Social worker shortage highlighted in two reports on child welfare system
Posted October 8, 2015 3:46 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Two new reports have come out today highlighting what critics say are significant deficiencies with the child welfare system in this province.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, the Representative for Children and Youth, is calling for the immediate hiring of 250 social workers.
“In addition to the overall child protection, social worker FTE numbers being fewer than they were 13 years ago, at any given time 10 percent of those positions are unfilled due to various leave, vacation, sick time and recruitment issues,” says Turpel-Lafond.
She says burnout is pushing many social workers to leave the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
“Because there has been systemic starving of the system at its foundations over a decade, a lot of competent social workers in the phase of their career between two and seven years of service, are leaving at far too high of a rate,” says Turpel-Lafond.
In a separate report dealing with aboriginal children in the child welfare system, the BC Government and Services Employees Union is calling for a more straightforward, well funded and transparent way of doing things.
“Currently, it isn’t a system,” says BCGEU president Stephanie Smith. “It is a patchwork, sort of piecemeal. It’s very, very complex because of the multi-layers of jurisdiction.”
Like Turpel-Lafond’s report, the BCGEU is also calling for more staffing. Smith also wants a more catered approach that takes into consideration the needs of the province’s diverse first nations communities.
