How many New Brunswick children are living in neglect? Minister wants to know

New Brunswick's minister of social development is trying to find out how many other children may be living in situations of chronic neglect.

Dorothy Shephard said she doesn't yet know how many similar cases exist but has been asking the question herself for years, even before she became minister in the fall.

"I've had families bringing me stories like this for some time," she said Tuesday.

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"I've had concerns that we were leaving and sending children back to inappropriate homes more than we should be."

Five Saint John siblings were neglected in a filthy home under the watch of the Department of Social Development for three years, despite more than two dozen warnings from the community.

By the time they were removed from their parents' care, the children were malnourished, developmentally delayed and traumatized, according to a report released on Monday by child and youth advocate Norm Boss.

The advocate also determined the five children had their rights violated, including the right to a decent standard of living.

While no other cases have become public recently, Boss suggested there have been others.

"Unfortunately, our review of the case, and several other similar cases that have arisen this year within the caseload of the Advocate's office alone, confirm that this is not an isolated case," Boss's report says.

"Many parents, often single mothers with many young children, find themselves in similar circumstances."

'The community standard'

Boss's report also says social workers in Saint John initially considered the case to be one of the more "benign" ones on the caseload, compared to "other families who were constantly in a state of crisis."

One child protection supervisor who was interviewed by the advocate's office suggested that cases must be compared to "the community standard."

"Another social worker implied that the acceptable standard of living sought when working with clients is substantially lower than that of an average middle-class family," the report says.

That's not acceptable to Shephard.

"I feel that we are looking at these families as a norm and they can't be," she said.

"We have not begun to raise the bar for parents to let them know they have a serious responsibility to their children."

History repeating itself

History suggests the Saint John case isn't an outlier.

The province was shocked by the death of three-year-old John Ryan Turner in 1994. The Miramichi boy was bound, beaten and starved to death by his parents.

His death prompted a review by two Ontario-based child welfare experts, who found at least five people knew Turner could be at risk, according to news coverage of the report.

They recommended better information sharing between public bodies that deal with vulnerable children and legislative changes to put the needs of at-risk children before the privacy of parents.

But in December 1996, two-year-old Jackie Brewer died from dehydration inside a dark Saint John apartment. Doctors said she hadn't had anything to drink for about six days.

Later, the public would learn that Social Services had received more than a dozen complaints about Brewer and her two siblings.

The government of the day ordered a full review of the child welfare system, which led to calls for more social workers.

And then it happened again.

Two-year-old Juli-Anna St. Peter died in 2004, after the department received more than two dozen complaints about her family including allegations of neglect and abuse.

Former ombudsman and child and youth advocate Bernard Richard reviewed Juli-Anna's death, making more than a dozen recommendations on how to prevent it from happening again.

That review also highlighted issues with staff and workload and called for more training and better guidelines around neglect, and putting the safety of the child above all other interests.

Two decades later, the province is still grappling with the same problems.

"Will there be another child in New Brunswick that dies by being neglected? Yeah, likely," Boss said Tuesday.

"Can we prevent 20 or 30 of these from happening? Absolutely. That's what we have to do."

Previous cases

Some of the recommendations presented to government can be acted upon right away, Shephard has said.

That includes a recommendation from Boss to develop a "quality assurance policy."

It would require regional child welfare offices to flag cases where standards haven't been met. Those cases would then be reviewed by clinical auditors with the Department of Social Development.

"We have to show that we've learned something from them," Shephard said.

She also supports Boss's recommendation to publicize statistics from those audits.

CBC News obtained copies of several previous clinical audits through access to information.They show some gaps in investigations of child protection complaints.

A 2015 report on 44 child protection referrals in the Moncton regionfound the department complied with all practicestandards in 77 per cent of those cases.

The auditors found a case where a safety assessment was created and approved "without the social worker having interviewed the children."

In another case, social workers didn't visit the home before completing a safety assessment.

Audits must be followed up

Another file showed "social workers did not interview a caregiver who was the alleged perpetrator." The audit doesn't describe what kind of allegedincident was being investigated in this case.

In another, one of the major problems wasn't addressed before the file was closed.

"The social worker did not appear to address the reported physical abuse therefore it was difficult to evaluate the decision to close the file, without the allegations having been verified."

The audit says the department did initiate most investigations and assessments "in a timely manner," with children being interviewed within 24 hours in most cases.

In a report released last week on the child protection system, consultant George Savoury called for the director of child welfare to play a stronger role in making sure the results of audits are followed up on and implemented within 90 days.

Shephard said she couldn't speak to previous audits but will be expecting change.

"I'm not accepting that anything gets shelved."