PRINCIPLES AND VALUES OF THE REPRESENTATIVE OF CHILDREN & YOUTH

The Representative for Children and Youth express the principles that form the strategy for her office’s child-centred concentration. The Representative agrees with the mandate that Children and Youth have a right to be safe and protected because they are valued individuals deserving of respect.

AYN'S APPREHENSION WAS UNREASONABLE - WILL THE MINISTER LISTEN?

In June 2011, MCFD’s decision to apprehend Ayn was the result of under-investigation. I believe it was over-reaction rather than over-investigation. Sending out the child protection team was standard procedure following an RCMP involvement in a child-search. However, when social workers arrive unannounced with document in hand, requesting a parent’s signature to a voluntary surrender of a child, without engaging in a sincere discussion of the challenges of parenting an autistic child, and in this specific case, the reasonable explanation for the child’s wandering from home, and possibly as well, asking how the Ministry could actually facilitate Derek’s job of caring for three children, two of whom are autistic, then the MCFD action was flagrantly unreasonable, illogical, unfounded, groundless, senseless and irrational.

FOR PARENTS: Info & Suggestions - EVIDENCE, MEDIATION, ACCOUNTABILITY & INTERNAL REVIEWS - part

INFORMATION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR PARENTS WHO ARE INVOLVED WITH CHILD PROTECTION AUTHORITIES IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
Written by Ray Ferris

Part Four of Four
EVIDENCE, MEDIATION, ACCOUNTABILITY & INTERNAL REVIEWS
Part 4of4

Evidence. 

Evidence:Dilate Peoples by Ezekiel Antoniewicz

The only really valid evidence is factual. Expert opinion is allowed on validation of expertise, but even expert opinion must state the facts on which it is based. You will note under sections 66 and 68 that the hearing may be as informal as the judge may allow, so it is not necessary to be as slavish to process as in criminal court. Section 68 allows a certain amount of hearsay evidence that the court considers reliable. The writers of the act did not intend this section to make the act into a free for all, with no regard for the rules of evidence, but that is what happens. Social workers generally get little training in the rules of evidence. They cannot distinguish between fact, opinion, hearsay and rumour.

THE EDUCATION OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN

 by Ray Ferris

author of the book “The Art of Child Protection.”

You can purchase it from him by writing to rtferris@telus.net

Ray Ferris receiving the Justice Award

As I have stated before, there is no shortage of experts who can define autism, bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity and on and on. There is no shortage of experts who can tell us confidently just what we should be doing with all these children and others and how much more of it we should be doing. There is just one little snag. There is a great shortage of results. If we look at the long haul, most autistic children are unable to manage independently as adults. We can spend all kinds of money on them and we can demand all sorts of things from the government, but for the most part we are describing process. Certainly all the people who work with autism and other difficult conditions are dedicated and sincere and they will usually see small gains here and there, because they must believe in what they are doing. However, most of these children will not be functioning normally by any stretch of the imagination even after years of effort.

Of course there are a few notable exceptions like Ms. Temple Grandin, who is a genius with animals, but they are few and far between. What do we really hope to accomplish with children like Ayn in a regular school setting. It takes two full time teaching assistants to manage her behaviour. Not only is she not getting an education, but she is probably a distraction for other children. Albert Einstein pointed out that it is irrational to do the same thing over and over again and expect the results to be different. He could have said stupid. He was thinking in the scientific context, but the same is true for society at large. Just as the biggest countries in the world cannot borrow their way out of debt, but they keep trying. The children’s ministry cannot solve non-administrative problems with administrative devices, but that is all they ever do. Freudian psychology claimed that people’s maladjustment could be fixed by the process of psycho-analysis. If it did not seem to be working, then there should be more of it. More sessions over more years. Never would they admit that the theory could be flawed. It was flawed of course, but two generations wasted their money on it before it was abandoned by the insurance companies.

With all the money that is spent on autistic programs, can the authorities define specific goals and targets that they hope to reach? If they can, I would like to hear about them, because all I see everywhere is couched in generalities. In school we expect children to learn to read and write, to do arithmetic and to learn about the world of science and humanity. Children who cannot learn to read and write cannot participate in many important ways. Do such children really belong in a normal classroom situation? If all we can hope to do is to contain and manage behaviour, should we be doing this at the expense of other children. Many types of children, such as those with Down syndrome, can be trained and they can learn to manage their own behaviour. But many autistic children cannot. What are we hoping to do with them? Can anyone enlighten me?

