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A frightful picture of a system in crisis

By: Lindor Reynolds

Posted: 09/8/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Before the paralytic was injected into the Phoenix Sinclair inquiry Friday afternoon, a picture of the Manitoba child-welfare system had just begun to emerge.

In the five years Phoenix was alive, workers were stretched to the breaking point. Staff couldn't handle their caseloads. The devolution of services to aboriginal agencies saw massive staff and file transfers.

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Social workers didn't always get proper training. Record-keeping was hampered by a new central database unavailable to workers in communities with no Internet access. People charged with protecting vulnerable children had impossible workloads, insufficient supervision and an inability to meet professional standards.

There's evidence those problems still exist, despite the passage of time, additional cash and increases in the number of social workers employed by Child and Family Services. There have been more social workers hired over the years, but the number of children in care, most of them aboriginal, has also grown.

Phoenix was taken into care when she was born April 23, 2000. She was murdered by her mother and step-father in 2005. Phoenix was in and out of the child-welfare system most of her life.

The inquiry was near the end of its first week when legal jousting called things to a halt. Early witnesses painted a picture of stressed workers trying to juggle their case loads. Files were sometimes put on hold until a social worker could be assigned. The world has grown so dangerous workers sometimes go out in pairs, with one neglecting her own files until she's back in the office.

Andy Orobko was North Winnipeg CFS intake supervisor during Phoenix's life. He characterized staffing levels as "grossly inappropriate" and said meeting accepted provincial standards was impossible. When his staff was overwhelmed, he "marshalled" files in his office, holding cases until he had the staff to handle them. Sometimes, he took on the files himself, with up to 20 cases looked after by a man paid to supervise his staff.

In the first five months of her life, Phoenix had four different social workers. They had five different supervisors. Orobko was both social worker and supervisor on the child's case.

He was not an unbiased witness. Orobko blames devolution for the end of his 17-year career in child welfare. While he painted his team as a group of dogged professionals (as they likely were) he sniped the government was "marking time" after 2001, when devolution was firmly underway.

Human resources, he testified, were "grossly insufficient" to meet demand.

Alana Brownlee, the current CEO of Winnipeg CFS, testified that when Phoenix came into care, the agency was undergoing significant changes as a result of devolution. Staff were afraid they'd lose their jobs. Fifty-eight per cent of their staff were transferred to the new authorities.

Marnie Saunderson, Phoenix's social worker for the first few days of her life, testified caseloads have been high for the 20 years she's been in the field. In the early years, she could easily have 40 cases files, double what was workable.

"I managed," she testified. "It's very difficult. You have to spread yourself quite thin."

Although social workers are supposed to receive regular performance appraisals, she could only remember two or three in her lengthy career.

It was Saunderson who said some agencies still have problems connecting with the computer data centre for CFS. Asked if a lack of data could put a child at risk, she answered "I think it could, yes."

In 2009, Saunderson sent her superiors an email alerting them "things have hit a very critical stage where many of the workers are overwhelmed and cannot meet expectations any longer."

That was four years after Phoenix was killed. If the system had improved in that time, it was still dreadful. May the lawyers finish their latest squabble quickly. It's past time the truth was told about Manitoba's child-welfare system and how it failed Phoenix Sinclair.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 8, 2012 A4

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About Lindor Reynolds

Lindor Reynolds began work at the Free Press as a 17-year-old proofreader. She was fired three weeks later.

Many years later, armed with a university education, she was hired as a columnist. During 16 years on the job she has managed to avoid being sacked again.

Lindor has received considerable recognition for her writing. Her awards include the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ general interest award and the North American Travel Journalists Association award.

She has earned three nominations for the Michener Award and has been awarded a Distinguished Alumni commendation from the University of Winnipeg. Lindor was also named a YWCA Woman of Distinction.

She is married with four daughters.

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