"The only thing that is constant is change", someone has said.
We know that for a fact! With each new Learning Events Calendar we are addressing the impact of change and more changes. Bill 6, was ratified and has been in place since April 1, 2000. With that comes the work that needs to be done to move cases more quickly thRough the system. Some of the training will address assessments, verification and service planning including how to prepare children and families for adoption..
Children in Care are being focused on with the re-introduction of ONLAC which is the Ontario, Looking After Children project. A number of agencies have already started using this recording method. There is a research component to ONLAC which begins in January 2001, so our training must be done by then.
We have hired more staff and many are in the OCPTP (Ontario Child Protection Training Program) completing the training which will be required if a worker is to be considered authorized to do the job. This means that teams may not have the full working complement of staff at any one time. For this reason some sessions are being offered at different times to allow staff to attend and coverage to be available for the units.
Once again, the focus of several sessions is very specific to case managers and the joint training with foster parents and volunteers is not yet as extensive as we would like. However, we are following ministry guidelines.
Please note that we have included the forms for Foster Parent external training once again. We encourage foster parents to attend training they find useful in the community eg. parenting courses etc.
In the previous calendar there was mention of including the forms for Alternate Ways of Learning in this calendar. With the Central Region Foster Parent Initiative still in progress no decisions have been made about Alternate Forms of Learning. Apologies for that but we are guided by the decisions of this group. As information comes to us it will be posted in the Foster Parent newsletter.
We keep saying it's all for the best. Hopefully, in the long run it is all for the best.