Family Case Planning Conference
What is a Family Case Planning Conference?
A Family Case Planning Conference (FCPC) is a collaborative planning meeting that can be called quickly by the Social Worker and must involve the Social Worker’s participation and sign-off of the resulting plan.
FCPCs are generally limited to 90 minutes and can address a wide variety of planning needs, including, but not limited to:
- Child Safety planning to prevent children from coming into care.
- Placement planning for children, including identification of Out of Care options.
- Arranging visitation between the family and a child removed from the home.
- Reunification planning for children to go back to their biological family.
Who Requests a Family Case Planning Conference?
MCFD and Delegated Aboriginal Agency Social Workers can make a referral for SIWS to facilitate a Family Case Planning Conference (FCPC) when they would like to use a collaborative process to identify the next steps to address identified child safety concerns. FCPC is used for Aboriginal families who have an open child protection file with MCFD or a Delegated Aboriginal Agency.
What are the activities and who participates?
The SIWS Family Advocate is a neutral coordinator / facilitator who will:
- Work with the MCFD or Delegated Agency Social Worker to clarify child safety concerns and confirm the goal of the FCPC.
- Identify family and community members to participate in the FCPC.
- Facilitate a collaborative planning meeting that ensures all family participants and Social Worker are actively involved and heard.
- Support participants to agree on immediate issues and safety concerns and the next steps to address them.
- Ensure that the resulting plan is agreed to and signed off by the attending Social Worker.
- Document the plan and assist with monitoring its implementation.
What are the outcomes ?
An Family Case Planning Conference results in:
- Agreement on family strengths, issues that need to be addressed, next steps to address identified child safety concerns and, if need be, a plan for child placement and access.
- Greater participation and buy- in by the family, community, and Social Worker, resulting in a much higher likelihood of successful plan implementation.
- A collaborative alternative to mediation or court processes where plans can be reached quickly.
- Improved relationships between families, communities, and Social Workers.
- A reduction in Child Safety concerns, thereby reducing the number of children in care.
Have a referral?
If you know an individual or family who you feel could benefit from these services, please give us a call at 778-426-2997, or complete a SIWS referral form and send it back to us via e-mail: intake@siws.ca or fax: 778-426-2998.
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