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Advocate warns of impending ‘crisis’ in B.C. child welfare staffing
VICTORIA — The representative for children in British Columbia says the provincial child welfare system is either in a state of crisis or close to it with understaffing and unmanageable workloads.
A report released by Jennifer Charlesworth says the environment for those working for the Ministry of Children and Family Development is unhealthy for staff, characterized by undue stress, burnout and fear, and there’s no time for the government to wait to address the “critical circumstances.”
The latest investigation comes days after her report on the torture death of an 11-year-old boy who died at the hands of relatives after not being checked on by a social worker for seven months.
Charlesworth says the boy’s death happened within the context of a child welfare office that was not fully staffed, had unstable and changing local leadership and had an extended period of social worker medical leave with no backfill.