Turpel-Lafond’s successor must stay her course
Child welfare system in B.C. dysfunctional, writes Calvin White.
If anyone is nervous that Mary Ellen TurpelLafond is finished her mandate as British Columbia’s representative for children and youth there is good reason. The apprehension apparent in her final comments reveal that, indeed, there is no good reason for the public to have confidence in the various workings of our child welfare system.
The systems in place to ensure the well-being of children in B.C. are rife with fear, territoriality, and hierarchical disconnect. Instead of direct, timely and sensible responses to the needs of children there is too often equivocation, haziness, and delays.
The overall system is based on dual forces. Paramount is money — how much will each decision cost. Every front line worker is cognizant of that pressure, and thus instead of thinking openly and critically about best directions or responses, those workers limit their perspective by worries over what the cost will be. Intricately connected is the hierarchical structure. This means answering to one’s superior in the line. The ramification is a culture of fear and compulsion. The front line worker is not free to think in terms of the lived needs of a child but is instead consciously or unconsciously looking over their shoulder at the expectations from their bosses. All in all, this creates a hardly bearable level of stress for social workers from an untenable workload and the true demands of the position.
Thus, the child welfare system from mental health to protection to basic support serves its own needs rather than the needs of kids.
Amplifying the core dysfunction is the culture of territoriality. Instead of operating as a custodian service to our most vulnerable and precious resource, the various jurisdictions operate as domains premised on control and an insistence on their own authority. This manifests as “We know what’s best” rather than “How can we team together to decide on what’s best?”
A perfect case in point is the non-existence of any meaningful inclusion of schools. School teachers and counsellors are a vital resource in knowing children and their needs. Unlike social workers or youth mental health professionals who drop into the kids’ lives once a week at most for an hour or more likely once a month for an hour, school personnel are around them every day. They observe, talk and listen to the kids. This gives them a very accurate understanding of the child’s actual reality and how they are coping. One would think that youth mental health counsellors and social workers would thoroughly plumb this resource of information. It is incredible that this is not the case.
Turpel-Lafond was tireless and incisive in providing both oversight and public communication. Indeed, a so-called independent review done at the behest of the B.C. government a year ago outrageously suggested that her office be less diligent in pointing out flaws and screw-ups in the child welfare system, concluding that the constant surveillance made everyone nervous and that maybe the office in future should be terminated. This is equivalent to criticizing the role of an auditor-general. In other words, “Stop telling everyone what’s going on. Let the bosses create their own version.”
It is an immense task to properly look after our kids. There are so many considerations and there are unknowns sometimes in determining what is best. This is exactly why we need all hands on board consistently working together, sharing information and seeing ourselves all the way from the ministers on down as custodians not as bosses. Custodians always search for how to create the best results. They don’t trumpet their own authority. They don’t bunker down.
Without a shred of doubt, whoever follows Turpel-Lafond needs to continue her vision.
The systems in place to ensure the well-being of children in B.C. are rife with fear, territoriality, and hierarchical disconnect. Instead of direct, timely and sensible responses to the needs of children there is too often equivocation, haziness, and delays.