Appendix 3. Summary of Related Planning Processes

Human Resource Management Plan

Achievement of Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) Service Plan objectives are dependent on our ability to identify, retain and develop talented leaders who understand and exemplify the sector's culture and values. With high expectations of performance from internal and external clients, and a considerable workload combined with evolving relationships with staff as we move towards community governance, a commitment to strategic management of human resources is vital.

MCFD is committed to being an employer of choice in the public service. To achieve this goal, we are working to create a culture of leadership and proactive human resource planning that demonstrates our belief that our success as a ministry is dependent on our capacity to attract, motivate and retain a workforce capable of delivering on our Service Plan objectives.

The Ministry's ability to achieve its 2004/05 – 2006/07 Service Plan objectives is dependent upon both individual and branch performance. Recognizing this, the Service Plan identifies the need to "implement a comprehensive human resource plan to manage and support staff through the transformation of the ministry's service delivery".

The human resource vision of the Ministry of Children and Family Development is of a supportive, rewarding and motivating work environment where employees are valued and service excellence is achieved. To that end, the human resource management plan establishes the following goals:

Service Excellence — Every employee promotes and supports the capacity of families and communities to care for and protect vulnerable children and youth; and support adults with developmental disabilities.

People Excellence — A workforce where people are valued and whose competencies are matched with needs, through effective succession planning, training and development. Leaders establish a shared vision, model excellence and are accountable for achieving performance results, which demonstrate their commitment to all employees.

Work Environment Excellence — A work environment that fosters personal growth and learning and encourages outstanding performance. Employees develop knowledge, increase competency and continually demonstrate innovation.

The specific commitments related to these goals include:

• leadership development;
• support to employees in the midst of a continually changing work environment;
• creation of a dynamic work environment that fosters learning and innovation;
• development of a Succession Management Plan;
• commitment to maintaining front-line services in difficult to recruit locations;
• transformation of employee learning and development;
• development of a ministry-wide Learning Management System; and
• continued liaison with the Schools of Social Work/Child Care to ensure capacity in front line positions and throughout the system.

Information Resource Management Plan

This Information Resource Management Plan (IRMP) follows the plan established during 2002, with the exception of an increased focus on making data available to support management decision making and to provide the systems necessary to implement improved ministry procurement practices. All initiatives in the plan will support the three identified priorities of the ministry. These priorities are service transformation, budget stability and supporting the shift to new governance structures.

The IRMP will have:

• an increased emphasis on improving the adequacy of the ministry's data;
• a focus on increasing the ministry's information technology (IT) capacity to support the move towards new governance structures;
• increased opportunities for collaboration with other Ministries and central Government initiatives; and
• strategies to improve the ministry's ability to live within its budget.

The ministry is looking to improve the movement of data from the operational systems used by staff in their daily work to the ministry's data warehouse. The ministry's data warehouse or Management Analysis and Reporting System (MARS) can provide a platform for this to happen. MARS has been in use for three years and more users are taking advantage of this tool every day. It is now time to establish this data warehouse as a fully integrated piece of the ministry's control framework by ensuring that all risks and policy compliance concerns that may exist with this platform are addressed.

The systems infrastructure developments identified in the 2003/04 IRMP have progressed with the complete migration off the obsolete VM platform. This year's IRMP outlines the planning for the movement of all applications from the (also obsolete) MVS platform. Phase One of the secure connectivity initiative to secure e-mail access to non-government service providers will be completed on March 31, 2004. Phase Two of the secure connectivity initiative involving movement of client data from operational systems used by funded agencies will be completed fall 2004.

The ministry is committed to supporting e-BC initiatives. The ministry will be transferring its web sites to the government e-portal by June 2004. The ministry will be focusing on increasing its support for Agency and new Authority bandwidth usage and central initiatives such as user authentication.

The mid-term service plan review undertaken by the ministry identified data gaps relating to all ministry programs funded through non-residential contracts for Early Childhood Development, Mental Health Services, Special Needs Children and Family Supports, as well as information related to services to Aboriginal children and their families. The procurement reform initiative being undertaken by the ministry will provide increased capacity to address these data gaps by counting the number and costs of services that are provided. A new Child and Youth Mental Health system will be implemented to improve the case management practice, program management, resource management, and also address a significant data gap as identified by the mid-term Service Plan review.

In partnership with the Ministries of Attorney General/Public Safety and Solicitor General, the operational system used for youth justice services is being upgraded to a web-based application. The ministry is also participating in a collaborative project with Ministry of Human Resources and Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services to investigate the feasibility of a common case management tool.

The ministry intends to replace its older operating systems over the next three years with more efficient modularised applications, linked to a data warehouse that aligns with ministry funded services in regard to secure connectivity, maximum access to information, and data integration.