BCFFPA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

TELECONFERENCE SUMMARY

NOVEMBER 21, 2005

1. Acceptance of Minutes October 17, 2005 – accepted as written

2. Treasurer’s Report

   1. Financial Statements will be forwarded to the Board and MCFD this week.

3. President’s Report

   1. Meetings Attended

      1. The Vancouver Coastal, Sechelt, and Fraser – Aboriginal appreciation events were attended by the President. The Vancouver Coastal event ran late so she was unable to deliver her speech thanking Marilou Bancud for her work as Regional Delegate, and welcoming Claude Cuff as the new regional delegate

      2. Youth Christmas Party – The Operations Manager will be donating her time to help facilitate this event with volunteers from the AFABC, FBCYIC and FAFP, December 18, 2005. The staff has been very fortunate in the gathering of donations and money to offset the costs.

01/11/05: MSC: (Melanie Filiatrault) Move to donate $200 to the Kids X-MAS fund carried

3. Database Meeting – the booklet is in its final draft. A meeting will be scheduled in the next few weeks to discuss further.

4. Adoption Lines – The President and Operations Manager attended a meeting with a staff person from the Justice Institute to gather information on opinions around having pictures and bio’s of youth available for adoption posted on the Internet. They are asking different child focused groups specific questions around their perceptions of the idea. The Youth in Care focus group will take place next week.

5. Spring 06 conference – Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Regions will be putting together a training event for caregivers and service providers. The Federation is assisting them.

2. Upcoming Meetings

   1. FCFS General Meeting – The Operations Manager will attend some of the presentations

3. Updates

   1. Donation – A long-time members was suddenly stricken with a liver problem and has had emergency surgery. All the children in the home have been moved, as he will be ill for several months. The executive made the decision to provide the family with a donation in the amount of $500 to help offset their living costs, as they now have no other income.

   2. Christmas Cards – Office staff will send. The President is out of town however; she will be in touch via e-mail and telephone. She has arranged for a long distance plan and will cover the costs for that.

4. Old Business

   1. Youth Addiction Services – look at Kaiser Foundation website where all services are listed.

   2. Survey – 300 surveys have been received. They are being collated and the information will be finalized into a report. There will be a short initial report in the InfoLetter.

   3. Macro Regional Report – This report has been received at the office and has been forwarded to the board.

   4. Policy and Procedures Motion from August 31^st. – the following motion was amended for clarity

02/11/05: MSC: (Melanie Filiatrault) Move to change Motion 04/08/05 to read:

1. The Provincial Federation office is supervised by the Operations Manager.

2. Official decisions are made by the Board of Directors or its Executive members

3. All official business and correspondence is conducted through the Provincial Federation office. Carried

4. Husky Fundraising – cards for this fundraiser are being sent out as requested. A letter will appear in the BCFFPA Infoletter

5. New Business

   1. Christmas Office Closure – the office will be closed from noon December 23, 2005 and will reopen on Tuesday, January 3, 2006.

   2. Sweat Partnership – The Federation of Aboriginal Foster Parents and the Fed of BC Youth in Care are teaming up to build a sweat on the property where the FAFP offices are housed. The Children’s Foundation Director is in support of the project. They are asking for an infusion of $2000 cash from the Federation to assist.

03/11/05: MSC: (Rick Nelson) Move to donate $2000 to the building of a sweat on the property adjacent to the FAFP offices, contingent on liability clearance. Carried

3. CFFA – Mike Balla request for endorsement of the Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth – The Board was requested to get feedback to the office no later than noon, Tuesday November 22^nd.

4. InfoLetter reports – Board members were requested to get their reports in if they have not already done so.

6. Jean MacDonald – CLBC

Jean provided an update on how the process will work for children and youth CLBC clients.

Jean has two roles. She is the Director of Children’s Services for CLBC and the Designated Director responsible for services to children offered pursuant to the Child, Family & Community Services Act (CFCSA).

In terms of being the Guardian of CCOs in CLBC care, she ensures staff are trained and delegated, provides consultation, and oversees Practice Standards.

