Northern legislative assemblies reports
Government of Nunavut still has substantial work to do to improve outcomes for vunerable children and youth
2025 Follow-up on Child and Family Services in Nunavut
Report metadata
- Tabling date:
- Topics:
- Health
- Indigenous Affairs
- Report type
- Northern legislative assemblies reports
WARNING
The content of this audit report and the materials related to it may negatively impact readers.
At a glance
In 2023, our audit report on child and family services in Nunavut described a system in crisis, plagued by failures across all areas examined. This was the third time since 2011 that the Office of the Auditor General of Canada raised these concerns. The report urged the government of Nunavut to take immediate action to protect the vulnerable children and youth of the territory.
This status update, almost 2 years after the last audit, found that while the territory’s Department of Family Services had taken initial actions to address the failures affecting services for children, youth and families much work remains to be done to ensure that children and youth receive the protection they are entitled to under Nunavut’s Child and Family Services Act.
The Department developed a strategic action plan with 80 action items aimed at improving protection and support services for children, youth and families in Nunavut. While the strategic action plan is wide ranging, it lacks the targets and baselines needed to measure progress, specific timelines, and clear accountabilities. To focus its efforts and strengthen accountability, the Department needs to prioritize actions with clear timelines for measuring progress.
While an action plan is an important starting point, we urge the Government of Nunavut to accelerate its actions to protect the territory’s vulnerable children and youth. Given the significant amount of work that remains to be done to change outcomes for children, youth and their families, this is the first of what will be regular status updates to monitor actions taken to respond to our findings.
Why we did this audit
Given the persistent lack of progress found in past audit reports, this follow‑up audit is important because it provides information on the actions the Department of Family Services is taking, with the support of other government departments, and the outcomes being achieved in terms of improving services to Nunavut’s vulnerable children, youth, and their families.
The long-standing lack of progress in improving services to children and families in Nunavut, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada has decided to perform regular status updates to examine the actions of the Department of Family Services to address past audit findings and recommendations. This report is the first of these status updates.
Key facts and findings
- The Department of Family Services had started reviews of individual files of children and youth placed for care outside of the territory and the facilities where they were placed.
- A first round of safety checks took place by the Department of Family Services in September-October 2024 for children within the territory that were receiving care and support from the Department.
- The Department of Family Services launched a new file management system at the end of November 2023, but it was not being used by all community social services workers to manage individual files.
- The Department of Family Services had compiled a list of children and youth for whom it was providing care and support, and it was working to keep the list current and complete.
Exhibit highlights
13 recommendations were evaluated in this report
0 
identified as having
“no actions taken”
7 
identified as having
“some actions taken”
6 
identified as having
“actions taken”
0 
identified as having
“significant actions taken”
Updated training was made available to staff
| Type of position | Number of CSSWs as of May 2023 |
Number of CSSWs as of October 2024 |
Change between May 2023 and October 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total number of funded CSSW positions | 47 | 68 | +21 positions (+45%) |
| Employed permanent | 26 | 34 | +31% |
| Employed casual | 23 | 33 | +43% |
| Number of vacant funded positions | 21 | 34 | +62%Footnote * |
A new information system for managing case files was implemented but not used by all staff
| What we looked for | Actions taken by the department | Assessment of progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Department of Family Services provided training on departmental standards and procedures for child protection, as well as orientation and onboarding on Inuit culture, to a significant portion of community social services workers. |
|
Actions taken—some progress |
|
|
Legend—Assessment of progress 
No actions taken—no progress 
Some actions taken—progress enabled 
Actions taken—some progress 
Significant actions taken—substantial progress and improved outcomes |
|||
Actions were taken to support the health, safety, and well-being of employees
| What we looked for | Actions taken by the department | Assessment of progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Department of Family Services implemented and used the Matrix information system to access data on children and youth under its care or receiving supports from the department, both inside and outside of Nunavut. |
|
Actions taken—some progress |
|
|
The Department of Family Services has complete, accurate, and up-to-date data on the number of children and youth under its care or receiving supports from the department, both inside and outside of Nunavut. |
|
Actions taken—some progress |
|
|
Legend—Assessment of progress
No actions taken—no progress
Some actions taken—progress enabled
Actions taken—some progress
Significant actions taken—substantial progress and improved outcomes |
|||