National

Child welfare services fall under the mandate of provincial and territorial governments, including a rapidly expanding system of Aboriginal child welfare authorities. This section contains material related to federal initiatives concerned with child welfare services as well as statistics compiled at the national level.

All Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect reports can be found here.

Statistics

Child Maltreatment Investigations in Canada, 1998 and 2008*

	1998	2008
Child population	6,301,295	6,022,005
Number of child maltreatment investigations	134,566	235,842
Incidence of child maltreatment investigations per 1,000 children	21.36	39.16

Type of Child Maltreatment Investigation in Canada, 2008*

	Number	Rate per 1,000 children	Percent
Maltreatment Investigation	174,411	28.97	74%
Risk Investigation	61,431	10.19	26%

Primary Categories of Substantiated Child Maltreatment Investigations in Canada, 2008*

Category of Maltreatment	Number	Rate per 1,000 children	Percent
Physical Abuse	17,212	2.86	20%
Sexual Abuse	2,607	0.43	3%
Neglect	28,939	4.81	34%
Emotional Maltreatment	7,423	1.23	9%
Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence	29,259	4.86	34%

Placement in Child Maltreatment Investigations in 1998 and in Child Maltrement and Risk Investigations in Canada in 2008*

	1998 Number	1998 Rate	2008 Number	2008 Rate
Informal Kinship Care	5,851	0.93	8,713	1.45
Formal Placement	11,003	1.74	10,886	1.81

* Public Health Agency of Canada. (2010). Canadian incidence study of reported child abuse and neglect 2008: Major findings (p. 122). Public Health Agency of Canada. Retrieved from http://cwrp.ca/publications/2117

Publications

Province / Territory

Type of Publication

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Title	Authors	Year Sort ascending
Does type of harm matter? A factorial survey examining the influence of child neglect on child protection decision-making	Stokes, Jackie Taylor, Julie	2014
Subtypes of exposure to intimate partner violence within a Canadian child welfare sample: Associated risks and child maladjustment	Gonzalez, Andrea MacMillan, Harriet Tanaka, Masako Jack, Susan M. Tonmyr, Lil	2014
Listen to the children: Kids impressions of Who Do You Tell (TM)	Tutty, Leslie M.	2014
Physical abuse among Asian families in the Canadian child welfare system	Lee, Barbara Rha, Wendy Fallon, Barbara	2014
Type of investigation, substantiation and primary category of substantiated maltreatment for First Nations children across Canada	Quinn, Ashley Nutton, Jennifer Blumenthal, Anne Trocmé, Nico	2014
Doing the right thing? (Re) Considering risk assessment and safety planning in child protection work with domestic violence cases	Jenney, Angelique Mishna, Faye Alaggia, Ramona Scott, Katreena	2014
Long-term depression and suicidal ideation outcomes subsequent to emancipation from foster care: Pathways to psychiatric risk in the Métis population	Kaspar, Violet	2014
Why are suspected cases of child maltreatment referred by educators so often unsubstantiated?	King, Colin B. Scott, Katreena L.	2014
Maltreatment-related investigations involving children with academic difficulty in Canada in 2008: Age, gender and primary category of investigated maltreatment	Wegner-Lohin, Jaime Fallon, Barbara	2014
Urgent protection versus chronic need: Clarifying the dual mandate of child welfare services across Canada	Trocmé, Nico Kyte, Alicia Sinha, Vandna Fallon, Barbara	2014

Legislation

Child welfare services fall under the jurisdiction of provincial and territorial authorities as a result each province and territory has different legislation pertaining to child protection interventions. For more information click here.

The only child welfare regulations and legislation that apply to all provinces and territories are the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development First Nations Child and Family Services National Program Manual and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child:

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Program Manual
Since 1991 the Canadian government has formally committed to ratifying the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child

Links


Adoption Council of Canada
Assembly of First Nations
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada
Campaign 2000
Canadian Association of Social Workers
Canadian Child Care Federation
Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children
Canadian Council of Child and Youth Advocates
Canadian Council on Social Development
Canadian Institute for Child Health
Canadian Mental Health Association
Canadian Paediatric Society
CANGRANDS National Kinship Support
Caring for First Nations Children Society
Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System
Centres of Excellence for Children's Well-Being
Child Welfare League of Canada
Cybertip.ca
First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada
Human Resources and Social Development Canada
Indigenous Child Welfare Research Network
Infant Mental Health Promotion Program
Kids Help Phone
National Clearinghouse on Family Violence
National Youth in Care Network
Offord Centre for Child Studies
Parachute Canada (Safe Kids Canada)
Public Health Agency of Canada Child Maltreatment Division
Reconciliation in Child Welfare
Statistics Canada, Children and Youth
Statistics Canada, Juristat (Justice Statistics)
Stop Family Violence, Public Health Agency of Canada
UNICEF Canada