Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain what steps the department is taking to ensure children who enter care are able to remain in their home communities whenever possible? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as per the process for when children, you know, are accessing child and family services, when families come into contact with child and family services, it's when there is either a child protection issue or the family themselves are coming and requesting assistance to support them. When there is a child protection issue, the child protection issue is investigated and the child protection worker -- the child and family services does everything in their power to try to work with the family to provide supports for the child to stay within their family or, you know, to stay within their community if there is supports in the community to support that family or that child. And the next best thing is to -- you know, to remain with an Indigenous family within the community. And then the last would be in the foster family. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I asked for what steps.
Mr. Speaker, what is the department doing to strengthen prevention supports for families so that fewer children need to be removed from their parents in the first place? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within child and family services, there has been a bigger shift in foster care placement. I believe that there is around 1,000 kids that are actually utilizing -- families that are utilizing the service of child and family services; however, I believe there's only 154 at this time that are in placements out of that. Many of them -- 75 percent of them, I believe, are remaining in their home, and those that aren't remaining in their home are with extended family or family -- community members known to the child. So everything that child and family services does is they try to keep the child within the home using family preservation, with connecting them with services. You know, if the family needs to access family treatment, you know, child and family services goes and arranges that for them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member for Monfwi.
Mr. Speaker, what is the department doing to better support children in care in maintaining their culture, language, and sense of community? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that's a really important part of the work that the child and family services has shifted to. I think within that area that's the importance of -- the 75 percent of the kids remaining with their family, that is where they're going to get their culture. That's where they remain with their family. The next part is extended family. If it's a child protection issue within their immediate family, it's extended family and they work to support children. And that's why they now have the family volunteer agreements with family members. And this was something that we heard loud and clear, that family members that were able to take care of these kids sometimes didn't have the means of the financial piece to take care of them so there was a shift in that so that, you know, we heard from many grandparents that, you know, took care of their grandchildren but couldn't be a foster family so weren't being financially supported. These things are now happening. And so, as I said before, everything that they try to do is keep the child with the family, with extended family, and within the community, before ever going outside of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. The Member from Yellowknife Centre.
