You can ask for a family case planning conference for a fast response to the situation. The conference is usually under 90 minutes. It focuses on immediate concerns, next steps to keep your child safe, and how to move the plan forward for your child’s care.

• You meet with a trained facilitator.
• You can invite your lawyer, family, and support people to attend.
• Everyone who attends gets a copy of the written plan at the end of the conference.

You can ask for a family group conference, sometimes called family group decision making, at any time during the agreement process.

You meet with family members and other people involved in caring for your child. If you don’t have a lawyer and your extended family is available, a family group conference is useful to develop a plan of care. See Work out a plan of care for your child. You can also ask your lawyer, advocate, or friends to take part.

• A family group conference coordinator organizes the conference and may be there.
• You meet in a place where everyone feels comfortable.
• The people you invite talk over concerns about your family and how to deal with them.
• You and your family members who take part in the conference make the decision about how best to care for your child.
• A social worker reviews your decision and discusses it with you.

If you’re an Indigenous parent, you can choose traditional decision making to help develop a plan of care for your child. See Work out a plan of care for your child. The meetings are like family group conferences. Traditional decision making also involves your community.

• Your extended family can come to the meetings. Your community’s leaders may be there.
• You can make decisions based on your cultural traditions and values.
• You can ask to use traditional decision making at any time when you deal with a social worker.

The new federal law, An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, establishes minimum standards for social workers involved with Indigenous families. The act provides more guidance for the social worker to consider what’s best for Indigenous families in areas such as cultural connection, ties to community, and involvement of the child’s Nation(s) at an earlier stage.

Any time you don’t agree with the social worker, or you think more discussion is needed to plan for your family’s needs, you can ask for mediation to help you work things out. A mediator is a specially trained person who doesn’t take sides. The mediator meets with you, the social worker, and anyone else involved in the case who you want at the meeting.

If you have a lawyer and the social worker has a lawyer, the mediator sits with you, the social worker, and both lawyers to develop a plan of care for your child. See Work out a plan of care for your child.

You can ask for mediation at any time, including:

• when you’re trying to work out an agreement, a safety plan, or a plan of care with the social worker
• any time you don’t agree with what the social worker wants, or you want to request an agreement
• after the court hearings have already happened

If you’re an Indigenous parent, you can ask about getting an Indigenous mediator to help with your case.

If the social worker removes your child from your home, you can ask to have your child placed to live with a friend or family member under an Extended Family Program agreement.

• You remain the legal guardian of your child.
• The person caring for your child is usually a family member and gets money and support services from the ministry to care for your child.

If you think the ministry might remove your child from your home, you can ask about a voluntary care agreement.

• You volunteer to place your child in foster care, usually for a short time. For example, if you’re a single parent and have to go to the hospital or a treatment program, you can ask for your child to be placed in foster care until you return home.
• You work with the social worker to make a plan for the earliest possible return of your child and for support needed to help you care for your child. If you’re Indigenous, your child’s Indigenous community could also be involved in making this agreement. The goal is to reunite children with their families as soon as possible.
• The initial term of a voluntary care agreement is usually for the least time you need to get over your crisis and depends on your child’s age. If you can’t care for your child after this initial time, the agreement can be renewed for a limited number of months based on your child’s age.

It’s helpful to have someone in your community approved as a foster care parent. If the ministry removes your child, your child can stay in foster care in their own community. Having foster parents in an Indigenous community can help keep children in their own communities, and sometimes in their schools and daycares. Several steps are involved for someone to become a foster parent. They must:

• complete an application and a criminal record check (everyone over 18 in the home must complete a criminal record check)
• get a medical assessment
• provide reference letters
• attend a foster parent orientation
• participate in a home study

There’s a high need for Indigenous foster parents. Support services are available from the Federation of Aboriginal Foster Parents. You can get more information from your delegated Aboriginal agency or local ministry office.

If the ministry removes your child from your home, and a family member or family friend would like to care for them, you can speak to the social worker. You should also speak to a lawyer to get legal advice about different agreements to care for your child, even after your child has been placed in a ministry foster care home.

Your family member or friend may be able to care for your child under an out-of-care order. This means the social worker places your child with them instead of in foster care. This is called out-of-care placement. The social worker does their own assessment of your family member or friend.

The assessment will likely include:

• police and ministry history checks
• a request for reference letters
• visits to your family member or friend’s home
• personal interviews

If your family member or friend are approved for out-of-care placement, they:

• care for your child for a fixed period of time
• get financial support to care for your child
• can get legal advice from family duty counsel at their local courthouse

• If possible, get help from a lawyer or advocate as soon as possible and before you try to reach an agreement with the social worker. The lawyer or advocate can go with you to meetings, help explain your rights, or help negotiate with the social worker.
• If you can’t get a lawyer or advocate to help you understand and write the agreement, get a lawyer to check the agreement once it’s written — before you sign it, or after you sign it (if you signed without getting advice).

For information about how to get legal aid help for yourself or your child, see Legal Help.

• It’s important that you’re part of making the agreement. For example, if you use drugs or alcohol, you may decide to work with a counsellor to help you deal with it. Be sure the agreement lets you choose a counsellor or program you think you can work with.
• It’s also important to let the social worker know if there’s a reason the agreement stops working for you (for example, your situation changes).
• It’s important to be on time for all your meetings. Call the social worker ahead of time if you can’t go to a meeting or may be late. The social worker keeps track of when you’re late or when you miss an appointment.

• Ask the social worker to be clear about the services or programs you and your family will get. Only agree to do something you clearly understand, or you think you can do. If you don’t do what you agree to, you may have serious problems later.
• Ask the social worker to say exactly what you have to do and what happens if you don’t meet all the terms. Get this included in your written agreement.
• The agreement should be clear about how the social worker decides when you’ve done something — and if you’ve done it well enough. For example, if the social worker says you have to take a parenting course, do you have to go to every class and prove you did, or is it enough for the person giving the course to say you finished it?

• Be sure the agreement gives you enough time to make the changes you have to make. If you agree to do something by a certain date, make sure that’s possible for you. The social worker may take serious action if you don’t follow the agreement.
• Check that programs and people you’re going to rely on will work within the time limits in the agreement.
• When you negotiate, think about how your situation could change. Ask for flexible time limits. It isn’t easy to make changes within a family. Your agreement should allow for that fact.

• Make sure everything you agree to do and everything the social worker agrees to do is put in writing. It’s very important the written agreement says exactly what you and the social worker are expected to do.
• You can refer to the document to make sure both you and the social worker meet your responsibilities. Keep a copy handy to remind yourself of what everyone agreed to.

• Always keep notes when you speak to or meet with the social worker, your community worker, advocate, or lawyer. Also keep track of court dates, meetings, and deadlines. Mark them on your calendar.
• It’s best to use one notebook for all your notes, records, and timelines. That way, all of your papers are in one place.