Minister for Children and Families Says Jury's Recommendations Constructive

By 250 News

The Minister for Children and Family Development, Tom Christensen says the recommendations from the Coroner’s Jury which presided over the inquest into the death of 4 year old Amanda Jean Simpson, were thoughtful and constructive.

Christensen says the three recommendations aimed at his Ministry are very consistent with work the Ministry has already undertaken.

The Jury’s recommendations as they applied to his Ministry are as follows:

That the Ministry form focus group for all Ministry of Children and Family Development offices in the province comprised of pertinent partners such as the RCMP, school counsellors day care workers etc, to evaluate the performance of each Ministry of Children and Family Development office with a mandatory action plan from the designated director to address any concerns listed in a timely manner:

Christensen says this is similar to the   “regional reference groups”  that are already in  place, but says  “The idea of focus groups intrigues me, it is an opportunity to  build on the  efforts to  have the community engaged in  child protection and offers an opportunity for community  feedback.”

The second recommendation that applies to his Ministry calls for “continuous upgra\ding and training for all case workers, team leaders, Directors, etc in the Ministry of Children and Family Development regarding child protection, interviewing, investigation and risk assessment.

“The key word here is continuous, as we can’t ever say training is complete” says the Minister.  “Our hope coming out of an inquest with very tragic circumstances is that we can learn from this, and work towards building a better system.”

The final recommendation is for more dollars to be allocated for Child protection resources, in short,  more staff.  Christensen says the number of staff in the Prince George offices has increased over the years from 45 in 1999 to a current level of 62.  He says the regional directors are currently trying to work out their budgets to see  how their region should  use  the dollars   already allotted,  but  things will get better “Next year and the year after, the budget will be increasing” says Christensen.

The only other recommendation from the Coroner’s jury was directed at the Chief Coroner of B.C. requesting that in future, inquests be held in a timely manner.  This inquest   took place nearly 8 years after Amanda died.  The jury ruled her death a homicide.

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