13 responses from child welfare to the Jeffrey Baldwin inquest recommendations

baldwin horizontal

Provincial inquests offer meaningful and valuable insights into tragic deaths and how they can be prevented from happening again. Jeffrey Baldwin’s death in 2002 was a tragedy that shocked and saddened the entire child welfare sector. The inquest into the death of Jeffrey Baldwin and the jury’s recommendations, which were released on February 14, 2014, provided meaningful insight into his death and further opportunities for improvement of the child welfare system.

The Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS) and its member Children’s Aid Societies (CASs) have conducted a thorough review and analysis of the 13 recommendations directed at CASs across Ontario. Here are the 13 key ways child welfare practice is responding to the inquest recommendations and improving child welfare practice in the province.

1. Confirming a caregiver’s identity during an investigation

2. Conducting criminal record checks and vulnerable sector screening checks as part of an investigation

3. Initiating an investigation when new concerns arise about a child already involved with Children’s Aid

4. Training caregivers to properly document disclosures by children about past abuse

5. Providing financial and counselling support to a child’s caregiver

6. Sharing the history of a traumatized child with their caregiver

7. Providing children who have been traumatized with timely access to mental health services

8. Providing parents whose children have been taken into care with proper support

9. Upon request, providing a child’s parents with family planning resources

10. Intervening when parental access visits are denied

11. Performing a thorough review of a child’s case when it is transferred from one CAS to another

12. Using provincial child protection standards to determine case closure when legal custody
is pending

13. ‘Closing the loop’ of communication when a child protection concern is received

For more information please contact:

Sean McGrady
416-644-2497 or 1-800-718-1797 ext. 2497
smcgrady@oacas.org