December 14, 2005

Invitation for Written Submissions, Child and Youth Review

You won't find it on the government website, but an invitation for written submissions from the public was published on December 11th in the Vancouver Province, and probably other papers, for the B.C. Children and Youth Review, conducted by Mr. Ted Hughes, Q.C.

Submissions are requested by January 10, 2006: by mail to the BC Children and Youth Review, PO Box 9732, Stn Prov Govt, Victoria, BC, V8W 9S2, by fax to 250 943-3301 or by email to Child.Review@gov.bc.ca.

In a letter dated November 26, Mr. Hughes requested that his terms of reference be modified so that "roles and responsibilities" with respect to child death reviews and advocacy be included in Part I with that Part delivered to Minister of Children and Family Development, Stan Hagen, and made public on February 28. The concurrent release of his report to the public and the Minister is a good start and what one would expect from Mr. Hughes. He went on to propose that Part II of his report deal with public reporting, both of child death reviews, and the government's performance in protecting and providing services for children and youth in British Columbia, with Part II released to the media and the public on April 30. The invitation to the public to make written submissions by January 10 covers both Parts of Mr. Hughes' terms of reference.

One possible starting point for the Children and Youth Review could be the report that was written by Jane Morley, now BC's Child and Youth Officer, as part of the "core review". That report was used to justify the elimination of the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate, and the Office of the Children's Commission. Unfortunately, it appears to have disappeared from the government website.

Hopefully the holidays will not stop professional organizations like the BC Association of Social Workers and advocacy groups like First Call BC from making a submission to Mr. Hughes by January 10th. My submission will be posted here when it is completed.