REGULATE CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN ONTARIO

Did you know that there are approximately 10,000 Child and Youth Care Practitioners in the province of Ontario?

Did you know that many of those working in the field are referred to as Child and Youth Care Practitioners despite not having any credentials or education? Moreover, the agencies employing them cannot fully guarantee that their staff are properly trained and prepared to ensure the safety and well-being of the children and youth in their care.

Did you know that we are one of the only professions that work directly with children and youth that is not part of a regulatory body?

It gets better: Child and Youth Care Practitioners spend more time with our most vulnerable young people than any other regulated profession, including social work, early childhood educators, nurses, and many more.

But wait, there’s more! Since 1995, there have been twenty-six inquests into the deaths of high risk, vulnerable young people, who were connected to governmental care systems (child welfare, youth justice, and children’s mental health) and living within residential placements (Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, 2010)

The risks of unlegislated practice include:

• Ongoing vulnerability of children and youth in care

• Insufficient accountability processes for employers to hire skilled staff

• Continued employment of unqualified staff

• Inadequate education and skillsets of those employed to serve high risk and vulnerable youth

• Continued high rates of turnover and burnout in high-risk settings

• Continued harm to high-risk youth in care requiring intrusive intervention

• Continued inquests into the death(s) of children in care

• Escalating risk to communities given the risk some high-risk youth pose to others

Making Ontario Safer For Children And Youth

2307

Goal: 2400

Together we can better protect our most vulnerable young people. Now more than ever we need your support. Please complete the fields below and share your voice with your local provincial member of parliament!

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Dear [recipient position will go here] [recipient name will go here],

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I am writing to you today to ask for your support regarding the well-being and safety of children and youth in Ontario. 

Child and Youth Care Practitioners (CYCPs) are often employed in positions that provide frontline care and support to children, youth, and families within the child welfare, youth justice, community mental health, and education sectors, to name a few. There are roughly 10,000 qualified Child and Youth Care Practitioners in Ontario who work directly alongside the most vulnerable young people in the province. The field of Child and Youth Care (CYC) is currently not regulated in Ontario, which means it is neither self-regulating nor governed by a ministry or regulatory college. 
My colleagues and I, as well as many members of the Ontario Association of Child and Youth Care, share a professional and public concern that the young people, families, and communities in Ontario are safe and cared for by qualified and trained Practitioners who deliver the highest standard of ethical and informed practice, ensuring the consistency and efficacy of frontline care.

The Problem:  
Many people working alongside Ontario's most vulnerable young people, families, and communities do not have the minimum pre-service qualifications and training (i.e., Child and Youth Care education) required to adequately support their needs and foster safe and inclusive environments, putting young people, families, and communities at further risk. Currently, there are no accountability measures which further exacerbate the impact of un/under qualified frontline workers. Having unqualified staff without any accountability to a regulatory college further increases the risk of harm to the public. 

Over the last decade, extensive reviews and inquiries have been conducted into the quality of residential care, including serious occurrences and inquiries into the deaths of youth in care (Ministry of the Solicitor General, 2018; Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2016). The current provincial government is focusing on transforming both children's mental health services and the modernization of the child welfare system in Ontario. I recognize the crucial need to take steps forward to safeguard Ontario's children and youth further. We have an opportunity to enhance the current children's mental health and child welfare sectors while simultaneously strengthening the foundation of the Child and Youth Family Services Act (CYFSA). The regulation of Ontario's Child and Youth Care practice is a key and often overlooked component to ensuring access to high-quality, ethical and evidence-informed child, youth, family, and community services.  
Accountability to a regulatory college would ensure those working alongside vulnerable young people, families, and communities in Ontario:

-	Meet minimal pre-service qualifications and training (i.e., post-secondary education in Child and Youth Care), ensuring the ability to demonstrate the vocational learning outcomes outlined by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities adhere to the Ontario Association of Child and Youth Care's Code of Ethics

-	Demonstrate a commitment to the core competencies of Child and Youth Care

-	Safer work environments for Child and Youth Care Practitioners

-	Retention in the Child and Youth Care workforce and post-secondary education enrollment 

-	Availability of information for employers and caregivers of concerns regarding individual Child and Youth Care Practitioners

-	Reduction in the usage of hospitals and police for behaviour management of children and youth (i.e., decrease in the criminal justice system pipeline)

As a result,  the safety of children, youth, families, and communities will be greatly enhanced. Therefore, it is important that Child and Youth Care Practitioners be held to similar regulatory standards as the professionals we work alongside, including social workers, psychologists, teachers, and early childhood educators, to increase public confidence in the child and youth mental health/social services sector.

The Solution:
To best ensure public safety, Practitioners working alongside vulnerable children, youth, families, and communities, in collaboration with other regulated professionals, must have a combination of Child and Youth Care specific education and experience. Furthermore, through a regulatory body, standards of practice would be mandated to ensure accountability to the public. Regulation would also ensure that those who hold the title of Child and Youth Care practitioner in workplaces meet the minimum standards required to adequately and safely support Ontario's children, youth, families, and communities. Therefore, I am requesting that the Ontario Government support the development of a College for Child and Youth Care in Ontario.

I invite you to please get in touch with the Ontario Association of Child and Youth Care to arrange a meeting with Coura Niang, President of the Board and other Directors to learn more about why regulating Child and Youth Care in Ontario is important to the public interest and safety of children, youth, families, and communities. Coura can be contacted at president@oacyc.org.

Sincerely,
[your name will go here]
[your email address will go here] [your location will go here]

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