{"id":1205,"date":"2014-10-09T22:03:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T05:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/?p=1205"},"modified":"2014-10-09T22:03:38","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T05:03:38","slug":"bc-liberals-neglecting-child-poverty-aboriginal-children-youth-mental-health-bced-bcpoli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/2014\/10\/09\/bc-liberals-neglecting-child-poverty-aboriginal-children-youth-mental-health-bced-bcpoli\/","title":{"rendered":"BC Liberals neglecting child poverty, Aboriginal children, youth mental health #bced #bcpoli"},"content":{"rendered":"

Representative for Children and Youth, News Release<\/em><\/a>, October 9, 2014– The provincial government must step up its commitment to helping British Columbia\u2019s most vulnerable children and youth by following through on recommendations, Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said today as she released her Office\u2019s latest report.<\/p>\n

Not Fully Invested: A Follow-up Report on the Representative\u2019s Past Recommendations to Help Vulnerable<\/a> Children in B.C. <\/i>shows that while 72 per cent of the Office\u2019s recommendations between 2008 and 2013 have been acted upon, a number of the most important ones have been ignored. Those unfulfilled include key recommendations made by the Representative to the B.C. government as a whole to improve the lives of Aboriginal children, those living in situations of poverty and domestic violence and those in need of mental health services.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing, because these recommendations are the ones that require the greatest leadership and commitment from the provincial government and they have been largely ignored,\u201d Turpel-Lafond said. \u201cConsidering that the well-being of our most vulnerable children and youth is at stake, I expect more from government and I think most British Columbians do as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Representative\u2019s Office, an independent expert oversight body, made a total of 148 recommendations during the course of releasing 22 reports between 2008 and 2013. This report, the first to track progress made toward fulfilling cumulative recommendations made by the Office, shows that 72 per cent of the total recommendations have been substantially or fully implemented. Generally, recommendations made to public bodies \u2013 predominantly to the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) \u2013 to address policy, standards, procedures and compliance, have been implemented.<\/p>\n

However, of the nine recommendations made to the B.C. government as a whole \u2013 the ones requiring the greatest cross-ministry involvement and organization \u2013 seven have been largely disregarded. Among these is a call for a provincial strategy and\u00a0action plan to address child poverty, a call to establish a Minister of State for Mental Health to provide the necessary leadership and accountability on this file, a call for a strong and well-resourced provincial domestic violence plan and the establishment of domestic violence courts in B.C., and a call for a viable strategy to ensure that Aboriginal children and families receive equal supports and services to their non-Aboriginal counterparts.<\/p>\n

Many of the Representative\u2019s recommendations have focused on strengthening quality assurance and outcomes reporting by MCFD. However, this report also finds that MCFD\u2019s ability to measure its own performance and publicly report on whether it is achieving results has remained inconsistent and inadequate \u2013 yet another sign of a gap in government leadership in this area.<\/p>\n

The Representative notes that during the time period these recommendations were made, MCFD\u2019s annual budget was reduced by $100 million in real dollars when inflation is taken into account. Sufficient investment in children and families is important in both a financial and a leadership sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not make these recommendations lightly. Each of our reports requires months and sometimes years of research, file reviews, data analysis, interviews with workers in the field and interviews with family members and young people,\u201d Turpel-Lafond said. \u201cWhile the government is not compelled by legislation to follow our recommendations, to do so shows commitment and makes good sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that the Province does not yet have a plan that focuses on children across government, nor any comprehensive, focused and accountable approach to ensure that the next generation will be able to reach their full potential. Considering what is at stake, government can and should do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Download\u00a0Not Fully Invested: A Follow-up Report on the Representative\u2019s Past Recommendations to Help Vulnerable Children in B.C.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Representative for Children and Youth, News Release, October 9, 2014– The provincial government must step up its commitment to helping British Columbia\u2019s most vulnerable children and youth by following through on recommendations, Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said today as she … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1527,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[406501,1010699,635,810,2273],"tags":[617412,1063372,1063365,1063379],"class_list":["post-1205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bc-education","category-children-youth","category-government","category-poverty","category-students","tag-bc-education-2","tag-equity","tag-government","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1206,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions\/1206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}