Manitoba program aims to reconnect children in care with their families

Manitoba has introduced a new guardianship program aimed at placing children in care with their own relatives.

The government and Child and Family Services have long been criticized for placing children with strangers in emergency shelters or in foster care.

Families Minister Rochelle Squires said Thursday's announcement is intended to end that.

"As we all know, connection to family, community and culture are vital to our identity, sense of belonging and well-being," she said. "This is especially true of our children and youth in care."

The new supported guardianship program, which will be operated through the General Child and Family Services Authority, will ensure that children grow up with their own family members, Squires said.

It is aimed at those children and youth who are permanent wards or in cases where a CFS agency intends to seek a permanent order.

Supported guardianship — which includes financial as well as other supports — will first have to be approved by the child's culturally appropriate CFS authority, Squires said, noting there are four CFS authorities in the province.

It can be offered to a family member who has been caring for a child for at least six continuous months, but if a placement with a family member is not possible or in the child's best interest, there is another option, she said.

An adult who both the child and child's family consider a family member, and who has been caring for the child for at least 24 continuous months and who has developed a significant emotional relationship with the child or family, may be offered supported guardianship, Squires said.

The Manitoba government announced back in 2017 that it would overhaul the child welfare system and by mid-2019 it  switched to what it calls "single envelope" — or block funding — of CFS authorities instead of making per-child payments.

"It [supported guardianship] is exactly the kind of initiative our government hoped to support through the single-envelope funding model, which gives authorities and agencies the freedom to reinvest resources in partnerships with community to prevent children from coming into care and preserving family connections," Squires said, commending the General Child and Family Services Authority for developing the new program.

It "will create much-needed stability" for children in care, she said, adding that keeping families together "is critical to righting the past wrongs."

Another one of those past wrongs was the controversial birth alerts program, which was halted last year.

Birth alerts were warnings from social services agencies to hospitals, intended to flag the history of a mother who is considered "high risk." The alerts may lead to a baby being apprehended in the hospital by Child and Family Services.

In a high-profile case, a video of a 10-week-old baby girl being apprehended by Manitoba child protection workers was shared widely on Facebook.

Winnipeg child protection workers seized the baby because of the mother's substance use and mental health issues, CFS workers said in affidavits for the hearings.

But the mother said at the time she was "blindsided" by the apprehension, because she'd made arrangements to have her aunt take guardianship.

At the time, Manitoba held the highest per capita rate of children in care in Canada, with an average of approximately one newborn being apprehended every day.

Squires was asked if a child who has been in a long-term foster situation with a family that is not their own, might be moved out to be with relatives instead.

She spoke about a "hierarchy of placement" in CFS that takes into account the culture of the child and the community and family connections, but her answer focused only on those kids in temporary situations.

If there is a supported guardianship program opportunity that comes up, those kids may be moved to the care of a relative if it is in their best interest, she said.

First Nations family advocate left with questions

Cora Morgan, First Nations family advocate with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said caution about the announcement was needed "as often provincial reforms are more harmful than helpful." 

In an email to CBC News, Morgan indicated she was left with unanswered questions relating to Indigenous autonomy and input into child welfare, what happens with kids who are already in non-First Nations foster placements, the language used in the announcement and other potential consequences for Indigenous families. 

"This 'new initiative' of supported guardianship only furthers the status quo, there are no new or additional measures in place," Morgan said. 

"One of the points that the province makes is that any guardianship placement needs approval from the children's authority. In (the) era of reconciliation and the work of First Nations to develop their laws to restore First Nation Jurisdiction, any agreement should be signed off by their First Nations. Not another corporation or entity of the province," she said. 

According to Jay Rodgers, CEO of the General Child and Family Services Authority, his organization currently has about 1,000 children in care. Some 600 of those are with permanent wards rather than with family members.

"That's too many," he said. "If we don't find stable, permanent arrangements for these kids they're going to grow up in care. And we don't want that. We want them growing up with family."

He said the General Child and Family Services Authority has been working on the new support program for about a year and a half and is ready to implement it in early fall 2021.

"At the end of the day, it's simple: this is good for kids. The evidence is now well established," he said.

"We now have 20- and 30-year longitudinal studies that show that if kids grow up in a loving, stable family home, they're more likely to have longer-term positive health outcomes.

"And kids are much more likely to thrive and be successful as adults when they're growing up with family in a stable, loving home."