Wednesday, May 25, 2011

TIM KOROL & SASK'S 'Arrogant' Child Welfare System / 536

CBC Photo: Tim Korol, Dep Min for 12 mo
On May 4, 2011 columnist Angela Hall’s story was printed in online and hard copy news sources all over the country. She wrote about Tim Korol, a former social services worker in the province of Saskatchewan. Granted he worked there for only one year but that was all that he could stomach. Korol is a former policeman who in the course of police duty saw a good many human unpleasantries yet he has said about his experience with social services in Sask., “I have been emotionally scarred by what’s going on in social services.

He has recently released a 40-page report entitled, 'The Secret Shame.' He held a press conference and then he submitted his report to the provincial government. In that report Korol relates his concerns about the child welfare system in Canada. The title is apt. Good choice. Blogs such as this one have a limited readership. The secret shame of child welfare, specifically the stories that spin from child apprehensions and the unfortunate cases within the fostering program, are unknown to the general public because they are undisclosed.
Legislators and parliamentarians don’t even hear about them unless a person like Korol draws attention to them. But then, I wonder who will read his report. He worked in social services for only one year. It will be considered questionable that he knows enough, or knows what he is talking about.

Hired in 2008 as a special adviser to then-social services minister Donna Harpauer, Tim Korol later worked for a short time as assistant deputy minister. He was let go in June 2009. He pointedly states that his desire to speak to his concerns is not the reflection of bitterness about his dismissal from the ministry and he underscores that there are many good social workers and bureaucrats who he says are caught in the system.

Children are being damaged for life. Families are being unnecessarily broken up,” he says. “Every week in Saskatchewan, there are children who are apprehended and parents can go for weeks and sometimes months without knowing the details of what they are being accused of.

He has called the Saskatchewan child welfare system a "controlling and bullying" bureaucracy.

Haven’t some of you been saying this here in B.C.? Among his recommendations is the suggestion that government should spend an equivalent amount of money on programming that helps hold biological families together, as that amount of money spent to keep children in foster care. Further, he recommends ‘bottom-up” planning, that is, listening to frontline workers rather than dictating plans from the top.

The initial response from new social services minister June Draude was an assurance that many affirmative changes have already been made within the past two years since he left his government role and more is being done.

And here in B.C. we wait to learn what our newly constituted Liberal government will affect by way of improvements to the secret shame that is hurting so many families.

4 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Mr. Korol! This is an act of valour and good conscience and real public service.

    Haven't many calls been made to the BC MCFD workers to speak up when they disagree with the system goals and methods? We need some Mr. Korol types here in BC but we are told that people quit the job and get out quietly.

    However, speaking out publicly is the most powerful way to bring about change. Engage the public; engage the world and change will come. Bureaucracy quietly brings about change as people get in there to impose their vision of Utopia. That's how to bring change from the top of the pyramid.

    Eventually the weight at the top will cause the massive numbers at the base of the system to shake it all down. Then the top rocks find that it has all been supported by a pile of rocks that actually can move. Simple physics. Simple human relations. Simple history.

    The former dictator of Egypt is now facing charges for ordering the killing of demonstrators. Undoubtedly, he didn't think that this could possibly happen to him. Life on the bottom is quite different than on the top of the pile.

    We think that valuing people must be the purpose of MCFD.

    ReplyDelete
  2. where is the report

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  3. The link at the top of the post once carried the story but I notice it has been removed. I'll try to locate it.

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  4. This has the story and the link at top will also be correct now ------- http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2010/12/09/sk-tim-korol-social-services-101209.html

    ReplyDelete

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