Dec 13, 2011

In 2006, Manitoba Ombudsman completed an external review of the child welfare system in Manitoba titled Strengthen the Commitment. A portion of that report considered issues related to child death reviews and resulted in changes to the process for investigating and reporting on the deaths of children whose families had received services from the system. Manitoba Ombudsman has responsibility for monitoring and reporting annually on the implementation of recommendations resulting from special investigations of child deaths by the Office of the Children's Advocate.

Many of the processes and procedures for investigating and reporting on the deaths of children continue to be developed, refined and revised. A limited number of special investigation reports completed as of March 31, 2011 reflects transitional challenges that were expected, and also raises some concerns with the extent to which adequate administrative processes have been developed and implemented to achieve the objectives of the reviews. Because of limited results, and because of issues identified by a number of decision-makers in the child welfare system, Manitoba's Ombudsman has issued a report about the administrative processes that have been implemented to date, their strengths and weaknesses, and areas where improvements have been and can be made. Five recommendations have been made to improve the process.