Appendix 2: Performance Reporting Definitions, Rationales, and Trends

• The IF/DF approach gives service users decision-making power about what services they purchase, and puts service providers in the position of having to respond directly and be accountable to the consumers of their services.

• The project began as a joint initiative in 2003/04 with the Interim Authority for Community Living BC. In the summer of 2003, a draft agreement was developed regarding implementation of IF/DF.

• Phase 1 was to offer IF/DF to 150 adults currently receiving MCFD services.

• The total number of community living clients (adults) receiving direct or individualized funding, expressed as a percentage of total residential and non-residential clients within the fiscal year.

• The new measure in 2004/05 – 2006/07 Service Plan has a baseline of 3,150 for 2003/04 (includes 150 adults and 3,000 families of children with special needs.

• The target for 2004/05 is 3,500*, including an additional 150 adults with development disabilities, and an additional 200 families of children with special needs). Target for 2005/06 is 3,800* (to be confirmed).

*Note: The 2004/05 – 2006/07 Service Plan target for 2004/05 (4,200) and 2005/06 (5,850) was published incorrectly.

• IF/DF is a joint initiative with the Interim Authority for Community Living BC and is supported by the community living sector.

• IF/DF is a payment mechanism that should lead to cost savings over time.

• IF Facilitators develop personal support plans for adult participants. Facilitators submit reports to HQ on a bi-weekly basis.

• Management Information System (MIS), Social Worker Information System (SWS), Resources and Payment (RAP), and Management, Analysis, and Reporting System (MARS).

• The target was set based on the implementation of the Child and Youth Mental Health Plan and an anticipated capacity increase, as well as expected increased efficiency.

• Number of registered clients under the age of 18 who receive services from MCFD staffed mental health service providers at any given time during the fiscal year.

• MCFD staffed service providers served approximately 11,100 clients in 2001/02, which was approximately half of the total Child and Youth Mental Health Services budget.

• An increase in clients served in the future is anticipated as the Child and Youth Mental Health Plan is implemented.

• The ministry is implementing a new information system that has the capacity of tracking client outcomes as well as aggregate outcomes by program. By 2005/06, the new data system will more accurately reflect service delivery.

• The ministry needs to know how many people are served in this service as part of ensuring an efficient service delivery system.

• Numbers are estimates only, as only partial client data are captured by the current information system.

• Excludes data from the ministry's contracted agencies and short-term services but will be addressed by the new information system.

• BC Ministry of Health Services — Client/Patient Information System (CPIM).

• Long term and sustainable capacity building in the early childhood sector is dependent on the investment of the broader community — beyond government. Private/ public partnerships encourage this investment from community and corporate stakeholders.

• The indicated targets were seen as both achievable yet challenging.

• Private-public partnerships in the social service sector are a relatively new phenomenon. We expect to see continued growth in the number and extent of such partnerships, yet we must have realistic expectations about the potential for growth in this area.

• The number of partnerships that exist are cumulative.

• Early Childhood Development Branch — MCFD.

• This measure represents the ministry's commitment to building capacity in Aboriginal communities to deliver a wide range of services, including Aboriginal early childhood development programs.

• New initiative in 2001/02 — Regions targeted 25 Aboriginal communities to receive funding.

• Number of Aboriginal communities that have sustainable Aboriginal ECD programs.

• 18 projects originally targeted for funding but the ministry was ultimately able to fund 41 for 2004/05.

• An evaluation of some of these programs is underway.

• Ministry staff track Aboriginal ECD programs.

• Methods of gathering information may vary from region to region.

• Aboriginal ECD Database. BC Stats also assisting with developing formalized data tracking system.

• This measure is one of the indicators of the how much government has increased flexibility and choice in the service system as suggested by what percentage of our clients are making use of this initiative.

• The IF/DF approach gives service users decision-making power about what services they purchase, and puts service providers in the position of having to respond directly and be accountable to the consumers of their services.

• This is a new measure. The 2003/04 – 2005/06 Service Plan only called for the establishment of a baseline, so no target was set for this measure.

• Funding is provided directly to families of children with special needs to purchase intervention or support services.

• Total numbers of children receiving direct funding in the: At Home Program; Respite; Interim Early Intensive Intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder under six years of age; and Extended Autism Intervention for children over six years of age, as a percentage of total children with special needs receiving ministry-funded services.

• Count of families of children with special needs currently receiving IF/DF funding.

• Families have the right and primary responsibility to protect and support the growth and development of children and youth. One of the ministry's goals is to support, strengthen, and develop family capacity, and to reduce the number of children in the care of the ministry.

• The target was selected to match the children in-care rate for the Canadian national average. In March 2002, the rate of children in care per 1,000 children under 19 years of age was 9.0 for Canada and 10.8 for BC.

• Total number of children in care divided by all children under 19 years of age in BC.

• From 1996 to 2001 there was significant growth in the number of children in care of the ministry, with the number rising by over 60 per cent, peaking at 10,775 children in June 2001.

• Following a trend begun in June 2001, the total number of children in care continued to decline in 2003/04. In March 2004, there were 9,086 children in care, the lowest number since October 1997. This equates to about 9.9 per 1,000, down from 10.4 per 1,000 at the start of the fiscal year and 10.7 per 1,000 the previous year.

• Total number of children in care each March (fiscal year end) divided by all children under 19 years of age in BC for that year, multiplied by 1,000.

• Rates are subject to population variations, which is beyond the control of the ministry.

• Decision Support and Economic Analysis, MCFD.

