Permanency for Children & Youth in Care

Permanent, stable relationships are a major determinant of whether children feel safe and secure and therefore, of well-being overall. Permanency is achieved by leaving the care of the Director of Child Welfare through family reunification, adoption or permanent transfer of custody under the Child, Family & Community Service Act ( CFCSA ).

2 At least one of the asterisks (“*”) indicates a count lower than 10 in the respective cell. The next “*”/s in the same column or row may have been masked for data privacy reasons.

1 At least one of the asterisks (“*”) indicates a count lower than 10 in the respective cell. The next “*”/s in the same column or row may have been masked for data privacy reasons.

Children and youth may be in care through a court order for protection reasons or through either a Voluntary Care or Special Needs Agreement with parents. With 73% of all reasons for care indicated, neglect is the largest reason for care, particularly for Indigenous CYIC (76%) and Non-Indigenous CYIC (65%).

CYIC in Care for at least six months have a Care Plan that details specific aspects of care tailored for each CYIC . MCFD standards require this plan to be updated annually. The Care Plan Current & Complete Rate is the proportion of CYIC whose care plans meet this standard. MCFD is working towards higher Care Plan current and completion rates.

Rarely is a CYIC is placed into a hotel (in 2022/23, it was one day in every approximately 1,660 days of care). This is usually because of emergency shortages in available resources. For the twelve month period April 1, 2022 – March 31, 2023 there were 34 children placed into hotels. Placements by Service Delivery Area and Indigenous Family Service Agencies were:

• The number of placements is greater than the number of children because some children had multiple stays in a hotel at different times.

• Reasons for Hotel stay 1 are:
  1. No resource available (35 children/youth)
  2. Caregiver illness (2 children/youth)
  3. No suitable rental available (11 children/youth)
  4. Resource that was available was refused by Youth (1 child/youth)

1 Some children may have more than one reason for hotel placement. Therefore, the total number of children by reason of hotel stay may not add to the total number of children placed.

• Of the 49 hotel placements: 12 were for one night, 2 were for two nights , 6 were for three nights, 3 were for four nights, 4 were for five nights, 3 were for 7 nights, 3 were between 8-14 days, 5 were between 15-21 days, 2 were between 22-30 days, and 9 were over 31 days/one month).
• Of the 34 children and youth placed in hotels, 94% were Indigenous .
• Number of children and youth placed in hotel by age: 0-5 years old = 3 children/youth, 6 – 12 years old = 12 children/youth and 13-18 years old = 19 children/youth.
• The legal status of the 34 children and youth in hotel placements were: Removal status = 9, Interim Custody Order = 4, Temporary Custody Orders = 6, Continuing Custody Orders = 13, Support Needs Agreement = 0 and Voluntary Care agreement = 2.
• The total number of days for hotel placements by SDA and ICFSA : Vancouver Coastal - SDA = 0, North Fraser/East Fraser - SDA = 41, South Fraser - SDA = 10, Vancouver Island - SDA = 102, Okanagan West Kootenays - SDA = 3, Interior East Kootenays - SDA = 36, North Coast/Bulkley Nechako - SDA = 32, North Central/Peace Region - SDA = 4, VACFSS - ICFSA = 364, Nezel Be Hunuyeh - ICFSA = 30, Northwest Inter-Nation Family & Community Services Society - ICFSA = 30, Kw’umut Lelum - ICFSA = 0 and Xyólheméylh (Fraser Valley Aboriginal Children and Family Services Society) - ICFSA = 76.

4 Two children were considered one placement but were in hotel for different amounts of time. One child was in hotel for 7 nights and second child for two nights due to reconstruction of home.

No longer included in data calculations for fiscal 2022-2023:

• Travelling with a caregiver for any purpose (holiday, medical appointment etc…) would be a circumstance where the need for a hotel form does not apply.
• Staying with a caregiver in a hotel due to any “emergency”. This can be at the community level (evacuation from wildfire or flood) or at the individual level (house fire, water pipes burst etc…) – in such a situation, the good thing is that the caregiver is still with the CYIC regardless of any hotel stay.
• The hotel stay is not part of the director’s planning.

The number of CYIC in March 2024 was 4,834. This was the lowest since 1990, 30 years ago. The following chart shows that the number of CYIC has been falling steadily since its peak in June 2001 (10,748). MCFD has strived to keep children safely with their families when possible, i.e. prevent admission into Care and, when a child needs to come into Care, MCFD works to reunify the family when safe to do so, or seek other forms of permanency such as living with extended family or adoption. MCFD is working to further reduce the number of CYIC , particularly for Indigenous CYIC .