Child advocate says guardianship changes will make a difference for N.B. families

Proposed changes to child guardianship rules will bring "relief" to New Brunswick families, says the province's child and youth advocate.

Norm Boss has been calling on the provincial government for years to introduce some of the legislation amendments, such as kinship care, Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard tabled in the House on Wednesday.

Shephard also revealed to CBC News on Wednesday the government is drafting a separate child protection act from the Family Services Act another recommendation made by Bossand consultant George Savoury, who undertook a nearly year-long review of New Brunswick's child protection system

Reports from both Boss and Savoury found a clear need for a separate act.

"It looked like the Family Services Act worked for a while, but then you get the case like the one we reported on and say, 'Well, maybe it isn't working,'" said Boss in an interview Thursday.

The case his office reported on involved five children in Saint John who were left to live in squalor. Their parents received two-year prison sentences last year.

It raised questions about whether officials should have acted sooner to remove the children.

New Brunswick is the only province without a standalone child protection act, but that could help in writing the legislation, Boss said.

"We won't reinvent the wheel," he said. "So they'll look at the best piece of legislation, try and bring it in and fashion it so that it works for New Brunswick and then let's get it on the books."

Shephard echoed Boss's point, noting Nova Scotia and Manitoba provinces with a similar population and demographics have relatively new child protection legislation that New Brunswick could draw from.

Her department wants to have the first draft of the new piece of legislation ready next month and start consultation in the summer, she said. But it could take two years before the new act becomes law.

The minister said efforts are shifting from parents to putting the child first. The past focus was on aiding the parent, assuming that would improve matters for the child.

"That's proving not to be the case," Shephard said Thursday. "We need to be fair and ensure the child's voice is never forgotten."

Kinship care

As work on the new bill is underway, Shephard introduced a series of proposed amendments to the Family Services Act to make more immediate changes to the child protection system.

One of them a "pet project" of Shephard's is recognizing kinship care as an alternative to foster care. The legislation will allow suitable family members of individuals whose children need to go into care to step into a caregiving role.

If things are going well with a family and we see progress, we don't want to split families up.- Dorothy Shephard, social development minister

"That's an integral part of keeping the family together," she said.

Boss said he was pleased to see that type of care recognized.

"It's going to be a relief to the families that are out there, frankly," he said.

Treatment centres

Another amendment Boss described as a positive change would upgrade existing youth care homes in the province to temporarily care for children with complex mental health needs and then send them back to their families.

Shephard said families with children who have complex mental health issues often have to give up custody to the department in order to accessthe services needed.

Youth care home workers are being trained to handle those complex cases in order to take in a child and provide treatment without the province taking guardianship.

Boss said it's a "big plus" to avoid losing custody and sending the child to the psychiatric hospital in Campbellton.

"That will be the ultimate step up," he said. "We want our kids back into the community."

Other amendments

Other proposed changes include the transfer of guardianship as an alternative to adoption and redrawing the threshold for children under the minister's care to be placed into a permanent space.

Shephard said the latter is a key change because under the current system the minister can only make a decision on whether to place a child who's under the care of the province into a new permanent home if 24 consecutive months have passed.

If a child in the province's care is sent back to their family before the two-year mark, the clock starts over again.

The new amended legislation would set the threshold at 24 cumulative months over a five-year period.

"That'll give (the minister) more flexibility in determining when to put a child into permanent care," Shephard said.

"If things are going well with a family and we see progress, we don't want to split families up."

It also allows the minister to remove a child from a bad situation sooner, she said.