Services delivered: child protection mediator accreditation and roster

Component: Child welfare - community and prevention supports

Legislation: Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 (CYFSA)

Service objectives

The key objective is to expand the availability of child protection mediation in Ontario.

Service description

The Transfer Payment Recipient will use funds to

• Act as a provincial hub of expertise and best practice, providing training, professional development and consultation to service providers and organizations across Ontario wishing to develop and/or enhance their capacity to deliver effective Child Protection Mediation (Mediation), and to maintain a roster of Child Protection Mediators and Instructors
• To oversee a quality assurance body to promote and maintain the model integrity of Mediation as one of the child welfare Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) approaches
• To build awareness of Mediation as a method of ADR
• To work in collaboration with partners across the ADR service delivery spectrum to promote relationship-building and networking at a provincial level, build a community of practice and raise awareness/understanding of ADR

Program/service features

The services are directed at improving access to child protection mediators in Ontario through providing educational and training opportunities to practitioners, promoting child protection mediation as a means to resolving disputes, and maintaining a roster of practitioners.

Program goals

Increase the availability of child protection mediation to streamline court processes and encourage alternatives to court with respect to child protection disputes.

Ministry expectations

The Transfer Payment Recipient will

• Maintain the provincial roster of Child Protection Mediators, including
  • Review all Child Protection Mediators’ qualifications to ensure they meet the criteria for inclusion on the roster
  • Include on the roster the mediators’ geographical region of practice, languages spoken and willingness to travel
  • Communicate with rostered mediators to ensure compliance with Ministry requirements (police check & professional liability insurance) on an ongoing basis
  • Communicate with Transfer Payment Agencies to ensure that they are up to date with roster membership
• Maintain and update a web-based roster of Child Protection Mediators, including
  • Ensuring that the information is up-to-date and that the roster is current and accurate
  • Maintain a bilingual Child Protection Mediation website
• Act as a provincial hub of expertise and best practice, coordinate requests for and delivery of training including
  • Providing dedicated Program Manager to respond to calls, provide advice and match needs
  • Provide skilled instructors to deliver courses
  • Coordinate the provision of courses (i.e. introductory, level one, multi-party training, and revisions to training on a cost recovery basis)
  • Administer trainee satisfaction surveys and evaluations
  • Provide program and case-based consultation to members on the provincial roster
  • Connect with Transfer Payment Agencies, to understand gaps in service provision in their regions, in terms of Child Protection Mediation
  • Provide skilled instructors to deliver courses
  • Develop an intermediate training course for experienced mediators
  • Develop multi-party training
  • Provide opportunities for mediators to connect with other mediators for peer to peer learning; and
  • Co-ordinate training requests from across the Province
• Maintain and update the Child Protection Mediation Curriculum, participant manual and instructors’ materials for all trainings, including
  • Reviewing and making amendments to the Child Protection Mediation Curriculum
  • Update training packages for instructors on an as-needed basis
  • Update the Participants’ Manual, make it available to all rostered Mediators; and
  • Develop training and participant materials for the new intermediate training
• Build provincial capacity to provide Child Protection Mediation services in French, including
  • Continuing to look for opportunities to train a bilingual Child Protection Mediator to provide Child Protection Mediation training
  • Train a bilingual child protection mediator to provide child protection mediation training
  • Translating all training materials, participants manual and trainer’s manual in French
  • Promoting Child Protection Mediation, in French; and
  • Building capacity to offer Child Protection Mediation services in French
• Develop promotional, educational and training activities and materials to support Child Protection Mediation as a method of ADR
  • Deliver an annual professional development day for mediators and community partners to provide peer networking/support and skill building
  • Develop a collaborative educational day with other ADR professionals
  • Provide case-based consultation to members on the provincial roster via CPMed Connect webinar on a monthly basis
  • Coordinate with OAFM Executive Director to offer enhanced training via webinars, on an as needed basis
  • Contribute towards the development of resource materials to make available to the general public and Children’s Aid Societies
• Conduct and gather research on Child Protection Mediation, including
  • Gathering data on how Child Protection Mediation is being utilized in Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario
  • Administering annual surveys to Mediators to understand service delivery from their perspective
  • Participating in discussions at PAAC to determine data collection to improve outcomes for families and child welfare partners
  • Providing evaluation surveys for all trainings, professional development days to ensure that needs of Mediators, Transfer Payment Agencies and Children’s Aid Societies, OCL and community partners are being met
  • Developing outcome measures for Mediation; and
  • Gathering input from small communities that lack Mediation resources and associated Mediators as to how they might be best serviced from a distance
• Serve as the Chair of the Provincial ADR Advisory Committee, to build a community of practice among ADR providers and community partners based on relationship-building, networking and sharing of best practices
  • Bring together stakeholders in the ADR Community, including practitioners of FGC/FGDM, CPMed, and Indigenous Approaches, Transfer Payment Agencies, Children’s Aid Societies, the Legal Community, the Ministry and others
  • Plan and host quarterly meetings of the advisory group, developing meeting agenda, meeting materials, reports and minutes as required
  • Through consultation and collaboration
  • Determine the key deliverables and establish a work plan and meeting schedule to advance the committee goals

Reporting requirements

The Transfer Payment Recipient is expected to monitor and evaluate program performance and to confirm that program objectives and deliverables are being met.

At each reporting period, report on evaluation of training activities developed and undertaken, including any data gathered through the evaluations as well as a report on evaluation of professional development day for mediators, including any data gathered through the evaluations.

At each reporting period, provide the Provincial ADR Advisory Committee Report which reports on Advisory Committee activities and progress achieved to date against the Advisory Committee’s work plan deliverables.

On an annual basis, provide the following

• A report on child protection mediation educational and training activities, including any materials developed
• A report on the organization’s progress on activities to build French language capacity in Ontario

The following service data will be reported on at an Interim and Final stage. Please refer to your final agreement for report back due dates and targets.