of  'The Art of Child Protection."  Ray reissued this information now, sent to me September 27th, 2017-09-27. Ron Unruh).

PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS FOR CHILD PROTECTION.

This is based on material I wrote at the request of some NDP members of the legislative assembly for the election of 2009. 

Introduction.

The British Seebohm Commission of the 1960s noted that there were many problems of a non-administrative nature in the British social services and they could not be solved by administrative changes. This is important to remember because there have been many serious problems in the child protection services of British Columbia, but the repeated attempts at solving them have only been through administrative and legal devices, which have always failed. Indeed it could be argued that they have sometimes made the situation worse. 

SOCIAL WORKERS NEED CHILD-PROTECTION TRAINING

This is an opinion piece by my colleague and guest writer, Ray Ferris appeared in The Times Colonist. Ray sent it to me after it was published there. whom you know as the author of 'The Art of Child Protection,' and as a frequent contributor here, as well as an advisor to countless parents as well as lawyer and members of parliament. You can order the book at rtferris@telus.net

The Walker judgement and several others have made it evident that an adversarial and even hostile culture permeates the ministry responsible for child protection. There are probable causes for this. One is that provincial social workers used to be responsible for both financial assistance and child welfare. The deep-seated antagonism to assistance applicants rubbed off on child welfare cases, often the same cases. The three children’s aid societies were kinder, because they handled no assistance. All services were amalgamated by the first NDP government.

The courts used to function well. In the late seventies I studied about 200 cases which went through the Victoria court. No cases exceeded statutory time guidelines and judges were vigilant in demanding proper notices and other parental protections. Only four cases went to contested hearings. Most cases were settled by negotiation. There were many registered social workers and there was a sense of professionalism among the staff members.

Public Trust, Power and Corruption / Part 380 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

Public Trust, Power and Corruption

A fundamental theme of democracy is the concept of the public trust which asserts that within the public there lies the true power and future of a society and therefore the trust that the public invests in its officials must be respected.

A young person was speaking with me about the seeds of cynicism that have germinated and developed into full grown pessimism. At first one surmises this is cynicism about government but closer inspection reveals it is cynicism about persons, people, humanity. So few people come to power without becoming tainted or even derailed. The reality was captured in a phrase. “Power corrupts: absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

There is more to this adage which derives from a quotation by Lord Acton, who was actually John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, in fact Baron Acton (1834–1902). As an historian and moralist he summed his thought in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887 with these words: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." What chance had public trust if that revelation becomes our starting point? Another ancient, William Pitt, the Elder, The Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778 is recorded as having made an equally profound and disturbing statement in a speech to the UK House of Lords in 1770. "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it."

If the Liberal caucus is comprised of many who have already compromised their respect and the opposition NDP has nothing better to show, where are we to look for leadership and guileless aid when we want something as simple as mercy or compassion?

Employees within the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Development are not elected officers yet to them has been invested a responsibility that in some circumstances has not unlimited power but immense power which when employed can shroud its actions under a legislatively sewn cover of confidentiality and privacy. That without question has generated a pattern of conduct and job performance that has not been in the best interests of children and families for countless thousands of British Columbians. Public trust has been lost for all of these in their elected officials and others employed within governmental ministries. I mentioned to that young person with whom I spoke that he had articulated his eroded trust issues much sooner than I have. I have waited until my senior years to realize how awful things are. Now, I am almost overcome by the avalanche of disappointments. The few untainted MCFD employees whom I earlier mentioned must be as much or more discomfited by what they see around them each day.

Will the true champions please stand up? Will the honourable call for accountability? Will the untarnished stand out as attractive leaders?

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.