Advocate condemns 'devastating' underfunding of N.B. child welfare services
Budget not keeping pace with growing number of young people in crisis, Kelly Lamrock says
New Brunswick's child and youth advocate blasted the provincial government Thursday over what he calls the largest cut to the child welfare budget in decades.
In a report Thursday, Kelly Lamrock said Social Development's $208.3-million budget for this year falls short of the $231.9 million spent on those same child welfare services last year.
This year's budget is an increase from last year's estimate of $181.9 million, but because the actual cost came in higher than that, Lamrock said the department is effectively being asked to reduce its spending on services to children in care by $23 million.
And since the budget speech also pledged $23.6 million for new wage increases and services, he said, existing services will be in a $46.6 million shortfall.
"If these cost reductions were put into place, it would be the largest cut I can find in the last 20 years to child welfare," Lamrock said.
"It would also be, in what I can find, the largest cut any group by percentage has been asked to bear in the budget."
The report calls on government to reconsider the budget. In absence of that, Lamrock wants to see a plan from government on how it intends to stay within the budget, the anticipated effect on kids in care, and what the long-term costs will be as a result, by the end of June.
Premier Susan Holt believes the funding is sufficient and agreed Thursday to table a plan.
She also pledged to transform services for children and youth in care under the existing budget.
"We're going to change the way we deliver services to those young people so they can get better results," Holt said. "We can't keep doing things the same way when the results are not there."
In his report, Lamrock said this is the third year in a row that government has budgeted less for child welfare than what was spent in the year prior.
'Explosion' in crisis cases
Lamrock says there's no evidence that child welfare service costs will decline.
In fact, he said the number of children in care requiring intensive support has more than doubled in the past three years.
He said there are 137 cases now requiring specialized placement — where a child or youth in care receives extra staff or support resources — each costing the province upwards of $100,000 annually.
Lamrock called this a historical high number of cases, noting specialized placement is often an indication the child or youth has escalated to a state of crisis.
"These are children who are need of severe care, simply, frankly, to keep them from harming themselves or falling into a crisis that could harm others or create consequences you can't come back from," Lamrock said.
"These children did not simply land here, placed here by aliens fully in crisis. They were younger children who at one time required less, and didn't get it."
If the budget isn't keeping pace with actual service costs, Lamrock anticipates fewer upstream services to children in care aimed at preventing crisis in the first place.
"What has happened here is government starved services when kids were young, we had an explosion in crisis cases, and when the bill came due for the crisis cases, [they] said, 'Wait a minute, we should go back and cut all the services that prevent crises," he said.
The "explosion" in crisis cases can be seen in specialized placements, Lamrock said, but also in the increasing use of partial day plans in schools, where children in care are sent home at a higher rate than their peers.
Human, fiscal costs
The report warns that not providing enough money to maintain services will have both "human and fiscal consequences."
Lamrock said the office has dealt with several cases where youth were released from jail into homelessness because of delays in finding a placement.
"I've seen cases where kids leave a correctional facility, there's no place for them to go, they stick them in a hotel without any services," he said. "And surprise surprise, two days later the kid is back on the street, using."
That can increase costs elsewhere, Lamrock said.
"These kids don't vanish because they move off the balance sheet of Social Development, they become adults and they show up other places," he said.
"They're showing up in people who need housing relief, they're showing up on the social assistance budget, they're showing up in the courts and policing costs."
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