supporting children in care

Supporting Children in Care

Kootenay Boundary Chapter

What’s the Issue?


SimpleGraduation rate in BC = 79%Graduation rate of Children in

Care = 20%


What’s the Issue?

Graduation rate of Children in the home of a relative =

30%


What’s the Issue?

Percent of children in care who are not ready for kindergarten = 50%


What’s the Issue?

Do we know who are our Children in Care?


What’s the Issue?

Are we doing the best we can for them?


What’s up today?

The local chapter of the BCSSA applied for and received a grant

to hold a symposium on the Topic of Children in Care


We wanted to bring together the professionals who are

involved in supporting children in care:


Our goals:provide a forum for regional dialogueraise awareness of the needs of children in careenhance communications between all partiesshare successful strategiesset the stage for followup


Our goals:recognize that there will be significant staff change in the next five years and design structures that cope with the changes


District StaffSchool administrators

CounsellorsChild Care workers

Social Workers


CYSN Provincial DirectionA Framework for Action


CYSN: Children and youth between birth and 19 who required additional educational, medical/health and social/environmental support, beyond that required by children in general, to enhance or improve their health, development, quality of life, and community integration.


Prevalence

Special Needs 10 – 15%Mental Health Issues 15%Significant Special Needs 5.65%Special Learning Disability 7%


Services:90 programs mostly by 3 MinistriesChildren and FamilyEducationHealth

total spending: $525 + million


Challenges:

Waits, gaps and OverlapsInconsistent StandardsComplex and Disjointed

Service System


Common Vision Needed:

Optimal development, health, well-being and achievement for children and youth with special needs.


Common Mission Needed:

To promote and deliver accessible, quality intervention and support services for children and youth with special needs and their families through an integrated service delivery model.


Six supporting Strategies for Action:

1. Placing Children’s and families’ Needs First: Functionally-based and accessible services.



2. Supporting our People: Training, Recruitment and Retention.



3. Ensuring Quality and Performance: Improving quality measurement and accountability.



4. Building and Using the Evidence Base: Promoting evaluation and research.



5. Simplifying the Pathway to Services: Providers, agencies and ministries coordinating, collaborating and integrating more.



6. Planning Together: Instituting a province-wide integrated planning mechanism.


Now What?The problem is simple

The solution is the complex piece


People with a Vision Outperform their Resources

Joel Barker


It's not the haves and the have nots

It's the did and did nots!


Let’s be a group of doers

Thank you


We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the

Ministry of Education


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