Saskatchewan’s Advocate for Children and Youth wants stricter monitoring of fosters homes and more accountability from the Ministry of Social Services on how many times a foster child ends up moving.
Bob Pringle’s 32-page report looks into the short life of a First Nations boy who died just days before his second birthday at an emergency placement foster home in Saskatoon in December of 2009. The boy was from the Sturgeon Lake First Nation.
The report is called, “Lost in the System: Jake’s Story”. Jake was taken into care at the age of just five months. In the span of less than a year, he was moved 11 times before finally ending up at a group home in Saskatoon for emergency placements. He stayed there for nine months until his death.
How he died is not known, but foul play has been ruled out. Children and Youth Advocate Bob Pringle says it is rare for his office to issue a report when the cause of death is not known, but he says in this case he felt it was necessary.
“I am troubled by the number of times that Jake moved while he was in care, and why he spent so long at an overcrowded foster home.”
Jake was in the foster care system for 19 months. He had developmental problems, but was never properly assessed despite several requests from health care workers. Pringle says the boy’s needs were not met during a crucial time in his development. Pringle says a number of positive changes have taken place since Jake died, but he says more needs to be done. Among his recommendations, he calls for better monitoring of foster homes that fall outside of normal government policy, and strict adherence to the regulations on the number of children that can be cared for in a foster home setting. As well, he wants a study and closer monitoring of how many moves a child makes while under the care of Social Services.
The Opposition NDP calls the report heartbreaking. Social Services critic David Forbes says more needs to be done.
“This government is just not getting its act together when it comes to vulnerable children in care.”
Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer says a lot has changed since 2009. In fact, she says most of Pringle’s recommendations have already been implemented.
She says high capacity emergency care foster homes no longer exist and a tracking system has been put in place to better monitor how many moves a foster child makes.
Harpauer says a recommendation calling on all foster homes to be licensed is currently under review. She also says caseloads have been reduced, 90 more social workers have been hired and the number of children in foster care has been reduced by more than 60% since 2007.
The executive director for child and family services on the Sturgeon Lake First Nation, Lenore Brazeau, says since the death of “Jake” there have been a lot of improvements to monitoring and follow-up of children who end up in foster care from the reserve. Right now, there are about 80.
She says there is still a lot of concern on the First Nation because the cause of the boy’s death was never determined, but she says she is satisfied with the findings of Pringle’s report.