Children’s Aid Society of Hamilton cuts staff amid youth mental health crisis

The Children's Aid Society (CAS) of Hamilton says it is eliminating 19 positions due to budget constraints in part driven by the strain on the child welfare agency from a youth mental health crisis.

Hamilton CAS executive director Bryan Shone said the layoffs are difficult for everyone in the organization," but they will not change access to programs.

He pointed to a decrease in cases, upcoming changes to how the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services calculates funding and the high costs associated with caring for children, and most seriously, youth with complex mental health and developmental needs who are ending up in crisis because of a lack of resources in the community.

The union representing affected child protection workers agrees that Hamilton CAS is facing budget pressures for the reasons outlined by Shone, but they do not agree with how the organization is choosing to find savings.

It just doesn't make sense, there is a crisis in community and they're cutting child protection workers," said CUPE Local 5300 president Leanne Slaughter.

There are probably better ways to manage the money rather than laying off child protection workers who do the job every day."

The union is very confused" about the decision, which will mean remaining front-line staff will have to take on more cases and will likely lead to burnout. Slaughter said staff are not feeling heard.

As a result there are children at risk," she said, adding that these layoffs come on the heels of the upcoming closure of Catholic Family Services.

Slaughter said the union's understanding of the layoffs is that 19 front line staff, six contract and four management jobs are affected.

Shone said the layoffs eliminate 19 positions from across the organization, including both management and non-management positions, and represent a loss of less than seven per cent of staff. The reorganization includes some vacancies which will not be filled, although Hamilton CAS did not specify how many or whether those vacancies are among the 19 positions being cut.

The organization has been through layoffs before and will get through it," Shone said.

Hamilton CAS needs to maintain services to families and children, and needs adequate staff to meet those needs, but is also legally required to submit a balanced budget to the ministry, Shone said, adding that it is trying to balance all three."

When the community locked down amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Hamilton CAS cases dropped. Shone said they have risen somewhat since lockdown, but have not returned to 2019 levels. Depending on the area of service, cases are down anywhere from five to 20 per cent.

At the same time, the ministry is changing how it calculates funding based on demographics and case volumes. This means that starting next year, Hamilton CAS funding will drop two per cent per year, for two years, at a loss of about $2 million.

But Shone's biggest concern is the lack of services to help children and youth with mental health and developmental needs.

The Children's Aid Society of Hamilton is the safety net underneath the safety net," he said.

If the community had proper supports there would be many cases in which Hamilton CAS would not be needed. But given the long wait list for services there are families that end up in crisis.

Shone pointed to the recent inquest into the death of Devon Freeman, an Indigenous Hamilton teen who died while in the care of Hamilton CAS, after his grandmother exhausted all community resources to deal with his complex needs.

If we had proper funding and supports to mental heath services developmental services in community, I wouldn't be having this conversation," he said, adding that community mental health and developmental services for children and youth need more funding.

Cases in which children or youth come into the custody of CAS represent a small percentage of the work child welfare agencies do. However, these cases typically come with higher costs, including paying for foster care or residential placements.

The Freeman inquest, like other inquests, highlighted overburdened staff and communication failures between agencies.

For CUPE, the inquest showed the need for more staff, not less. Slaughter noted the organization just committed to implementing changes from that inquest and then turned around and laid off staff.

Shone said the layoffs do not impact any of the ongoing work making changes and implementing recommendations from the inquest.

Hamilton CAS is also working to support affected staff, including communicating with other agencies in the community and outside the community looking for opportunities to hire laid-off staff.

Nicole O'Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com