Social Services missing its own target to put kids on adoption list

It’s taking longer for the Ministry of Social Services to get its permanent wards onto the adoption list, and Saskatchewan’s provincial auditor worries it could hurt kids’ chances of finding a new family.

Provincial Auditor Judy Ferguson reviewed how well the ministry was meeting three outstanding recommendations from her 2013 report.

She announced on Thursday that two had been met, but the ministry was missing its own target for placing 85 per cent of kids on an adoption registry within 120 days of their becoming permanent wards.

In fact, she found “slippage” from the year before. In 2016-17, the ministry met the 120-day goal in 17 per cent of cases. In 2017-18, it managed just nine per cent of the time.

“Delays in doing that, placing a child on an adoption list, may negatively affect the likelihood of a child having a permanent home, and that is particularly true for older children,” she told reporters Thursday.

“For kids, time is of the essence.”

She acknowledged that the ministry had set a “pretty aggressive” target, and also pointed to some positive trends. Notably, there were 128 fewer permanent wards at the end of last year, compared to during her last audit in 2012. As of December 2018, there were 465 kids in that position.

Despite the progress elsewhere, Ferguson stressed that the missed target shows the ministry has “more work to do.”

NDP Social Services critic Nicole Rancourt agreed. She said the delays can create uncertainty, both for kids and for foster families.

“We want to ensure that these children have permanent placements and homes, so that they are feeling comfortable and familiar with their home environments,” she said.

“The attachment is so important with the caregiver and the child. And when you have that uncertainty, it’s really hard for them to build that attachment, which is huge for children’s development.”

She criticized the ministry for “failing their own standards.”

The Ministry of Social Services responded that it will look at a policy to push back the targets in certain cases. It noted in a statement to the Leader-Post that the cases it deals with are often complex, and pointed to a need for working with extended family. It said that complexity is often the reason for delay.

“Over recent years, we have placed significant focus on how we can strengthen families to keep them together safely, and when that is not possible, exploring every avenue to place children and youth requiring out-of-home care with extended family,” said the statement.

It said pushing back the deadline will be helpful when extended family members come forward and offer to care for a child.

“This will allow the required time it takes to work with the family to do all required assessments without being outside existing policy,” the statement said.

But the ministry also committed to engaging with staff to improve compliance, and ensure that there is proper documentation for when adoption isn’t a long-term goal. It said both of those two measures will be implemented by the 2020-21 fiscal year.

Ferguson also noted that the ministry has succeeded in prioritizing children under the age of five, and has hired additional staff to help complete assessments.

Her look at the adoption target was just one of 32 follow-up audits she conducted in Volume 1 of her 2019 report, to assess how the government was keeping up with her past recommendations.

She found that government agencies fully implemented more than half. In her view, that’s pretty good compared to other provinces. But it’s a bit slower than she has seen in the past. She believes it might have something to do with resource constraints.

“When we talk to agencies, what they tell us is that they remain committed to implementing those recommendations,” she said. “But they actually cite that they’ve got fiscal pressures, and they’ve got their priorities that are slowing that pace of improvements.”