Boards merge

County CAS takes first step toward amalgamating with Highland Shores Children’s Aid

The Children’s Aid Society of Prince Edward County has made it official—it will merge its operations with those of Highland Shores Children’s Aid. Highland Shores is itself the merged creation of the former Hastings Children’s Aid and Northumberland Children’s Aid. The County CAS had been in the original talks to join this amalgamation when it was forming about 18 months ago—but backed out last December before the arrangement had been formalized.

Since then the local CAS has been rocked by a series of scandals involving children in its care, raising serious questions about its ability to protect and keep safe these children.

One high profile trial saw a couple sent to prison for sex crimes against children placed by the local CAS into their care. Another man was convicted and sentenced to prison for nine years for a long history of sexual abuse against children that had been placed in his care by the local Children’s Aid Society.

And just last week police reported that three more foster parents have been charged with sexually abusing children it their care—all under the supervision of the Children’s Aid Society of Prince Edward.

Provincial ministry officials had been prodding the County CAS to join the amalgamated agency over the past couple of years, but in recent weeks those urgings have become more direct.

The local board finally conceded. A week ago they announced they would seek a partnership. Last week they said the boards would merge, paving the way for a quick and smooth amalgamation.

“Essentially it will be the Highland Shores board that will be overseeing the governance of the Prince Edward board,” said Elaine Philip, chair of the existing County CAS board. “It is something that would have happened in the process anyhow. We chose to do it now because we felt it would help to expedite things.”

There is no decision yet on the fate of Bill Sweet executive director of the local CAS, but Philip said one of the first steps of the new board will be to look at the leadership of the society.

“For now Bill is the executive director,” Philip told the Times.

It is anticipated that two members of the County CAS board will join the 13-member Highland Shores board.

Philip said that for now, it is business as usual at the local agency.

“We have children that need to be looked after,” said Philip. “For now the Prince Edward office is still the Prince Edward office and we are going to continue to go about the business of looking after children just as we have always tried to do.”

COSTS VERSUS CARE
One of the stumbling blocks toward a merger last year was the fact that both the Hastings and Northumberland agencies were operating with budget deficits, while the County CAS was regularly operating with a surplus. Some have since charged the local agency with generating a budget surplus this on the backs of children and families in the County, saying that the local agency should have been spending more on monitoring the children in is care and ensuring their safety.

According to the chair of Highland Shores Children’s Aid, the province wiped away the accumulated debt of the Hastings and Northumberland agencies at amalgamation. Darcey French says that in the year or so since, the amalgamated agency has managed to eke out some efficiencies and streamlined processes—yet he is quick to point out this is a secondary consideration.

“But things happen,” said French. “We can have a month where the number of kids in care can spike and the costs go up. Our baseline funding is stable; however, where we finish the year financially is based upon what the kids and families need. We don’t say no.

French says a larger agency can provide a more uniform level of access to care across the region. This, he says, has been borne out by the experience of Highland Shores Children’s Aid over the past year.

“We’ve found that by taking the best practices from each area, we have been able to develop a common platform of service across the region,” said French. “So if you are a family in Port Hope to Tyendinaga to the south shore of Prince Edward County to Bancroft— you know the level of service that you can expect. Being part of a larger agency allows you to weather those variables and fluctuations.”

He added that management and governance of the combined agency has meshed better than he anticipated.

“We all the want the same thing—that children and families in our community are served well.”