The legal context: Assessing the child welfare legislation from a rights-based framework

THE STATE’S POSITIVE OBLIGATION TO PREVENT AND ADDRESS FAMILY VIOLENCE

Recommendation 2: States should allocate adequate resources to address risk factors and prevent violence before it occurs. Policies and programmes should address immediate risk factors, such as a lack of parent-child attachment, family breakdown, abuse of alcohol or drugs, and access to rearms. In line with the Millennium Development Goals, attention should be focused on economic and social policies that address poverty, gender and other forms of inequality, income gaps, unemployment, urban overcrowding, and other factors which undermine society

Title:AN ANALYSIS OF THE CHILD WELFARE LEGISLATION IN BC

Subtitle:THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD PRINCIPLE AND THE LEGISLATIVE EMPHASIS ON THE CHILD’S SAFETY

Recommendation 3: the Alberta Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act (CYFEA), provides that the best interests of the child assessment requires decision makers to provide children who have been exposed to family violence any intervention service that “supports family members and prevents the need to remove the child from the custody of an abused family member.” This is a key framing of some of the programming needed to address family violence in the case of the child welfare system and is the approach that many Indigenous community-based family service organizations electively employ to keep families together. We recommend that similar language is included in the defnition of the best interests of the child principle that directs decision-makers to turn their mind to prevention-based supports in assessing the right of the child to be protected from harm.

Discrepancies in the delivery of child welfare services

INCONSISTENCIES IN SOCIAL WORKER PRACTICE STANDARDS

Recommendation 7: MCFD should collaborate with Indigenous peoples to create a formal plan for recruitment and retention of Indigenous MCFD staff, with clear principles, goals, milestones, and timelines.

Discrepancies in the delivery of child welfare services

INCONSISTENCIES IN SOCIAL WORKER PRACTICE STANDARDS

Recommendation 8: MCFD must review hiring and human resource policies to remove barriers for Indigenous applicants and make workplaces safe for Indigenous employees

A pathway forward

THE SHORTFALLS WITH FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL FUNDING OF CHILD WELFARE SERVICES FOR INDIGENOUS FAMILIES

Recommendation 19: MCFD must continue to work with communities to ensure that they are being adequately funded to provide child welfare services.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Recommendations for systemic reform:

Recommendation 20: The BC government should work with Indigenous communities to undertake a comprehensive and transparent assessment of the steps that need to be taken to address the disparities in the social determinants of health for Indigenous peoples in BC.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Recommendations for systemic reform:

Recommendation 21: The BC government should undertake a review of the current breakdown in ministerial responsibilities over primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention supports to assess where responsibilities lie for prevention services. It should then amend legislation and mandates, and reallocate funding to fill the current gaps in service provision.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Recommendations for systemic reform:

Recommendation 22: The BC Human Rights Commission should undertake a review/inquiry into MCFD culture, training, policies, procedures, practices, and accountability mechanisms to assess whether MCFD policy and practice is in line with the Human Rights Code.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Recommendations for legislative reform:

Recommendation 23: MCFD should undertake a comprehensive legislative review of the CFCSA in order to bring the provincial child welfare standards in line with the federal minimum standards. It is essential that Indigenous communities and Nations are adequately consulted in the review process

Conclusion and Recommendations

Recommendations for legislative reform:

Recommendation 24: MCFD should amend the guiding principles of the CFCSA to ensure that children’s rights are not viewed as hierarchical but interdependent. The guiding principles should reect the holistic nature of children’s rights including the right of the child to maintain relationships with their family and community, the child’s right to support services, and the importance of maintaining the child’s relationship to their culture