Ontario child welfare audits progressing with spring completion deadline
The Ford government has tapped KPMG to conduct audits of the child welfare sector, promising the results of the probes will be made public.
Last fall, Ontario announced financially-focused audits of 37 children’s aid organizations in the province after a push from Premier Doug Ford and internal data showing spending had increased, while the number of children in care had declined.
The audits came four years after the government vowed it would complete an as-yet-unfinished overhaul of the entire child welfare sector. Unveiling the audit plan in October, government officials focused on financial indicators like salaries, real estate portfolios and deficits.
A spokesperson for the government confirmed to Global News they were waiting for a finalized publication date for the audits and confirmed KPMG had been selected to complete the probes.
“Our focus is on high-quality and culturally appropriate services that prioritize safety, protection and the needs and circumstances of children, youth, and families,” they said in a statement.
“The review will include a comparative analysis of all 37 non-Indigenous children’s aid societies and deeper audits where necessary… The ministry will publicly share results of the review.”
The government did not respond to questions asking if the spring deadline initially set when the audits were launched was achievable.
The audit announcement last year came after a series of stories raising questions about how children’s aid operated in Ontario.
Global News revealed that, on average, a child dies associated with the care system every three days, while the Ontario ombudsman began investigating cases of children sleeping in hotels, motels and trailers. A series published by the Toronto Star highlighted how several children’s aid societies had failed a young girl whose body was eventually discovered in a dumpster.
The announcement of an audit promised to look at the troubled sector, but Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser said it failed to address the serious problems plaguing children’s aid.
“It’s the easiest, quickest thing to say is (that) we’re going to do an audit,” he said.
“An audit’s not action, an audit’s looking at something. They’re not looking at the right thing and wether they doing that intentionally or not but I don’t think it’s rocket science to figure out what the problem is. It’s the care for the kids that’s the problem.”
The government explained its audit decision in October by pointing out that over the past decade, there has been a 49-per cent decrease in open protection cases, a 30-per cent decrease in children in care and a 51-per cent decrease in investigations that get transferred to ongoing service.
Fraser said that the rising costs were indicative of a changing system where more kids with complicated needs are ending up at children’s aid societies, leading to higher costs to care for fewer kids.
“What the children’s aid societies are saying is, ‘We need help,’ and what the government is saying is, ‘OK, we’ll audit you,'” he said.
“That’s fine, but it’s not auditing the root problem which is the government’s failure to provide what families of children with complex needs need.”
globalnews
