Newfoundland and Labrador politicians hope an ambitious new program will solve long-standing problems in the child welfare system.

Health Minister Ross Wiseman cautioned that no one should expect to see radical changes overnight in child protection.
(CBC)

About $6.5 million will be spent this year to launch an overhaul that will change training, add social workers and address shortcomings identified in three separate reports.

"These are massive investments that we're making," Health Minister Ross Wiseman said Monday, while unveiling a sweeping set of reforms with Justice Minister Tom Osborne.

The government says it will spend $9 million per year once the program is established.

At the same time, Wiseman said no one should expect to see great changes overnight.

"This is not going to be something as of tomorrow that there'll be something radically different in the system than there is today," he said.

Nonetheless, the changes will be substantial. They come on the heels of the child death review of Zachary Turner, whose mother — Shirley Turner, a physician fighting extradition to the U.S. — killed both herself and her son in 2003.

That review, released last year, was followed by an organizational and operational review of the child, youth and family services program, which the consulting company Deloitte carried out on the Newfoundland and Labrador government's request.

Government's decisions, unveiled Monday, will change most aspects of how children in care are looked after.

The recommendations include:

• Creating 118.5 new positions, including social workers, clinical supervisors and support positions.
• Hiring a lawyer for each of the four regional health boards, as well as dedicating a Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer to child protection.
• Strengthening reporting procedures, and developing a quality assurance unit.
• Establishing a professional development and training team.

From now on, every new hire in child protection will be brought through a new orientation program.

Poor communications blamed for death

The Turner death review found that the death of 13-month-old Zachary Turner could have been prevented. Among other things, it cited poor communications between officials as contributing to a tragic sequence of events.

Among other things, social workers dealing with Turner had not been made aware of Turner's medical history, which included suicide attempts.

"From our perspective, it all centres around communication, so we're going to remove, to the extent that we can, any barriers that we have in terms of sharing information," said RNC chief Joe Browne.

The government is also putting in place a child death review committee, to examine any suspicious death of a child under two.

Osborne described the cumulative effect of the changes as substantial.

"I don't think it's fair to create an expectation that we can totally eliminate any risk of a child death but the best that we can do is put the resources in place to minimize that risk," Osborne said.

Plans gets nod from child advocate

Darlene Neville, the provincial government's child advocate, is pleased with government's decisions.

Child and youth advocate Darlene Neville was pleased to see the bolstered ranks among child protection workers.
(CBC)

"This goes a long way toward prevention because you'll have a better trained, better skilled workforce," she said.

"There will also be a reduction in stress the social workers experience because they have very difficult jobs to do, and by building the system — and rebuilding it and strengthening it — it only goes towards prevention," Neville said.

However, Carol Furlong, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees, cautioned that a shortage of potential social workers must also be dealt with.

"That the whole issue of recruitment and retention [needs to be] addressed or they're not going to get the social workers into the system," Furlong told CBC News.