British Columbia: 2,800 social workers face uncertain
future in massive transfer
Troubled children at heart of storm
Plans for a massive transfer of social workers out of
direct government control are provoking shivers of uncertainty in the
public service. But Minister for Children and Families Gordon Hogg
believes giving communities responsibility for child protection will
help children at risk lead better lives.
The stakes are high as 2,800 social workers — most of
them child protection workers — and another 300 support and
administration staff move from the ministry to newly created regional
authorities.
The province will be divided into five aboriginal and
five non-aboriginal authorities, which closely follow the boundaries of
health authorities. Another group will take over province-wide
responsibility for community living for developmentally disabled
children and adults.
Planning groups in each region are collecting
community input and working toward meeting criteria for a handover of
power. Each authority will then contract services such as child
protection out to local providers.
The community living authority is likely to be up and
running this fall, most other regional boards will take over in April
next year and some of the aboriginal authorities might take a couple of
years.
Support is strong for the idea of more community
involvement in child protection and for giving families extra support,
rather than yanking children into care at the first sign of trouble. But
there are questions about how such a dramatic change can succeed during
financial cuts — the ministry is chopping its budget from $1.4 billion
this fiscal year to $1.2 billion in 2004/05 — and whether the shift
amounts to government offloading of an expensive and often controversial
responsibility.
Even Hogg, an enthusiastic promoter of the plan,
admits he would like to be making the changes without facing a 22 per
cent budget cut over three years. "Ideally, you wouldn't want to be
doing this at a time when you have a reduced budget. Ideally, when
you're building a new structure, you would want to have, at least, a
budget you maintain. We don't have that luxury," he said.
Savings already are coming from having fewer children
in care and fewer investigations, changes that are alarming some
advocates. However, Hogg, a former foster parent, believes family
support and shifting from institutional-style group homes to
family-based care is both less costly and a better environment for
children. "Even if we had twice the budget, or no budget at all, I
fervently and firmly believe that we are going to the right service
delivery and right model for families," he said.
Already, there are 1,000 fewer children in care than
18 months ago — representing a saving of about $40 million — and the
number of calls about abuse and neglect has dropped to about 85 from 100
a day.
Hogg sees the drop in calls as a positive result from
a change in legislation, meaning police, not child protection workers,
investigate incidents like schoolyard bullying. The drop in the number
of children in care represents shifting attitudes of social workers to
community development rather than protection, he said.
Programs to identify children at risk early in life
and then plug them into early childhood development programs also will
pay dividends, both financially and in the outcomes for children, he
said.
The government is steering clear of throwing more
money and more bureaucracy at the system as soon as a problem hits the
news, Hogg said. However, even with the best risk assessment, there
still will be abuse, neglect and even deaths of children, he warned. "So
we do have to be sure that we do everything we possibly can."
Hogg hopes attrition and early retirement will mean
all ministry workers will go to the new authorities.
The ministry is working with the B.C. Government and
Service Employees Union on protecting wages, benefits and pensions, he
said. BCGEU president George Heyman said the
budget cuts inevitably mean fewer staff. "Unless we know there are fewer
kids needing protection and fewer families needing support, that's going
to be a problem. It's known that response to calls will be different,"
he said.
The lack of flexibility in budgeting means resources
cannot be sent where they are needed most and the result could well be a
patchwork system with kids falling through the cracks, he said.
The changes also are coming at a time when there are
radical cuts to social assistance and other programs, and every study
shows that as poverty increases, family tensions rise, Heyman said. "I
think we're going down a dangerous road. I think it's going to be very
difficult to tell whether the system the minister is bringing in is the
right one because it's being brought in in conjunction with budget
cuts," he said.
B.C. Association of Social Workers executive director
Linda Korbin said social workers are confused and concerned about
whether they will have jobs, what those jobs will look like and whether
they will be able to keep their benefits. "There's a whole lot of
confusion. People are struggling with insufficient information," she
said.
However, the biggest concern is whether children will
be adequately protected as budgets are cut, Korbin said.
Problems already are showing up as the government
refuses to extend foster care to older teenagers — one reason numbers
are dropping. The association wrote to all MLAs last week about the
policy shift. "The ministry is making it next to impossible for social
workers to bring teens who are at risk into care," says the letter.
"Instead, it is offering independent living, which basically means
underage welfare... It really is a case of penny wise and pound foolish.
It will cost the government far more in the long run and it will hurt a
lot of children doing it."
There are also problems around the ministry now
intervening only when the abuse occurs in the family, by a family
member, Korbin said. The policy might reduce the number of
investigations, but it is ridiculous to tell people they should not make
a complaint unless they know who the perpetrator is, especially as it
might be someone connected to the family, but not a family member, she
said.
The cross-ministry cuts are a major concern in the
midst of child protection changes, Korbin said. "The cuts to health and
legal services and social assistance are affecting the same families —
often the ones led by women," she said.
On southern Vancouver Island, budget reductions next
year will mean "significant challenges," said a senior civil servant.
The south Island will see a 10 per cent budget cut this year, bringing
it to about $56 million, and a 15 to 20 per cent cut the next year —
just as it moves to the new Island-wide regional authority. Some
programs, such as youth justice, mental health and early childhood
development, receive targeted funding, meaning the cuts will be heavier
in other areas such as child protection.
Aboriginal authorities will slice off some of the
budget, but also some of the workload, and it is not yet known how that
will play out financially.
By Judith Lavoie
http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=94F854DD-3FAB-4DE2-B4D4-B6F19DB3F598
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