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Missed opportunities might have saved Lee Bonneau
Overworked social workers failed to follow policies and did poor risk assessments and case management in the cases of Lee Bonneau and his 10-year-old killer, says Bob Pringle, Saskatchewan's Advocate for Children and Youth.
"In the case of both boys there were a number of turning points where the proper interventions, which I think the public has a right to expect, were not provided," Pringle told reporters Monday.
He identified underfunding to both the Saskatchewan Ministry of Social Services (MSS) and the federally funded Yorkton Tribal Council Child and Family Service agency (YTC) as a theme in the circumstances that led to the death in August 2013 of six-year-old provincial foster child Bonneau, at the hands of another troubled boy, known as L.T., who was being served by the YTC.
Workloads were high for workers in both systems and there wasn't enough time for them to do all that should have been done, Pringle said, referring to evidence heard at a two-week Coroner's inquest into the death.
Bonneau died of head injuries after disappearing with LT while Bonneau's foster mother was playing bingo at Kahkewistahaw First Nation.
In scathing comments following new facts that came out at the inquest, Pringle said the boy was removed from his mother when it was not clear he was in need of protection, and without considering his father as a possible caregiver.
Pringle said he couldn't understand how L.T., "a child so obviously in need, did not get help until after this tragedy."
The boy has severe FASD, displayed sexual behaviour and aggression at school, and had been involved in a break-in during which a dog was gutted and her pups removed and killed.
Concerns raised with YTC for years by school staff, the RCMP and community members never resulted in his being apprehended or receiving any treatment.
Pringle said workers and supervisors of the social services ministry who were involved with Bonneau downplayed non-compliance with policies and appeared to be "absolving themselves of responsibility to conduct due diligence in their assessments, coupled with much minimization and deflection."
"We also are concerned when the ministry uses language, as they often do, to say 'there is no direct evidence that anything we did or didn't do led to the death of the child.' I say, just accept responsibility."
"This is not acceptable ... It was very troubling to hear the quality assurance manager minimizing this non-compliance," he said.
The government needs to make a stronger commitment to support some of the most vulnerable highrisk children in Saskatchewan, he said. For the second year in a row, there was no new money in the provincial budget for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder family support programs, despite the government's seven-ministry Child and Family Agenda, he noted.
"Who's connecting the dots on support to our families and children?"
Pringle is also awaiting the binding decision of a Human Rights Tribunal on whether the federal government discriminated against aboriginal children by providing less funding to a Manitoba First Nations child welfare agency than the province provides to off-reserve child welfare services.
The Children's Advocate released a report on the Bonneau death, entitled Two Tragedies: holding systems accountable, in May 2014. Since then, the Ministry and the YTC have been reporting quarterly to Pringle's office. Progress has been made in responding to his recommendations on case assessments, training in risk assessment and communications, but there is still a long way to go, he said.
Betty Ann Adam
21 April 2015
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/health/Poor+casework+death+Pringle+Says/10989849/story.html
