Dufferin Child and Family Services is committed to accountability and to continually improving our services. As part of our commitment, we are pleased to present our current Performance Indicators. The goal of performance indicators is to support effective organizational planning, oversight, and to generate increased knowledge aimed at improving services and outcomes for the children, youth and families we serve.
To date there have been 26 provincial performance indicators approved by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services. At this stage, five indicators are being publicly reported:
- The recurrence of child protection concerns in a family after an investigation
- The recurrence of child protection concerns in a family after ongoing protection services were provided
- The days of care by placement type
- The time to permanency
- The quality of the caregiver-youth relationship
Background
In 2009, the Ontario Minister of Children and Youth Services established the Commission to Promote Sustainable Child Welfare. One of the commission’s strategies was to identify principles and concepts to “implement a new approach to accountability and system management.” Performance indicators were one of the mechanisms put forward by the commission to measure service performance in the outcomes of safety, permanency, and well-being of children, youth, and families on a provincial level.
The child welfare sector has lead the work of the Performance Indicator Project which began in April 2013.
Moving forward
Establishing a performance measurement and management systems takes years of development and requires the investment by every stakeholder involved including leadership commitment, active involvement, capacity building, communication and resources. This investment needs to be directed at the vital work of Children’s Aid Societies, to provide additional understanding of the sector and individual agency’s strengths and where to focus continuous improvement strategies.