ALBERTA HUMAN SERVICES Office of the Miniter December 20, 2016 Mr. Brian Jean MLA, Fort McMurray-Conklin 5" Floor, Federal Building 9820 - 107 Street Edmonton, AB TSK 17 Dear Mr. Jean: Further to your letter of last week, | am writing to propose a revised terms of reference, which you will find attached. As | am sure you can agree, this is a very serious and complex issue which deserves thoughtful study. | believe the revised terms of reference reflect many of the requests you have made, including suggestions brought forward by the Official Opposition caucus, the Leader of the Liberal Opposition and Mr. Ellis, MLA for Calgary-West. In particular, you'll find the revised terms of reference include: * Assurances that frontline workers can communicate with the panel without fear of repercussions subject to their requirements to protect the personal identification of their clients and/or coworkers; * Acconsideration of the proposal to strengthen reporting obligations directly to the RCMP; * A thorough review of the status of internal reviews of child fatalities dating back to when this commitment was first made in January 2014; © Guarantees that opposition caucuses will be welcome to offer other MLA ‘substitutes from their respective caucuses when their regular delegate is unavailable. 224 Leglslature Building, 10800 - 97 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T5K2B6 Canada Telephone 780-643-6210 Fax 780-643-6214 Pine ved perPage 2 As per opposition suggestions, opportunities to hear from experts, receive written submissions, gather data and invite presentations from frontline workers will be supported. While much of the panel discussion will occur in public, there may be times when the members will wish to meet in private to better protect front line workers, families and to respect individual privacy. This will be determined by the panel on a case-by-case basis when developing their work plan. Transparency and reporting on the progress. and work of this panel will be essential to ensuring that this panel is accountable for its actions and words. As Minister of Human Services, | will remain an ex-officio member of the panel to support its work, listen to its deliberations and follow up to ensure timely actions on recommendations. As outlined in my earlier letter, the purpose of this panel is to identify opportunities and concrete actions to improve the child intervention system, ensure children are safe, and improve outcomes for all children receiving child intervention services. The panel's work will be divided into two parts. In the next 8-10 weeks the panel will make immediate recommendations to improve the child death review process. This work includes: * Identifying recommendations to streamline and strengthen the child death review Process, including receiving updates on the status of all intemal reviews. * Identifying which agency should have primary authority for conducting these reviews. Examining internal communications protocols to ensure timely access to information for relevant agencies. * Developing possible criteria for which deaths would be reviewed. This could include all children, all children in care, all children receiving child intervention services or some combination of the above. * Making recommendations for legislative changes. Following this initial study, the panel will then review legislation, policies, current practices, literature, relevant data, and recommendations (including OCYA and Auditor General). Further, it will solicit feedback from subject matter experts. The panel will submit a final report addressing:Page 3 * The root causes and factors that contribute to child and family involvement in the child intervention system; * Current funding and resource levels for the child intervention system as well as an assessment of workplace culture and staff morale; * Existing supports for families, including supports for kinship caregivers, foster parents, and families at-risk of needing child intervention services; * Opportunities and concrete actions to improve the child intervention system, address over-representation of Indigenous children in intervention system and improve outcomes for all children receiving child intervention services; and * Identifying recommendations of past studies, prioritizing them and discussing implementation timelines and oversight. encourage you to consider the revised terms of reference and hope that you will Participate in a productive dialogue on this matter. ook forward to hearing from you. Upon finalizing the names of subject area experts we would like to move forward as soon as possible to schedule a first meeting. Please forward the name of your MLA representative as soon as possible. Sincerely, Minister Attachment