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

Title	Authors	Year
Exploring the health care utilization of children and youth in the care of child welfare: a retrospective matched cohort study	Breneol, S. Rose, H. Brown, M. Andreou, P. Bishop, A. Mitchell, C.	2021
Household Risk Factors in Investigations Involving First Nations Children Living On Reserve and Off Reserve and Non-Indigenous Children in Canada in 2019	Joh-Carnella, Nicolette Fallon, Barbara Saint-Girons, Marie	2021
Legal Age for Leaving Children Unsupervised Across Canada, 2021	Ruiz-Casares, Mónica Kilinc, Deniz	2021
Primary Caregiver Risk Factors in Investigations Involving First Nations and Non-Indigenous Children in Canada in 2019	Joh-Carnella, Nicolette Fallon, Barbara Saint-Girons, Marie	2021
The Efficacy of Birth Alerts: Literature Scan	Sistovaris, M., Sansone, G., Fallon, B. & Miller, S.	2021
Utilizing Information and Communication Technologies for the Provision of Child Welfare Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic	Sajedinejad, S., Sansone, G., Fallon, B., Miller, S., Birken, C., Denburg, A., Jenkins, J., Levine, J., Mishna, F., Sokolowski, M., & Stewart, S.	2021
Who gets services and who does not? Multi-level approach to the decision for ongoing child welfare or referral to specialized services	Jud, A., Fallon, B., & Trocmé, N.	2021
(In)Equity in the Context of COVID-19	Saint-Girons, Marie Lefebvre, Rachael Fallon, Barbara Blackstock, Cindy	2020
Canadian Child Welfare Administrative Data Knowledge Exchange Summary Report (2020)	Esposito, T., Trocmé, N., Fallon, B., Delaye, A., Caldwell, H., Doucet, M.	2020
Child Welfare and Pandemics Information Sheet	Sistovaris, Marina Fallon, Barbara Miller, Steven Birken, Catherine Denburg, Avram Jenkins, Jennifer Mishna, Faye Sokolowski, Marla Stewart, Suzanne	2020

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