Chatham-Kent to Improve Website

December 22, 2007 permalink

John Dunn has directed us to another example of progress achieved through his advocacy on behalf of children in care. The website of Chatham-Kent Children's Services will be revised to inform readers about the complaint process. So far this kind of advocacy has only brought small improvements.

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Children's Aid website to have complaint info; Lack of details criticized by Foster Care director

Chatham-Kent Children's Services is changing its website and the new one will include complete information about the complaint process.

Chief executive officer Mike Stephens said while the former website contained information about filing a complaint, there is an additional method that was enacted in 2006 that is not on the website.

The local children's aid society was recently criticized by John Dunn, the executive director of the Foster Care Council of Canada, about the lack of complete complaint information on its website.

"This is something that needs to be addressed immediately to meet the needs of children and youth in care from being harmed either physically, sexually or emotionally," Dunn said in an e-mail to the CKCS, which was forwarded to The Chatham Daily News.

Stephens said the agency responded to Dunn's concerns and explained that the agency is re-vamping its online presence. The website is currently under construction.

"There is no legal obligation for us to have it on our website," Stephens said.

He noted the information is given freely to people dealing with CKCS.

"All of our clients who would be in a position to make a complaint get a hard copy of our complaint process," he said.

Stephens said the information that was not on the website deals with taking a complaint to the Child and Family Service Review Board, an option clients are told about if a complaint is made.

He said CKCS gets a handful of complaints a year.

"Most complaints get resolved in the first phone call," he said.

Dunn, who works out of Ottawa as an advocate for children in care, said he noticed the full complaint information was missing while checking the website for membership details.

Source: Chatham Daily News