Dirty clothes, lack of supervision: CFS agency raises concerns about emergency placements

Failing to report when a child is missing, sending kids to school in soiled clothes and refusing to learn how to treat a little girl's medical condition are just a few of the concerns being raised by a Manitoba child welfare agency about emergency placement staff.

CBC News learned about those incidents through a response to a freedom-of-information request from Animikii Ozoson Child and Family Services, a Winnipeg agency that largely helps kids with ties to First Nations in Ontario.

The agency’s response details dozens of concerns with those placements, including workers not showing kids how to brush or floss their teeth, sending them to school with “highly inadequate” lunches and refusing to take them for free outings, such as trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Longtime foster mom Jamie Pfau says hearing about the conditions some children experience in emergency placements breaks her heart — especially knowing some end up staying there much longer than the intended 30-day limit.

“These children are being raised in a residential facility. They're not celebrated when they get a good grade in school. They can't have a birthday party like everybody else,” said Pfau, who’s also president of the Manitoba Foster Parent Association.

“We're just setting these children up … for failure.”

Emergency placements are supposed to be stopgaps in Manitoba’s child welfare system — a last resort used for a short period of time in particular situations, such as when a child is first apprehended or because social workers need time to find a placement with specialized support.

Concerns about those placements come as the province tries to stop child welfare agencies from overusing them by charging hefty daily fees for kids left in those spots too long — a policy advocates say will further strain agencies whose resources are already spread thin.

Animikii Ozoson says it only puts children in emergency placements after making “extensive effort” to find a foster home or another place to stay, when a child needs a placement urgently at the end of a business day and when there aren’t other options available.

Other concerns the agency raised about those placements include staff not properly watching kids, “resulting in children AWOLING from the home” — and not always following requirements to report them as missing when that happens.

In one case, a girl who was cognitively delayed and starting puberty was sent to school for days wearing her sister’s extra-small white T-shirt with no training bra. In another, a girl’s belongings — including underwear with menstrual stains on them — were dumped on the floor in a common area of an emergency placement to take inventory of what she had when she arrived.

Lack of supervision, especially at night, also came up — including a case where children used an iPad to make inappropriate videos for about 20 minutes while “no one was checking in on them.”

The agency said there’s “not a lot of nurturing towards the children placed in [emergency placements],” describing a “steady decline” in the ability of those placements to supportively care for kids over the past six years, and staff who don't have proper training or experience.

Staff will also use the fact that the placements are intended to be short-term as a reason not to engage with the kids in their care — such as refusing to walk them to school, “reportedly due to staff perceiving [it] as a long-term commitment,” the agency said.