“June 17, 2010

PROVINCE COMMITS TO CREATION OF NEW ABUSE REGISTRY TO BETTER PROTECT SENIORS, VULNERABLE PERSONS: MINISTERS

Manitoba is developing Canada’s first registry of people who abuse vulnerable adults including seniors, and people with disabilities or mental illnesses, Healthy Living, Youth and Seniors Minister Jim Rondeau, Family Services and Consumer Affairs Minister Gord Mackintosh and Labour and Immigration Jennifer Howard, minister responsible for persons with disabilities, announced today.

“An abuse registry for incidents involving vulnerable adults will give caregivers, support agencies and volunteer organizations another tool they need to more thoroughly screen potential employees,” Rondeau said. “Families need to know that we will make every effort to ensure their loved ones are in good, caring hands.”

A provincial committee with members from the departments of Health, and Child and Family Services, along with the Winnipeg Police Service and RCMP, and people who work with seniors and adults with disabilities has been studying what other jurisdictions are doing, and will make recommendations to government for the implementation of a Manitoba abuse registry.

“We need to make every effort to ensure someone with a history of inappropriate behaviour isn’t able to find employment with vulnerable persons,” added Mackintosh. “We’re going to tighten the rules and toughen up the penalties for abuse.”

“Manitoba is already a leader in this area, as one of only two provinces with a child-abuse registry and this effort will build on our commitment to the protection of vulnerable people,” said Howard.

In addition to a registry, the committee is looking at a number of options, improvements and legislative changes that will make it easier to discipline offenders and screen applicants who want to work with vulnerable people. Those options include:
· strengthening the penalties and increasing fines under the Vulnerable Persons Act and working to give other options for discipline if an offender is not facing criminal charges;
· developing strong human-resource policies and training around recruitment, selection, hiring processes and information about alleged offenders and indicators of abuse/neglect;
· providing more training for staff and public education on abuse indicators, abuse investigations and reporting requirements; and
· identifying areas where the Criminal Code could be strengthened to better protect vulnerable adults and lobbying the federal government to make those changes.”

Abilities Manitoba supports measures to strengthen protection for Manitoba’s vulnerable citizens, and we look forward to working with the Province to that end.

However, the department’s own website now has a section devoted to the campaign, which the public and member agencies can view at http://www.gov.mb.ca/fs/dsw/index.html. Abilities Manitoba urges all member agencies to link to the campaign site and let people know the rewards of supporting people with disabilities!

I am all in favor of standards and requiring staff to have proper education and training. The Province has proposed that by 2013 staff working with intellectually disabled people will be required to have minimum education and training standards. We all know there are not enough Day Care spots in Manitoba, we now all know the day cares in operation are caring for these children with unqualified staff.

Standards were set in the Day Care System about 25 years ago and still there is not enough qualified staff to meet those standards. The department of Family Services recently paid for ads in the Winnipeg Free Press promoting Early Childhood Education as a career option and guaranteed a starting salary that would certainly be attractive to people working in our field.  The following is taken from the web site for the Government of Manitoba Department of Family Services, promoting a career in Early Child Hood Education.

Careers in Child Care
What has the Manitoba Government announced in 2006/07 that makes a career in child care an even better choice? Manitoba Child Care Program (MCCP) continues to move forward on many important initiatives to stabilize and advance its licensed early learning and child care (ELCC) system.

Recruitment to the career of ELCC and retention of those already working in the field continues to be a high priority. Here are some the initiatives that continue to broaden and encourage our workforce.

Wages are increasing
Funding for non-profit child care centres means that annual salaries for Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) beginning their career are now approximately $27,000.00 to $30,000.00.

More ECE College Seats
The number of college seats available in our province has virtually doubled in the last two years and we are continuing to encourage high school graduates to choose ELCC as a career. As well there is an increase in college seats in the workplace ECE program for those already working. Call your local college for information.

Tuition Support Program
An Early Childhood Education Support Conditional Grant for up to $4000.00 is available to full-time ECE college students to cover the cost of first-year 2007/08 tuition. Register with your local college. Obtain a copy of the Tuition Support Conditional Grant application by calling Child Care Information Services at 945-0776 of toll free at 1-888-213-4754.

Replacement Grant
The Staff Replacement Grant continues to provide support to employers of licensed, non-profit ELCC centres to cover the substitute costs when a child care assistant (CCA) attends ECE studies at college workplace training. Workplace students who typically go to school two days a week and work three days a week will continue to be able to receive their full salary while they train for their ECE diploma. Talk to your director about workplace training and about the Staff Replacement Grant.

Competency Based Training Programs
Manitoba Child Care Program’s (MCCP) self-directed training and assessment programs continue to provide government funded opportunities for child care assistants (CCA) and family child care providers with years of experience and prior learning to attain their Early Childhood Educator II (ECE II) classification. Call the Qualifications Section of MCCP at 204 945-6730 or toll-free at 1-888-213-4754 for more information.

Recruitment Fund
The Recruitment Incentive Grant continues to encourage Early Childhood Educators who have left the ELCC field to return. To be eligible for the grant applicants must have an approved diploma or degree in early childhood that is currently eligible for the ECE II and ECE III classification.

In addition the applicant must have been away from employment in licensed ELCC for a minimum of two years prior to application.

The fund provides a bonus of up to $3000.00 when eligibility requirements are met. Once employment is secured the employee agrees to commit to two years working in the ELCC centre (the grant is paid out in installments to the employee’s centre in order to pay the applicant).

Please call Child Care Information Services at 945-0776 or toll-free at 1-888-213-4754 for more information.

Check out this link to see more >

I’d sure like to see the Department of Family Services invest this kind of effort into recruiting for our field or we have even less hope of meeting standards!