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Ministry Failing to Find Kids ‘Forever Homes’

Despite increases in adoption numbers the past two years, government lags on finding permanent placements for kids in care.

Katie Hyslop 14 Dec 2017TheTyee.ca

Katie Hyslop is The Tyee’s education and youth reporter. Find her previous stories here.

After exceeding its goals for adoptions and permanency placements in the last two years, the Ministry for Children and Family Development has lost its momentum, according to a new report from the Representative for Children and Youth.

The B.C. Adoption & Permanency Options Update released this morning reveals just 84 of the just over 1,000 kids and youth eligible for adoption in the province had completed adoptions, while another 186 had transfers of custody between April 1 to Sept. 30 this year.

The ministry has until March 30, 2018 to make up for the lag, but Representative for Children and Youth Bernard Richard told media via teleconference this morning that he has his doubts the ministry will meet, let alone surpass, the 284 completed adoptions and 498 transfers of custody from April 1, 2016 to March 30, 2017, which is the government’s fiscal year.

“It’s unacceptable to our office that we have still, in 2017, more than 1,000 children and youth in permanent care waiting for adoption, despite the fact that there has been slight drop of about 200 less children in permanent care in the province,” he said.

Unlike other issues the ministry faces in terms of the support of kids in care, money does not appear to be the problem. The 2017/18 budget for adoptions and permanency placement is $31.2 million, up from $27.7 million in 2015/16 and $30.7 million in 2016/17.

In a statement released by Children and Family Development Minister Katrine Conroy this morning, Conroy said the ministry faces extra challenges in placing children with siblings and children with special needs with adoptive families.

“Having arranged successful adoptive placements for so many children and youth since the representative’s initial report, a significant number of those still waiting for a permanent home have complex placement needs,” the statement read.

“We also know from previous years that many placements get finalized in the spring, and we’re pushing hard to match the kids in our care with placements in families and homes that meet their best interests — whether that’s through adoption, transfer of custody to a family member or other person known to the child, or other forms of permanent loving relationships.”

Few ‘customs adoptions’

Since 2016/17, the ministry has also included transfers of custody in its adoption goals.

Unlike formal adoptions, transfers of custody, also known as permanent guardianship agreements, aren’t permanent placements and don’t come with the financial support adoptive families receive of $700 a month for children up to age 11, and $800 per month for kids 12 to 19. Additional resources are available for children with special needs.

But while only 16 of the 84 adoptions approved so far this fiscal year were Indigenous children — and of the 16 only four kids were adopted by Indigenous families — 112 of the 186 custody transfers this year were for Indigenous children.

The Representative’s report also focused on the few custom adoptions approved in the province despite being legal in B.C. since 1996. It’s a broad term that refers to the cultural practices of Indigenous nations of inter-family adoption where children are placed with extended family or community members, and connections to their birth family and community are maintained.

Less formal than ministry-led adoptions, they are nonetheless legal, and families whose custom adoptions are recognized by the province are eligible for the same financial supports as government adoptions.

Increasing the number of government-recognized custom adoptions is just one of the recommendations Chief Ed John made in his report on improving Indigenous child welfare system last winter. Richard says only one or two custom adoptions have been recognized by the B.C. government in the last 21 years.

Conroy says her ministry is committed to increasing the number of custom adoptions and other permanency placements for Indigenous children, who make up 64 per cent of the kids in care in B.C. today, as well as bringing less Indigenous kids and youth into care overall.

“For many First Nations and Métis people, adoption represents a damaging colonial process,” Conroy’s statement read.

“True and lasting reconciliation is of the utmost importance to this government. We are working to fully adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to address the recommendations set out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and to implement Grand Chief Ed John’s recommendations on improving Indigenous child welfare in B.C.”

The tyranny of the urgent

Today’s report is the fourth update on the province’s adoption program since the Representative’s office released Finding Forever Families, the first ever report on a Canadian adoption program, in June 2014.

The report followed 450 kids eligible for adoption and 457 families seeking to adopt from 2005/06 to 2012/13, when only 58 per cent of those kids were adopted, and only 43 per cent of families successfully adopted.

Former minister Stephanie Cadieux dedicated $2 million to meet their goal of 300 adoptions and 150 permanent guardianship or custody transfer arrangements by March 2015. MCFD did not meet its goals that year, but exceeded its next goal of 600 adoptions between 2014/15 - 2015/16 by 44 adoptions.

MCFD again ramped up its adoption numbers in 2016/17 to 600 adoptions and custody transfers in one year, again exceeding expectations with 284 adoptions and 541 custody transfers that year. There was no stated adoption goal for 2017/18.

“We all know that MCFD can get caught up in the tyranny of the urgent, meaning that the demands of child protection can overwhelm more proactive work such as adoptions,” Richard said. “But we know that the ministry made progress immediately following the release of our initial report.”

Richard recommends the ministry increase its social media campaign to increase awareness of adoption as a viable way to have a family in British Columbia.

“For many families, it’s a wonderful option and it changes their lives forever. But I think there’s a responsibility for the ministry to go out there and promote the idea of adoption,” he said.  [Tyee]

Read more: BC Politics

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