Message from the Minister and
Accountability Statement

I am pleased to present the 2004/05 Annual Service Plan Report for the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The ministry's primary responsibility remains the health, safety and well-being of the thousands of individuals and families that receive our programs and services. The past year has been a positive one for the ministry and one of many accomplishments.

Child welfare best practice continues to show that children and youth attain better outcomes when they are able to remain within their own families and communities. This is especially true of the Aboriginal community. The ministry has worked toward this by shifting child welfare practice to promote the use of out-of-care placements and alternative dispute resolution processes as alternatives to taking children into ministry care.

In June 2004, the child care program was transferred to the ministry from the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services. The ministry has taken over budgetary, legislative and policy responsibility for the program; delivery of the subsidy program remains with the Ministry of Human Resources for now.

Over the past four years, we have been working toward making programs and services more responsive to the people that we serve, by redesigning our service delivery system to be more community-based. The ministry made progress in 2004/05, bringing services closer to communities and families while protecting health and safety. The legislation to create Community Living British Columbia is in place and the board and senior management are prepared to assume a leadership position for services for adults with developmental disabilities this summer. In addition, the ministry endorsed the principle of a Joint Multi-Year Plan to achieve Aboriginal governance of child and family services.

Other achievements in 2004/05 included:

• Providing new and enhanced child care subsidies for families to make child care more accessible, through a $33 million boost.
• Implementing the "FRIENDS" pilot program to educate Grade Four and Five students about anxiety disorders.
• Producing, in partnership with the Knowledge Network, a series of three documentaries about child and youth mental disorders.
• Expanding the scope of existing Aboriginal agencies to increase the range of services they deliver both on- and off-reserve.
• Funding several research projects related to early learning, special needs, child and family development and services for adults with developmental disabilities.

The past year has been one of both challenges and successes for the ministry, and I am proud of the progress the ministry has made toward achieving its vision and goals.

The 2004/05 Ministry of Children and Family Development Annual Service Plan Report compares the actual results to the expected results identified in the ministry's 2004/05 Service Plan. I am accountable for those results as reported.

Honourable Stan Hagen
Minister of Children and Family Development

June 15, 2005