No update to system tracking Manitoba kids in care despite calls for change
WINNIPEG — A commissioner who investigated the death of a girl who died after falling through the cracks of Manitoba’s child-welfare system says he is disappointed the province still hasn’t replaced the aging computers used to track children.
Ted Hughes, who led the inquiry into the 2005 death of Phoenix Sinclair, said his final report made it clear that the decades-old child and family services information network needed to be replaced “without delay.”
“I know it’s expensive, but the system needs the link where everything is available, and everyone is part of the system,” Hughes said in an interview from Victoria, B.C.
It’s been more than four years since the inquiry issued its final report into the death of five-year-old Phoenix, who had spend stints in foster care before being killed by her mother and stepfather. The inquiry found “protection of children requires a reliable and up-to-date information management system.”