There remain vulnerable children in Nunavut who are not receiving the support and protection they are entitled to when under the care of Child and Family Services, the Auditor General of Canada has once again found.
As a result, the office is again urging the Government of Nunavut to improve protection of the children they take into their care.
A recent follow-up audit on Child and Family Services in Nunavut indicates that while initial actions have been taken by the Department of Family Services to address what the report calls SA国际影视传媒渇ailures affecting services for children, youth, and families,SA国际影视传媒� the departmentSA国际影视传媒檚 strategic action plan lacks SA国际影视传媒渢he targets and baselines needed to measure progress, specific timelines and clear accountabilities.SA国际影视传媒�
The audit comes after a grim report in 2023 that found NunavutSA国际影视传媒檚 child and family services system was SA国际影视传媒渋n crisis,SA国际影视传媒� and SA国际影视传媒減lagued by failures across all areas examinedSA国际影视传媒� SA国际影视传媒� the third such finding since 2011.
Accountability for government
After audits of Nunavut's Child and Family Services in 2011 and 2014, "we felt it was time for us to loop back, and unfortunately, the results were rather concerning," said Karen Hogan, the auditor general of Canada.
SA国际影视传媒淲e found that many of our recommendations hadn't been acted on, and that's why we called at the time for a whole of government approach and committed to following up on this in a very regular way until we could see some real, concrete actions that would improve the outcomes for children and youth in the territory,SA国际影视传媒� Hogan said.
Deputy auditor general Andrew Hayes recently presented the latest findings to the Standing Committee on Oversight of Government Operations and Public Accounts in Nunavut.
SA国际影视传媒淲hat we are looking for, frankly, is the improvement of outcomes for those children and youth,SA国际影视传媒� Hayes said. SA国际影视传媒淲e did find that the department had taken initial actions. And I want to really emphasize that word initial.
SA国际影视传媒淲e are going to come back, and we are going to look for whether or not those outcomes have actually improved, whether there has been a moving of the needle towards better services for the children and youth.
No new recommendations were brought forth in this recent audit, nor in the 2023 one, Hayes said, primarily because despite the recommendations made in 2011 and 2014, there remains a lack of service for many children and youth.
SA国际影视传媒淭hose recommendations from the past were still valid. It was troubling. We're talking about more than a generation of people who have been let down. And what our newest audit was designed to do was to see whether or not the government had taken the actions that it needed to take to start the ball rolling in the right direction,SA国际影视传媒� Hayes said.
While it's understandable that a change of staff occurs over time, it is not an excuse for the lack of concrete action, he said.
SA国际影视传媒淚t's not a reason for why services were not being provided to the children and youth that need them. We were happy to be able to say that some progress has been made in every area that we that we examined here.
SA国际影视传媒淭he problem is that those were only initial steps. There still needs to be a substantial amount of work done to improve outcomes, and that is why we're going to keep our eye on this,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
Root causes for such failures in action were found to be intertwined and pointed towards funding issues, staffing and the use of casual employees, gaps in housing and office space, as well as lack of timely training and poor information management, Hayes noted.
Steady and hopeful
George Hickes, MLA for Iqaluit-Tasiluk and chair of the Standing Committee on Oversight of Government Operations and Public Accounts, said the topic of children in care is not just SA国际影视传媒渂lack and white words on a report.SA国际影视传媒�
SA国际影视传媒淭here are children at the end of these discussions and the end of these gaps, so recognizing where more supports are needed is important,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
While Hickes noted there is SA国际影视传媒渟ome level of frustrationSA国际影视传媒� involved in getting some of the recommended actions completed, department officials SA国际影视传媒渄id quite a good job of updating things that have been happening since the last report.SA国际影视传媒�
SA国际影视传媒淚t's not a lot of time for the department to initiate some of the recommendations. But it was hopeful with some of the updates on the new case management system that they're implementing and training staff on,SA国际影视传媒� Hickes said.
The next steps for the standing committee will be to draft comments on the report, which will then be tabled in the legislative assembly, after which the government will have 120 days to respond.
Hickes said it was important to note that there is an SA国际影视传媒渁cknowledged recognitionSA国际影视传媒� at the department level that they have a SA国际影视传媒渟teep hill in front of them.SA国际影视传媒�
SA国际影视传媒淭here's so many systemic things that need to occur to really make sure that there's a lot of confidence rebuilt, especially with regards to children in care, to make sure that those site inspections are being done, to make sure that the social workers are involved at the family level, where available.
SA国际影视传媒淚 think that what we're all expecting is for the government to take action on these issues and help rebuild some of the confidence, not just from the members of the legislative assembly, but from the public that they know where all the children are,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
Priority planning
Hayes said the importance of prioritizing the actions in the strategic action plan SA国际影视传媒渃an't be emphasized enough.SA国际影视传媒�
SA国际影视传媒淵ou can't do 80 things at one time SA国际影视传媒� youSA国际影视传媒檝e got to pick and choose what is going to lead to the best outcomes and where you have to put your scarce resources.
SA国际影视传媒淪o it's critical for the department to dig in and prioritize, and it's important we've made the call a couple of times now for the entire government of Nunavut to pull together on this.SA国际影视传媒�
The Government of Nunavut Department of Family Services did not respond to an interview request from Nunavut News by deadline.
