Who We Serve

SDA Demographic Data

Source: BC Stats, PEOPLE 2022

Source: 2016 Census

The 2016 census figures have gone through some revision since the raw census were collected. This is a routine practice by Stats Can and BC Stats when more information becomes available and is used with the raw census figures to revise the counts to improve accuracy.

MCFD delivers or funds services across the following six service lines to approximately 130,000 children, youth and families every year:

Early Years (ECD & CC)
Children and Youth with Support Needs (CYSN)
Children and Youth Mental Health (CYMH)
Child Safety, Family, Youth and Children and Youth in Care (F&CS)
Adoption (AS)
Youth Justice (YJ)

MCFD Complaints Program

The ministry receives approximately 1,100 complaints each year, less than 1% of the total number of people served by MCFD. The ministry’s Complaints program is designed to help the ministry respond to the concerns of children, youth and families in a consistent, respectful, fair and timely manner.

¹ "-" Indicates no counts of complaints.

² At least one of the asterisks (“*”) indicates a count lower than 10 in the respective cell. The next “*”/s in the same column or row may have been masked for data privacy reasons.

Complaint issues are accepted when they are about a decision, act, or failure to act related to a service or program offered by MCFD or Indigenous Child and Family Service Agency.

A complaint may not be accepted if it is related to a matter that is before the courts, or is eligible for a review panel hearing under the Mental Health Act or under another Act or Regulation, the complaint concerns are related to a youth justice service, the matter is eligible for a foster parent review or appeal, and/or the complainant does not want to proceed with the complaint.

Over 2022/23, the most common complaint issues were about Case Planning (43%), followed by Information and Communication (23%) and Access to Services (10%).

Eligible complaints can be processed in two ways, Resolution – where, with the support of a complaint specialist, complainants have an opportunity to be actively involved with MCFD or Indigenous Child and Family Service Agency staff in finding a solution that addresses the complainant’s concerns, and Administrative review – where a Review Authority, a person with no involvement in any matters related to the complaint, will gather information, come to a conclusion, and make recommendations. Approximately 600 – 900 complaint issues are eligible and processed through Resolution each year; over 50 complaint issues are processed through Administrative Review.

About 45% of complaints following the Resolution process, completed over 2022/23, were completed within 30 days; about 70% of complaints were completed within 90 days.

Following Complaint Resolution, an Explanation of Decision is the most common action taken (46.4%), followed by Complaint Resolution that had no action recorded (22.8%) and provision of a service (11.0%).

“-“ Indicates no counts of complaints.

Around 30% of Administrative Reviews took longer than 180 days to complete.

Following an Administrative review, the most common response was Administrative Reviews that had no outcome recorded (37%) , followed by an explanation of decision (16%) and change in operation practice (14%).