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
Defining ‘reasonable force’: Does it advance child protection?	Durrant, Joan E. Fallon, Barbara Lefebvre, Rachael Allan, Kate	2017
Difficult but close relationships: Children’s perspectives on relationships with their mothers in the context of domestic violence	Lapierre, Simon Côté, Isabelle Lambert, Amélie Buetti, David Lavergne, Chantal Damant, Dominique Couturier, Vanessa	2017
First births to maltreated adolescent girls: Differences associated with spending time in foster care	King, B.	2017
Gender as a predictor of posttraumatic stress symptoms and externalizing behavior problems in sexually abused children	Gauthier-Duchesne, Amélie Hébert, Martine Daspe, Marie-Ève	2017
Honouring Jordan's Principle: Obstacles to accessing equitable health and social services for First Nations children with special healthcare needs living in Pinaymootang, Manitoba	Vives, Luna Sinha, Vandna Burnet, Eric Lach, Lucyna	2017
Is the families first home visiting program effective in reducing child maltreatment and improving child development?	Chartier, Mariette J Brownell, Marni D Isaac, Michael R Chateau, Dan Nickel, Nathan C Katz, Alan Sarkar, Joykrishna Hu, Milton Taylor, Carole	2017
Pathways linking childhood maltreatment and adolescent sexual risk behaviors: The role of attachment security	Thibodeau, Marie-Eve Lavoie, Francine Hébert, Martine Blais, Martin	2017
Physical and mental health of sexually abused youth: Gender comparisons from a matched-control cohort study	Daigneault, Isabelle Vézina-Gagnon, Pascale Bourgeois, Catherine Esposito, Tonino Hébert, Martine	2017
Psychopharmacotherapy in children placed in group homes and residential centres in Canada: Psychopathological portrait of children receiving psychotropic medications and educators' perception of treatment	Desjardins, Julie Lafortune, Denis Cyr, Francine	2017
Role specialization and service integration in child welfare: Does organizure influence the decision to refer to supportive services?	Smith, Carrie Fluke, John D Fallon, Barbara Mishna, Faye Pierce, Barbara Decker	2017

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