This report reveals a dramatic mismatch between expectations placed on child protection social workers and the number of staff province-wide available to do the work. Despite the demands and complexity of the job increasing in recent years, there are fewer front-line child protection workers in B.C. in 2015 than there were in 2002.
As a result, the timelines set out in child protection standards routinely go unmet and children and youth are too often left in unsafe situations while social workers are increasingly disillusioned and burned out.
