Government cutbacks may lead to CAS job cuts
Posted Mar 11, 2010 By Roy Lewis
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EMC News - Provincial government cutbacks may force a regional child protection agency to cut staff resulting in more youngsters being placed in foster care or group homes, something the organization does not want to do.
Roy Lewis, St. Lawrence EMC
The Family and Children's Services of Leeds and Grenville, shown above, is reeling under recent provincial government cutbacks and may have to lay off staff forcing more youngsters to be placed in foster care or group homes.
A frustrated Robert Pickens, executive director of Family and Children's Services of Leeds and Grenville, previously the Children's Aid Society, has further charged "the entire child protection system in Ontario is in crisis as a result of business practices that have been demonstrated to be dysfunctional since their inception."
Previously, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services has provided additional funds to cover any shortfalls experienced by Family and Children's Services of Leeds and Grenville and other child protection agencies in the province. But during the last fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2009, the province refused to fund a deficit of $326,000 forcing the agency to borrow from its line of credit.
At the end of this fiscal year on March 31, the agency is expected to have a deficit of $480,000 and has been told by the province to borrow the money and/or delay payment to suppliers and other service providers. Facing an accumulated debt of $796,000, Family and Children's Services will have no option but to lay off staff, likely in the early fall, according to Pickens.
But if that scenario takes place, more children will have to be moved to foster care or group homes because there will not be enough social workers to supervise children needing assistance.
"Children should be with their families whenever possible," said Pickens.
Currently, Family and Children's Services of Leeds and Grenville employs 85 staff members, most of whom are social workers who supervise families and children to ensure the youngsters remain safe. The social workers, working out of the Brockville and Kemptville offices of the agency, also recruit foster parents and advise them on how to foster children that must be taken into care.
While numbers vary, the agency now has 132 children residing in foster homes or group homes. But most of the children, an estimated 800, who are also receiving assistance from Family and Children's Services, continue to reside with one or both parents in their own homes.
Children who come under the society's control may have been or are at risk of being physically or sexually abused, neglected or abandoned. When one or more of these conditions are suspected, the society is often notified by the child's teacher, a neighbour or police officers. Parents, grandparents or other relatives may alert the agency to a potential problem.
"We often have self referrals from the child who is in need of protection," said Pickens.
The agency also supervises foster care for children and arranges adoptions.
During their current fiscal year, from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010, the agency will have spent $11,050,000, which is above the provincial funding of $10,600,000 leaving a current deficit of $480,000. In the 16 years in which Pickens has been executive director of Family and Children's Services of Leeds and Grenville, the province has always made up any budget shortfalls with the exception of the last two years.
"Although services are mandated and regulated by provincial legislation and standards, Family and Children's Services of Leeds and Grenville received no additional funding from recent ministry announcements," said Pickens.
Of the 53 children's aid societies in Ontario, between 35 and 40 had a total deficit of $55 million and the province put $26 million into the system but "we didn't get a penny because our deficit was not considered serious enough," he said.
Since the year 2000, Family and Children's Services of Leeds and Grenville has been the ninth slowest growing agency in the province by expenditures and "the Ministry of Children and Youth Services has recognized the cost-effectiveness of our service delivery model," said Pickens.
"Yet in June of 2009, one quarter of the way through the budget year, the organization received the 11th largest roll back of children's aid societies in the province," he said.
The board of directors estimates the society is saving the province $750,000 in residential care (foster and group homes) when compared to the rest of the province according to Pickens.
"This and other similar cost containment measures are punished rather than rewarded by a perverse funding system that the ministry refuses to change," said Pickens.
AGGRAVATING THE SITUATION
He also drew attention to another ministry policy, which is further aggravating the situation. The province prohibits the creation of surpluses to apply against previous deficits so the "board of directors is effectively prevented from taking any steps to reduce this accumulated debt."
Pickens and the volunteer board of directors, which manages the agency, have had no success in their appeals to the Minister of Children and Youth Services. Assistance from former Leeds-Grenville MPP Bob Runciman and a letter-writing campaign also produced no results.
"We put up an incredibly strong fight over the last year but have been met with a brick wall," said Pickens.
If provincial assistance is not forthcoming, Pickens estimates he will have to make "draconian cuts" and lay off 17 social workers. Without these staff members, the agency could not provide enough visits to homes to ensure the safety of many children who would have to be placed in foster homes, which will cost more money than the agency is now spending per child.
"If a child is placed in a foster home, the province will provide $79 a day for his or her care," said Pickens. "We spend $65 a day to ensure the safety of a child," he added.
He said the ministry has said the government increased funding to the child protection system by $1 billion since 1999 and a commission has been established to ensure the sustainability of that system. But Pickens argues more than half of that increase occurred in the last three and a half years of the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris as a direct result of recommendations made by six coroners' inquests (investigating the deaths of children) that recognized the significant under-funding of the child protection system. In the seven-year tenure of the current Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty, the child protection system's expenditures have increased by approximately 30 per cent, commensurate with this government's revenue increases according to Pickens.
"Child protection expenditure increases since this government took office have increased at approximately half the rate of overall government expenditure increases and yet a commission to study the sustainability of this system is deemed to be necessary," said Pickens.
"Given that system increases are within government revenue increases, the board of directors of Family and Children's Services of Leeds and Grenville can only conclude that the McGuinty government believes the recommendations of the provincial coroners' inquests and the resulting Harris government funding increases were misguided and that children who require the protection and care of the state should bear the brunt of any provincial cost containment exercise that this government chooses to pursue," said Pickens.
A call to the Ministry of Children and Youth Services asking for comment on the situation in Leeds and Grenville was not returned.
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