New Brunswick’s child and youth advocate is calling on the provincial government not to pass a proposed Child and Youth Well-Being Act without properly outlining a child’s rights within the welfare system.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, Kelly Lamrock said his office’s latest report, Through Their Eyes, found that the Department of Social Development also does not keep track of the academic and personal progress of kids in care.
“Most of us as parents, we always know that we’re there to advocate for our kids,” said Lamrock.
“These children rely on government to be their parent, and when government lets them down, who do they have to advocate for them — to know they’re on their side no matter what?”
Through Their Eyes is the second of two reports released by the Office of The Child, Youth and Seniors’ Advocate in the last month. It documents the real-life experiences of those involved in the child welfare system, including social workers, foster homes and kinship care providers.
When discussing New Brunswick proposed legislation, Lamrock noted the lack of a solid definition for the rights children in the province’s care have. He said Section 7 of the bill includes the obligation on social workers to inform a child of their rights, but doesn’t list any of them.
It simply isn’t child-focused, he said.
“There’s literally a section that says, ‘make sure you inform them the rights’ and there aren’t any,” said Lamrock.
“That’s not just an oversight; that’s a little embarrassing.”
Lamrock said New Brunswick’s current child welfare system focuses more on accountability to process rather than actual results, causing high rates of turnover at group homes and among social workers.
According to the report, there are even instances where the department does not know if certain aid is helping kids.
“If we are going to take children into care and say ‘we’re going to act as your parent,’ there have to be some things we just have to do, not [just] things we’ll do if the money, time and energy are there,” said Lamrock.
If the province started measuring for results, the department would “start to know who’s good at this,” Lamrock said. Based on the report’s findings, he said workers who often do things outside of the rules are the ones most engaged in solving problems.
“When there’s a culture of compliance instead of of results, you reward people for following the rules not for helping the child,” said Lamrock.
“Would it help turnover at a group home? Yes, it would, because we would find people who are engaged in the child rather than ticking the boxes.”
