Indigenous child welfare

Canada has a decentralized child welfare system that consists of 13 Canadian provincial and territorial child welfare systems. In addition, there exists Métis, First Nations and urban Indigenous child and family service agencies that are to varying degrees affected by federal policies and funding models.

Most commonly, Indigenous child welfare agencies have signed agreements with either the federal or both the federal and provincial governments that authorizes them to provide the full range of child protection services and receive federal funding to do so.

For more information about First Nations child welfare, see Denouncing the Continued Overrepresentation of First Nations Children in Canadian Child Welfare.

For information on the First Nations human rights complaint case against the federal government for under-funding child welfare services on-reserve: I am a witness.

Filter by Publication Date Range
Title Authors Year
Children in Out-of-Home Care in Canada in 2019

Saint-Girons, Marie
Trocmé, Nico
Esposito, Tonino
Fallon, Barbara 

2020
Equity Concerns in the Context of COVID-19: A Focus on First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Communities in Canada

Saint-Girons, Marie
Joh-Carnella, Nicolette
Lefebvre, Rachael
Blackstock, Cindy
Fallon, Barbara

2020
Inclusive foster care: How foster parents support cultural and relational connections for Indigenous children

Oliver, C. 

2020
The system is "broken": concrete actions are needed to end systemic discrimination

The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) and the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission (FNQLHSSC)

2020
A Long Wait for Change: Independent Review of Child Protection Services to Inuit Children in Newfoundland and Labrador

The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate Newfoundland and Labrador

2019
Annual Report 2018/19 and Service Plan 2019/20 to 2021/22

British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth

2019
The overrepresentation of First Nations children and families involved with child welfare: Findings from the Ontario incidence study of reported child abuse and neglect 2013

Ma, Jennifer
Fallon, Barbara
Richard, Kenn

2019
Implementing the Baby One Program: a qualitative evaluation of family-centred child health promotion in remote Australian Aboriginal communities

Campbell, S., McCalman, J., Redman-MacLaren, M., Canuto, K., Vine, K., Sewter, J., & McDonald, M. 

2018
14-Year-Old Lee Serious Injury: An Investigative Review

Office of the Child and Youth Advocate Alberta

2018
17-Year-Old Susan: An Investigative Review

Office of the Child and Youth Advocate Alberta

2018