Later this week, I hope to write about the function of the protection system with special needs children. When is it appropriate for the state to take over parenting for them and when it is not? Ray Ferris

Ray Ferris is an occasional GPS post writer. Retired now, Ray speaks from 31 years in child welfare and protection as a social worker, district supervisor and family court coordinator. He cannot tolerate injustice imposed upon families by ineffectual case work.

Ron's Twitter

Re-think Accountability in child welfare /Part 412 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne

Among the changes that we might recommend to the Ministry of Children and Family Development, do you think it might be a good idea to ask for a re-think of the accountability required within the system. I am thinking particularly of an accountability formula that involves people other than those within the system itself. Sure we have a Representative of Children and Youth and her office has a specific mandate to be independent of MCFD and to serve as a watchdog. How well is that working? I'm not convinced it's entirely effective or let's say as effective as the Hughes recommendation envisioned it could be. The government has not embraced this objective independent voice and the MCFD has obstructed it. So, I am thinking of an external mechanism, a citizens' board to strengthen accountability in the child welfare system. The fear that might be expressed within MCFD might be that such oversight would discourage skilled workers from either entering or staying in the field. I view that as a dubious concern since the attrition of skilled workers is already a headache and that erosion is attributable to the failure of team leaders, supervisors and directors to be properly accountable for their calls, decisions and expectations. Of course we need to support skilled casework practice and the way that can be done most effectively is by creating less need or opportunity for criticism of the work by a healthy accountability mechanism. An accountability to us, the people, the citizens, the parents, teachers and children who own this community service with our tax dollars and our citizens' rights.

This Blog has been advocating the return of three children to their biological parents, Paul and Zabeth Bayne, for which a ruling is expected from Judge Crabtree within the next two weeks. Stay posted.

ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE PUBLIC / Part 303 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

Any time that a death of a child occurs while in care of the Ministry of Children, there is a need for close scrutiny of the custodial care and the circumstances in which it happened. The death of a child in care is alarming. It is assumed that a child is in care because that life was vulnerable or endangered by risk of some kind in the existing home care. It is therefore a shock when in the supposed foster place of safety, a child dies. It is assumed that a death should not occur while in foster care unless there were mitigating medical issues. When a child dies while in the system, we can be assured that front line child protection workers are not heartless but that they rather feel the emotional impact. That empathy becomes questionable to us if the system does not openly and publicly probe into the death and learn from it so that there will be improvements to policy and practice for the sake of other future children receiving services.

Loved ones of the deceased child do not want the child's death to be invisible. Chris Martell in Saskatchewan is an example of a father insistent upon the government learning from the tragic death of his two year old son while in a foster care home. He is presently completing a five day walk to Regina today where he will present a petition to the government to take necessary steps to prevent such tragedy. In his son's case, a foster mother has already been charged with a criminal act. The Ministry demonstrates real compassion only when it honestly investigates and assesses cause and takes steps to insure that if there was fault, it is not only punished but corrected, made preventable. In such situations, the government has responsibility to account to the public how things went wrong and what is being done to correct it.

A child does not need to die to warrant a review of process in handling the care of a child. I believe that this type of accountability ought similarly to apply to care situations, notwithstanding the confidentiality concerns written into the child protection protocol. So, when a child is returned to its parents by a court ruling, that must be an occasion for disclosure of Ministry decisions which shaped the entire experience of parents and children during the time they were involved with the Ministry. Don't regard that as sensational but educational. Good social work aims to excel. Clearly, when the court ruling declares that the Ministry has not proven its case that the child should be in or remain in care, yet the child has been removed from the family home for an extended time, then important lessons should be learned and policy and procedure shaped in response. When timelines for custody and care orders that are carefully prescribed in the Act are ignored or stretched, then the attending judge and MCF supervisors and the Ministry in Victoria should disregard excuses and act to correct the practice.  As 2010 closes out on the Bayne case and when Judge Crabtree returns all three children into the care of their own parents, a public accounting will be very informative and hopefully will assist Victoria to fine tune its expectations for outcomes and accountability within its decentralized structure.