Child Welfare Reform: Public Education as a Platform Jeremy Berland

1. Child Welfare Reform: Public Education as a Platform Jeremy Berland Deputy Representative for Children and Youth British Columbia, Canada

2. British Columbia • British Columbia (B.C.) is on the west coast of Canada, on the Pacific Ocean. It is just under ½ the size of Western Australia • Canada has about 33 million people. About 4.1 million people live in B.C.

3. British Columbia • Vancouver is Canada’s third-largest city. More than 2 million people live in and around Vancouver. The city is one of the most ethnically diverse in Canada. • B.C. has an Aboriginal population of about 200,000. About 40,000 of whom live in Vancouver.

4. ShanelNadal: New York Woman Kidnaps Her 8 Children from Child Agency D.C. child welfare agency lays off 10 employees Child Abuse Rates Rise in Recession September 19, 2011|Mary Moloney, KSPR News | mmoloney@kspr.com Child protection: can't afford to cut spending, can't afford not to Record numbers of youngsters are being taken into care. As budgets tighten, how can councils rein in what some regard as unsustainable spending on children's social care? After 17 months of unimaginable cruelty, Baby P finally succumbed Baby P effect puts record number of 'at risk' children in care

5. Couple sentenced to four years each for abuse of 14-month-old girl Judge says he would ban one of the 19-year-old defendants from ever having children if he had the power Hull council failures left children at risk from mother's violent partner Boy's Death Highlights Crisis in Homes for Disabled By DANNY HAKIM A seemingly inexplicable willingness by supervisors to tolerate abuse seems to pervade institutions that house residents with developmental disabilities, a New York Times investigation shows New Look at City Lapses in Adoption Abuse Case By BENJAMIN WEISER An investigation more than 30 years ago did nothing to prevent Judith Leekin from carrying out one of the most brazen and disturbing child welfare schemes in recent memory.

6. Short, Bleak Life of Marchella Pierce, Emaciated 4-Year-Old By N. R. KLEINFIELD and MOSI SECRET; ALAIN DELAQUéRIèRE CONTRIBUTED RESEARCH. Four people have been charged in a girl’s death, including two child welfare workers, and a Brooklyn grand jury is investigating a city agency’s failures Help plea for kids leaving state care Health experts have told a parliamentary inquiry into child protection in Tasmania that more support is needed for young people leaving state care. Foster agency denies abuse carer claims Posted Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:22am AEDT The foster care agency, Life Without Barriers, is denying accusations that it entrusted a teenage boy to a man with a history of sexual abuse against young people. At the Funeral for a Beaten Toddler in Brooklyn By LIZ ROBBINS A funeral in Brooklyn for 18-month-old Louis Dewayne Mosely, a foster child also known as KymellOram, led a priest to struggle with the injustice.

7. Almost 40 child protection workers still needed Alison Middleton Posted Fri Dec 10, 2010 6:16pm AEDT The Northern Territory Government is trying to fill 39 vacancies for child protection workers. Aboriginal kids 6 times more likely to be abused Eleni Roussos Posted Fri Dec 3, 2010 11:20am AEDT | A new report shows Aboriginal children continue to be over-represented in all categories of abuse and neglect in the Northern Territory. Who needs watching after Nia's death? By Cherie Taylor | Saturday, August 27, 2011 15:00 ANY closer monitoring of children in New Zealand should be aimed at families identified as being at risk.

8. The Usual Result ? • Media glare • Political fall-out • Calls for greater regulation • Some increased (short-term) funding • Strengthened oversight bodies created • Decreased morale • Increase in numbers of children in care

9. A Cautionary Note • This is a phenomenon largely but not exclusively of the developed world • 13.4M orphans of AIDS (2002), 80% in sub Sahara Africa • Potable water, prevention of dysentery, female circumcision are among the very serious child welfare issues in the developing world • UNICEF reports 1.25 million children across Southern Somalia are in urgent need of life saving interventions.

10. Broad context • Public easily influenced in the short-term about failures of the system • Need to be re-assured that the system is working • Political cycle getting shorter and shorter • Institutional memory lost • News cycle very fast and requires speedy response • Public mistrust of politicians heightened by repeated scandals and mis-steps and by opposition reminding voters of these at every opportunity.

11. The Environment • Increasing media concentration • Greater competitiveness for ‘features’ • New competition from Internet news sources – blogs, on-line journals, social networking, e-mail broadcasts. • Public appetite for salacious details • Lack of confidence in public institutions • Mistrust of government agencies

12. Layers • Need to protect client confidentiality • Loss of cohesiveness in the sector as service providers and funders increasingly at odds over resources • Very limited understanding of the roles and limitations of child welfare programs by other human service providers • Poor relationships with media

13. Internal issues • Management structures under pressure • Poor information systems • Discomfort with data • Limited evidence base for many programs • Research in the field not widely embraced • Inexperience of direct service workers • Burnout • Disconnect between central bureaucracy and client service staff

14. Internal issues • Implementation planning not complete • New programs introduced before previous initiatives complete • Demand for perfection in an environment that doesn’t work that way • Consistency of supervision

15. Lasting Approaches • Focus on the front door for staff • Improved focus on child welfare in all human service professional programs at the university and college level • Social work, child and youth care, nursing, medicine, criminology, psychology, education and law • Training and orientation programs that track beyond the first three weeks

16. Lasting Approaches • Greater emphasis on child neglect • Understand the compounding impacts of intergenerational poverty, abuse and neglect • Focus research and supervision efforts on complex cases • Identify approaches with clients who resist or avoid services • Engage in public discussion about the efficacy of early intervention and prevention when chronic neglect is the issue

17. Lasting Approaches • Improving the knowledge base • Applied research coupled with learning • Forge links with local universities and research foundations to develop a common research agenda • Use the tremendous power of the child welfare system data base to offer resources to researchers • Develop academic interest in the field • Trickle-down effect for students

18. Lasting Approaches - Data • Develop expertise about your own data • Understand the trends – mine the data • Develop theories & actions in response to trends • Make value-added data available in a timely way to direct service staff • Push data usage to the direct service staff • Embrace a culture of data rather than shying away from it • Ensure that the politicians and senior staff are provided with accurate and timely data about the system

19. Lasting Approaches - Be Very Public • Publish data and audit reports at regular and predictable intervals • Beat the armchair experts at their own game • Frame the issues • Use these releases as an opportunity to educate the media and the public about the system • Defend client confidentiality to the death but be very open about system wide information • Never refuse media requests for interviews

20. Lasting Approaches - Implementation • Require that all new initiatives have an implementation plan with appropriate resources • Should be approved prior to program being accepted • Must be appropriately costed • Opportunity for consultation with staff and stakeholders • Requires adequate timeline, including training and break-in period

21. Lasting Approaches – Easier said than done! • Attempt to find common ground with advocacy organizations about how the system functions. • Prepare budget submissions based on data and if the data is not available explain why and provide a reasonable alternative approach. • Be prepared to be aggressive in dealing with real staff discipline issues but reserve this for serious situations. • Form working relationships with union representatives to resolve problems early

22. Further Information/Comments • Jeremy Berland – Jeremy.Berland@rcybc.ca • www.rcybc.ca