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The Ontario Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (OCANDS) is the first data system in Ontario to longitudinally track children and their families involved with the child welfare system. OCANDS extracts administrative data from participating child welfare agencies and standardizes these data to better understand the trajectories of children and their families across their involvement with the system. One of the tasks performed by OCANDS is to calculate “Service Performance Indicators” (SPIs) for participating child welfare agencies. In 2011, 24 SPIs were endorsed by the province as a metric that would represent the key dimensions of child welfare initially put forward by the National Outcomes Matrix (NOM) (Trocmé et al., 2009): safety, permanence and wellbeing, as well as agency management (Commission to Promote Sustainable Child Welfare, 2012).
The purpose of this analysis is to present data collected from the Peel Children’s Aid Society for SPI 10, which measures time to discharge for children taken into care within a fiscal year. This is viewed as a proxy for measuring time to permanence. These results have been disaggregated by child ethno-racial categories. SPI 10 is calculated by documenting all children who enter care for the fiscal year and following that child forward by one year. This would calculate a 12-month discharge rate. SPI 10 results were further categorized by the child’s ethno-racial categories based on the Canadian Census Visible Minorities classifications (Statistics Canada, 2015).
Children Entering Care by Ethno-Racial Categories (2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 Fiscal Years)
The number of children entering care (denominator) by fiscal year was disaggregated by ethno-racial categories. The numbers of children entering care within each category have remained consistent across three years. Across the three years, children who are white represent 43% - 52% of children coming into care, children who are black represent 10% - 17%, and children who fall into the “other” category represent 5% - 8%.
Discharge Rates by Ethno-Racial Categories (2012-13 Fiscal Year)
The number of children exiting care for fiscal year 2012-13 was disaggregated by ethno-racial categories and reported at 12, 24 and 36 months following entry into care. The 12-month, 24-month, and 36-month discharge rates of children who entered care during the 2012-13 fiscal year. The discharge rates are consistent between the different ethno-racial categories. Of 122 white children coming into care, 58 (47.54%) were discharged within 12 months, 88 (72.13%) within 24 months, and 108 (88.52%) within 36 months. Of the 48 black children entering care, 27 (56.25%) were discharged within 12 months, 38 (79.17%) within 24 months, and 42 (87.50%) within 36 months.