VICTORIA – BC’s independent children’s watchdog says the province needs more social workers to protect vulnerable children.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (right) says the province has fewer social workers now compared to 13 years ago and that the government must hire more by boosting funding for the Children’s Ministry.

Turpel-Lafond concludes in a report that consistent failures within the ministry mean it has failed to meet its own standards to protect children.

Her report comes as the government is under fire after two suicides of teenagers who were in its care.

The report was released on the same day that the B.C. Government and Services Employees Union issued its own report criticizing government support of social workers in aboriginal child service agencies.

Children’s Minister Stephanie Cadieux says Turpel-Lafond’s data is out of date and that 110 new workers have been hired.

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Timelines set out in child protection standards routinely go unmet and children and youth are too often left in unsafe situations while social workers are increasingly disillusioned and burned out.
“The provincial government has known about this situation for years but has not done nearly enough to address it,” said Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. “Children and families in B.C. have paid the price for this and so have social workers whose job is already difficult enough without the impossible workloads and unfilled vacancies now occurring across MCFD offices.”
Turpel-Lafond calls on government to increase MCFD’s budget for front-line child protection so that high turnover, leaves, vacation and recruitment issues do not continue to routinely leave offices without enough staff. The report shows that, at any given time, 10 per cent of child protection positions in B.C. are unfilled. The result is a consistent failure to meet the ministry’s own standards – for example, the report shows more than 8,200 child protection incidents still left open after 90 days, well beyond the 30- to 45-day limit as called for in the standards.
“These standards are there for a reason – to ensure that kids are safe and the work must be done to ensure child protection services meet timelines and reach all impacted children and youth,” Turpel-Lafond said. “It has become normal for standards not to be met, and this has resulted in a serious safety problem. Social workers have told us they can’t meet standards because of their workload and staffing levels. Not one child protection social worker interviewed for this report can regularly meet prescribed timelines – that is very worrisome.”
The report included analysis of more than 200 MCFD documents and data sources, interviews with more than 50 front-line social workers and team leaders and an audit of 40 child protection files on four MCFD teams around B.C.