Permanency: Definition, Measurement, and Outcomes

Abstract

This document was prepared by members of the Ontario Looking After Children (OnLAC) project at the University of Ottawa for discussion by the OACAS Child and Youth Caring Council-Community of Practice (CYCC-COP). The OnLAC team created the document to assist members of the CYCC COP in their task of formulating a useful definition (conceptual or operational) of permanency, which is a necessary prelude to evaluating the outcomes of permanency in the Ontario child welfare system. In particular, the document is a response to Work Plan #2 (2018-2019) of the OACAS Service Excellence Strategic Council, namely, “to examine the Ontario Child Welfare Service Framework ‘Meeting the needs of children in Care and Crown wards’ outcome #8- Increasing numbers of children are safely reunified permanently with their parent/guardian” (OACAS, 2018b, pg. 1).

The document has four main purposes and parts. First, we provide a survey of definitions of the concept of permanency that are found in the child welfare literature. Second, we examine some of the major outcomes (i.e., correlates rather than consequences) of permanency that emerge from a highly selected sample of high-quality empirical articles. Third, based on research findings, we respond to the work plan objective regarding how to measure permanency and keep children and youth reunited with their family of origin. Fourth, we suggest a potential pilot project in which permanency and its outcomes in Ontario would be evaluated empirically by following a sample of young people who have exited from out-of-home care. This pilot project could potentially lead to a multi-year longitudinal research project in which a relatively large sample of young people who have left care in Ontario would be followed for an extended period in order to understand how they fare in their transitions to young adulthood.