Inside Ontario’s ‘scary’ child-welfare system where kids are ‘commodities’

group homes, a network of private and not-for-profit facilities meant to protect some of the province’s most vulnerable children.There is a significantly high number of injuries, extensive use of physical restraints, and missing kids among private service providers, the investigation found.Former residents and experts in child welfare paint a startling portrait of a system that lacks qualified staff and neglects and even mistreats some children who have experienced trauma or have complex mental health needs.These revelations are drawn from interviews with more than 65 group home workers, youth, and child welfare experts and an exclusive analysis of a database of more than 10,000 serious occurrence reports — obtained through freedom of information requests.Also called SORs, the reports are submitted to the province by service providers such as children’s aid societies, group-home operators, and foster-care agencies.

For example, SORs document when a child dies, is injured, goes missing, or is physically restrained.Between June 2020 and May 2021, the Global/APTN investigation found there were over 1,000 reports of serious injuries and over 2,000 reports of physical restraints — despite the province’s 2017 pledge to “minimize” their use.Over 12,000 kids — 17 years old or younger — were legally in the care of a children’s aid society at any given moment in 2019, according to the latest provincial data.What happens inside these homes is not disclosed to the public, unlike inspections for long-term care or daycare centres, which are posted online.Inspection reports from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services also found instances of children sleeping on soiled mattresses, lack of access to basic dental or.