Office of the Auditor General - Children and youth in care may not be receiving services that meet their needs because the ministry hasn’t set sufficient quality standards
JUNE 19th,
2019: We've released a new report: Oversight of Contracted Residential Services for Children
and Youth in Care. Overall, the Ministry of Children and Family
Development wasn’t providing effective oversight of contracted residential
services.
Children and youth
in care may not be receiving services that meet their needs because the
ministry hasn’t set sufficient quality standards for contracted residential
services and doesn’t adequately monitor the quality of care that contractors
provide.
The ministry is
also struggling to match the specific needs of individual children and youth to
appropriate contracted service providers. For example, Indigenous children and
youth can be in placements without an Indigenous cultural component. This is
happening in part because the ministry had not assessed the need for placements
in contracted residential services or created a plan to provide the right
amount and type of these services.
We found
that contracted residential services have evolved on an ad hoc basis to respond
to individual and emergency situations as opposed to the ministry defining what
they should look like or when to use the services.
Finally, the
ministry does not have an effective contract management framework in place. As
a result, ministry staff responsible for managing contracts do not have the
right training or support. This has led to contracts between the service
providers and the ministry that are not focused on outcomes for children or
youth; also, the contracts are not appropriately monitored.
Our report
includes four recommendations to improve the ministry’s oversight of contracted
residential services so it can better meet its obligations to children and
youth in care. The ministry has accepted all of our recommendations and
has begun to take action to improve its oversight.
NOTE: Contracted residential
services provide housing, food, and other supports for some of the most
vulnerable children and youth in care, including those with highly complex
needs. These services are typically the most intensive and expensive of all
care options. In 2018, approximately 1,150 children and youth in care spent time
in contracted residential services.
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