Joint review to be done on hotel policy for children in care of provincial gov’t
Posted November 9, 2015 11:06 am.
Last Updated November 9, 2015 11:13 am.
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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Ministry of Children and Family Development and BC’s Children’s watchdog have announced a joint review of the use of hotels for children in the care of the provincial government.
The review will examine the historical and current usage of hotels as placements for children in care, the reasons behind the use of hotels as placements and the potential risks to children in care associated with hotel stays.
It will also make recommendations regarding new policy and practice on hotel placements. The final report will be presented to the Legislature and released publicly before the end of this year.
Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux says the aim is to place children and youth in foster homes and residential resources that match their needs and minimize the possibility of further moves. “We are taking a close look at policy and practice to ensure that when young people come into government care we can provide them with safe, secure, appropriate living arrangements while we work to connect (or re-connect) them with a permanent, loving home.”
Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond she wants to see the elimination of the use of hotels as placements, even in emergency situations.
“As always, our role is to help the ministry to meet its mandate and ensure that children receive services that are appropriate rather than crisis-driven or stop-gap measures. While this review will not be incident-specific, individual cases that are part of it may call out for more detailed investigation by my office, should there be situations in which children have been adversely affected by hotel placements.”
This comes after the death of a teen in Abbotsford back in September.
