COMMUNITY WELLNESS AND SAFETY
Commitment 4.3.1: Continue implementing the Building Stronger Families action plan to transform child and family services by:
•Auditing to ensure compliance with the Child and Family Services Act;
•Implementing a standardized approach to assessing children’s immediate safety needs and future risk of harm;
•Developing caseload and workload measures for child protection in order to monitor and track the resources that are required to ensure compliance with the Child and Family Services Act; and
•Reviewing the standards and delivery methods of the Healthy Family Program to determine whether there are more effective ways to reach families-at-risk.
The Office of the Auditor General of Canada conducted a review of Child and Family Services in relation to child protection services from 2012 to 2013. A report of the recommendations resulting from this review along with recommendations from the Standing Committee on Government Operations was tabled in the 17th Legislative Assembly. In response, the Department developed and released the Building Stronger Families: An Action Plan to Transform Child and Family Services in the NWT.
The Healthy Family Program is currently offered in sixteen communities in the NWT. The program focuses on early intervention and development for at risk families with children under the age of 5 by supporting home visits and various group activities. In 2017 the Department coordinated focus group meetings as well as a territorial workshop to inform the reframing of the Healthy Family Program
Implementing Structured Decision Making (SDM) responds to the Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s recommendation that the child and family services system needs an improved way of assessing both short and long-term risks to the safety and wellbeing of children. SDM is a state-of-the-art, internationally-recognized approach to child protection work developed by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Children’s Research Centre. SDM is a suite of six assessment tools that support child protection work at key decision points in the life of a case, will help make child protection work more family-friendly and will emphasize a focus on family strengths and needs. Four of these tools have been adapted for use in the NWT.
MatrixNT is an electronic Child and Family Services Information System that allows workers to better manage cases and workloads. User training was completed in the fall of 2017 with the system going live shortly after.