Performance Reporting — Continued

Goal 3: To improve family capacity and improve readiness to learn for children under six, including children with special needs.

Ministry services in this area provide children and families with new skills and learning to prevent later issues requiring greater supports with less positive results. The quality of care received in the early years bolsters success in school, social relationships and in adulthood. As well, pre-natal health is promoted to prevent issues such as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). The ministry is focusing on strategic investments in early childhood development and special needs services that are evidence-based and produce measurable results.

Core Business Area: Early Childhood Development and Children and Youth with Special Needs

Objective 3.1: To promote early childhood development (ECD) as a key strategic investment

Progress on Strategies in 2002/03:

• increased community capacity to develop and deliver expanded ECD programs across the province.
• established new sites for a total of 30 community urban Aboriginal ECD projects.
• expanded parental education initiatives in areas such as family resources, publications, and FASD prevention.
• added a new private sector ECD partnership towards expanding community involvement in ECD.

Performance Measures and Targets

Performance Measure	2000/01 Actual	2001/02 Actual	2002/03 Target	2002/03 Actual	2002/03 Variance	Target Met?
(a) The proportion of kindergarten aged children who are "ready to learn"	N/A	N/A	Establish measure	• Measure established • Early Development Instrument (EDI) has been conducted on kindergarten-aged children in 49 school districts • Data from 13 school districts conducted in 2002 is being finalized • Data from 36 School Districts conducted in 2003 will be available in Winter 2003
(b) Number of learning sites to foster the integrated planning and delivery of early childhood development initiatives	N/A	3 learning sites Baseline	1 per region [total 5 sites]	17 learning sites	12 better than target
(c) Number of communities with urban Aboriginal early childhood development programs	N/A	Target communities Baseline	Identified 18	30 communities	12 better than target

Analysis

The ministry's strategy of promoting strategic investment and community involvement in Early Childhood Development can be seen in the strong performance of these initiatives. Initiatives, including the Learning Sites and Aboriginal ECD programs, and the administration of the Early Development Instrument to assess children's "readiness to learn" all contribute to a better start for B.C.'s young children.

Objective 3.2: To target evidence-based, individualized services to those children with special needs and their families who most require them.

Progress on Strategies in 2002/03:

• continued reviewing and refocusing programs and services to ensure that resources are committed to evidence-based interventions known to work to ensure services to those with the greatest needs.
• progressed the shift to family development services that build family capacity to support their children with special needs, rather than more generalized family supports, as evidenced in the rate of children with special needs being in care decreasing somewhat over the fiscal.
• continued to target family development programs to those clients in greatest need; however, did not pursue restricted eligibility and a new rate structure due to the transition towards new authorities who would soon develop their own new policies.
• introduced the interim early intensive intervention program for children with autism and their families.
• promoted culturally relevant programs to serve Aboriginal children with special needs and families.

Performance Measure and Targets

Performance Measure	2000/01 Actual	2001/02 Actual	2002/03 Target	2002/03 Actual	2002/03 Variance	Target Met?
(a) Rate of children with special needs that are in the care of the ministry (per 1,000 children with identified special needs)	111 per 1,000 (March) Baseline	114 per 1,000 (March)	106 per 1,000	108 per 1,000 (March)	2 /1,000 below target
(b) Percentage of children in care through Special Needs Agreements	5.3% (March) Baseline	5.3% (March)	To be determined [reduction from baseline, amount TBD]	5.5 % (March)	0.2% above baseline	Target not set

Analysis

The ministry made good progress on reducing the number of children-in-care with special needs, but marginally under-achieved its target. This is consistent with changes to the general children-in-care population. It is expected that as further legislative and program changes are implemented, the three-year targets will be achieved.

Explanation of Changes to Measures

The baselines for these two measures have been amended since the last annual report, to reflect point-in-time measurement, which allows for more effective comparisons between baseline and performance. The 2002/03 targets have also been updated, though all assumptions that were considered with the targets are consistent with previously published targets.

Measure 3.2(b) did not have its target determined since it has been removed from the 2003/04 – 2005/06 Service Plan in order to reflect the public reporting principle of fewer and more focused measures. This measure will continue to be internally tracked by the ministry.

Performance measure 3.2(b) indicates the percentage of children who are in care through a Special Needs Agreement, not the percentage of children with special needs who have Special Needs Agreements. For more information see Appendix 2.