The New Brunswick advocate for children, youth, and seniors' has publicly released a review on the proposed new child protection legislation.
On Tuesday, the report by Kelly Lamrock showed new legislation has significant improvements in comparison to the existing laws, and highlighted 12 areas where he noticed the proposed legislation could use improvements.
Lamrock also proposed nine amendments to consider that consist of ideas ranging from a Bill of Rights for children in care, to having support for young adults in care aged 19 to 26.
"If this were a first draft, it would be an outstanding start. But if the government intends to push it through without considering improvements, it is my responsibility to point out that it denies some rights and services to New Brunswick children in care that provinces such as Ontario and Prince Edward Island have recognized and supported," said Lamrock in a news release.
However, Lamrock's review notes the proposed legislation doesn't recognize the rights of children in care to services including health care and education, culture and recreation, and security and permanency to families.
Additional proposed amendments include:
- Guaranteeing that all young people in care who are accepted into a post-secondary education program can afford to attend;
- Providing assisted decision making to younger children so their views can be known on decisions ranging from placements to services;
- Protecting a child’s right to maintain social connections and recreational and extra-curricular activities when the minister moves their residence;
- Requiring the consideration of respite or relief care to families of children with complex needs before removing children from the home;
- Ensuring that any refusal of services by older children is automatically reviewed to ensure that the child has been fully heard and alternate ways of delivering services have been offered to the child;
- Giving the Social Development Minister the authority to require other departments to plan and co-ordinate services for children in care and requiring case planning within 30 days, as is done in other provinces;
- Allowing for reviews to protect a child’s best interests when the minister terminates a kinship or foster placement or denies a parent access; and
- Requiring the Department of Social Development to track and report information on education, health and behavioral outcomes for children in its care.
Lamrock says the positive changes benefit the child’s rights to services and provide safety that would not be entrenched elsewhere.
"These amendments are consistent with other practices, common sense and basic compassion. This bill is a really good starting point on an overdue reform. I hope the legislative assembly will consider opening the legislation up for comments and changes to make this a true success story," said Lamrock.
