Ministry practice standards require that a designated director be notified immediately regarding the death, critical injury of or serious incident involving a child in care or a child who has received services under the Child, Family and Community Service Act in the 12 months previous to the death, critical injury or serious incident.
These notifications provide the Director with the opportunity to objectively review the circumstances, receive feedback and learn from these unfortunate incidents. The Director may seek additional or clarifying information regarding the circumstances. Depending on the responses, the Director may be satisfied there are no outstanding issues or questions. That is often the case for natural, expected deaths when there is no reason to believe that practice would have had any impact on the outcome for the child. Otherwise, the Director may decide a case review is required. The decision to conduct a case review is made as soon as possible and no later than 20 days following the occurrence.
There are two types of case reviews with different methodologies, a comprehensive review and a file review:
Both types of reviews may result in recommendations to address practice issues that may be identified. These recommendations are tracked and monitored for implementation by the director.
The decision about which type of case review will be conducted is made at the regional level through the directors of integrated practice. The decision is made at the region’s discretion and is often based on factors such as the severity of the situation and the level of perceived public accountability
The Children and Youth Review conducted by Judge Hughes recommended the ministry publicly release a summary of each child death review report every six months. The ministry is going beyond that recommendation by posting on a six month basis all case review summary reports, including child death case review reports completed since January 1, 2008, reinforcing the ministry's commitment to openness and accountability.
The ministry responds to approximately 30,000 child protection reports each year and there is a need for a critical self-analysis to ensure we are meeting standards and identifying and taking appropriate steps to address areas where improvements may be made.
The case review process, along with other quality assurance functions, demonstrates the ministry's ability to build on our strengths and critique our practices to ensure that we are constantly identifying ways to improve the way we deliver services to the many children and families we serve every day.
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