• One of the challenges in child welfare is planning for life-long relationships and permanency for children in the continuing care of the ministry. Finding adoption placements for as many children as possible is essential.

• This is a relatively new measure. Baseline information was gathered from 2000/01. Since then a major adoptive parent recruitment campaign was initiated.

• Changes to the service delivery system include a family development approach and an increased focus on permanency options that emphasize out-of-care initiatives for children. This results in fewer children coming into the care of ministry and fewer still remaining in continuing care.

• Targets were set conservatively to account for the uncertainties related to the decentralization of adoption services to the regions and the declining numbers of children in continuing care of the government eligible for adoption.

• The number of children in the continuing care of the government who are placed with approved adoptive families longer than six months.

• The multi-year trend is dependent upon a number of factors but a decrease is anticipated. This will be affected by: the anticipated decrease in the number of children in continuing care of the government who are available for adoption, a higher proportion of children with special needs for whom there are fewer adoption opportunities, and a limit to the number of adoptive families that are available.

• The results are measured through reports from the adoption management system (AMS).

• The number is our best estimate because there is often a delay in data entry; the actual number may be higher.

• The Adoption Management System (AMS).

• This represents the ministry's commitment to building the capacity of Aboriginal communities to provide programs and services in a more culturally appropriate way.

• With 4,200+ Aboriginal children and youth under the ministry's care at the time, this would have meant a more realistic target of 35 per cent

• Total number of children in care served by delegated Aboriginal agencies, expressed as a percentage of all Aboriginal children in care.

• Meeting the 2004/05 – 2006/07 Service Plan year target (40 per cent) will be challenging.

• Fiscal year-end counts of Aboriginal child and youth in care, as of March 31.

• The ministry's new focus on having more children in care adopted might undercut achieving the intended results of this measure. However, it serves the same Service Plan objective, to improve the safety and well-being of children and youth in continuing care.

• The ministry's Social Worker Information System.

• This measure is considered a standard gauge of how much the youth correctional system relies on incarceration. It also is an indicator of the effectiveness of community based alternatives to custody, which over time reduce reliance on custody.

• It is consistent with the measure used nationally.

• This measure allows comparisons over time and across jurisdictions.

• The specific target was identified by reviewing historical and recent rates in BC, and in other Canadian jurisdictions, based on data produced by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS).

• The number of youth sentenced to or remanded into youth custody per 10,000 youth in the general population. Per capita rates enable comparisons over time and between jurisdictions, by adjusting for changes/differences in the population base.

• There has been a significant reduction in the reported rate of custody up to and including 2003/04; in future years the trend will be affected by as yet unknown impacts of the new federal youth justice legislation.

• The calculations are based on average daily count. "Daily count" is the number of youth in custody on any given day within the fiscal year. Figures are confirmed by CCJS.

• CCJS, Census data (number of youth age 12 to 17 inclusive) and ministry daily youth custody counts.

• The establishment of community-based governance bodies represents the ministry's commitment to BC communities and to the individuals served by the ministry's programs, for a service system that is responsive and accessible.

• This measure allows the public to know whether governance responsibility for service delivery has been moved to communities.

• The ministry planned for the establishment of Interim Authorities (IA's) that would evolve into permanent community-based governance bodies. At the time this target was set, the ministry believed that the capacity to develop five non-Aboriginal IA's was available and the target was attainable. Additionally, Community Living BC (CLBC) was already established as an IA preparing to assume responsibility for Community Living Services.

• Total number of authorities meeting a pre-determined set of readiness requirements for governance and management of service delivery.

• The first IA established — the IA for CLBC — was the first to prepare to meet the readiness criteria. The readiness review of CLBC in the fall of 2003 indicated that some fundamental issues had not been addressed appropriately. This review is still underway as of March 2004.

• The establishment of regional Authorities is a multi-year endeavour and the ministry remains committed to the process.

• Through independent assessment/review.

• Measures only readiness as established by the set of readiness criteria. It does not measure whether the Authority is actually established and operating.

• Governance Transition and Support Branch, Transition Services Division.

• It is the essential measure to determine whether we have successfully reduced the "red tape", to allow staff to focus on clients rather than excessive paperwork.

• As part of its New Era commitment, the Government promised to cut red tape across all ministries by one third within three years. MCFD set a 40 per cent target and scheduled 30 per cent for March 31, 2004. This is because policy reductions resulting from the shift to community-based governance were anticipated to be large and to occur by March 31, 2004.

• "Regulatory requirement" means a compulsion, obligation, demand or prohibition placed by legislation or regulation on an individual, entity or activity.

• Deregulation is a three-year project, from June 5, 2001 to June 5, 2004. MCFD reductions in 2002/03 were 45 per cent

• Of the six ministries that set a reduction target for March 31, 2004 of 30 per cent or greater, MCFD exceeded its target by the greatest proportion: 21.9 per cent.

• A staff member in each program area counted the number of regulatory requirements in each act, regulation, or policy. The Ministry deregulation contact enters that number into the deregulation database, as of the date of the decision to implement or change the act, regulation or policy, (i.e., the date that an act or regulation comes into force).

• The actual impact of the reduction is less than anticipated because a significant portion of the reduction was due to policy duplication.

• The Government's Deregulation Office issues policy and guidelines on how to count regulatory requirements. The ministry deregulation contact is responsible for providing those instructions to a staff member in each program area, who does the counting. At MCFD, the ministry deregulation contact is the Manager of Legislation.