• There will be Provincial Guardianship Training for CLBC staff. One event has already taken place in the Spring of 05, the other will be taking place shortly.

• Training for Resource Workers will be developed in ’06. The Justice Institute will develop this training in conjunction with MCFD’s Resource Worker Training.

• Foster Home Protocols – particularly in the area of allegations of abuse or neglect in foster homes, there is a need for a protocol, based on the existing MCFD/BCFFPA protocol, which addresses CLBC foster homes. The final decision on outcomes regarding CLBC homes will rest with Jean.

• CPOC’s – with the Service Transformation taking place in the new year, there is a need for every one of the children & youth served by CLBC to have an up to date plan of care in place. Jean is currently working with staff to ensure this takes place. Again due to the type of services required by the clients there will be some changes made to the format for CPOCs for CLBC children.

• In terms of the new MCFD Caregiver Support Services Standards – CLBC will adopt these. Training around this will take place in 2006.

Service Transformation Agenda

• The current CLBC Service Delivery Model will be reorganized.

• Quality Service Analysts will take on resource worker responsibilities

• Will be involved to ensure funds are available and implemented

• Will be responsible for home studies and support to foster parents

• Facilitators will take on guardianship worker roles.

• For a child not in the care of MCFD – the Facilitator will work with the family and will then back out once the plan for the child and family is developed and implemented.

• For a child in care the Facilitators and the Quality Service Analysts will be part of a team to deliver ongoing services to the child.

  • There will be a change to the location of offices related to CLBC with 9 Quality Service (Analyst) offices located around the province

  • There will be 17 Community Living Centres (Facilitators), as they will be meeting more frequently with families and individuals seeking service.

  • CLBC is a Crown Agency with a Board of Directors reporting to the Ministry.

  • Funding will come from the government

  • Service transformation will role out beginning in Victoria in January, the North in February, Vancouver, Tri-Cities and Fraser in March, and Kamloops, Kelowna and Nanaimo in April

CLBC plans to develop a new model for voluntary residential care for children, independent of the CFCS Act and will begin development of a new model in January 2006. Susan Graham will be heading the design of this new model. It will likely focus on child specific recruitment, may include three-party agreements. The Federation will be consulted. This may require legislative changes, so it will likely be at least a year before the changes are implemented.

7. Ministry Liaison

   1. Caregiver Support Service Standards draft – The liaison should be getting the updated draft from the editor today and will forward it to the Federation office as soon as she gets it. The new draft will include a whole appendix regarding payments for such things as respite and insurance deductibles.

   2. 53 hours of training – this will be clarified in the new CGSSS, as current policy is not clear.

   3. Information on CGSSS will be included in the next issue of InfoLetter letting them know that when the document is implemented, caregivers will be included.

   4. Contracts – Caregivers are both encouraged to sign if it is a two-parent family. This cannot be mandatory however as some foster parents will not sign due to issues around E.I and disability incomes.

   5. Mileage rate increase – there will be a decision soon.

   6. Provincial Table – this issue is still being worked on.

8. Regional Updates

   1. North - After Hours Helpline (MCFD) – there are many problems with this line. The Federation office expects letters that the board can then use to decide what course of action should be taken. The MCFD liaison suggested that foster parents also take their complaints to the local MCFD office.

   2. Interior - Public Trustee – No response around the protocols going to the PGT. MCFD is trying to arrange a teleconference with the Interior MCFD region, prior to follow up with the PGT to assess what that office requires of MCFD. There has been differing information received from all levels of the PGT and all regions are applying section 25 of CFS standards and section 7 of CICSSS differently.

   3. Interior - Macro Regional Support – Some years ago there was a requirement for MCFD to have partnership meetings at the local levels, and the REDs agreed to that. It was suggested that the Council approach MCFD at the Regional level to try to get some assistance for a liaison attending the Macro meetings. The Provincial board will write a letter to Doug Hayman requesting a liaison.

Next meeting January 9^th 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm