22 month old Evander Daniels drowned while Eunice Wudrich was attending to another of her five foster children.
A resource worker at the trial testified that social services recommended she have three foster children, but ended up asking her to take on five.
Bob Pringle, the province's children's advocate, says this type of overcrowding has to stop.
"To have five toddlers something is going to happen probably. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that’s probably going to be problematic”
The ministry says children living in foster homes with more than four children are down 60 percent in the last 4 years. And children in foster care overall is down19 percent over the same time.
“We’ve also had a real focus on intensive in home supports for biological families” says Andrea Britton, Assistant Deputy Minister for Child and Family Services.
“So trying to keep kids at home safely rather than bringing them into care in the first place”
Foster parents are assessed on their ability to handle more than four children.
The ministry can approve an in home support worker to help out. The resource worker at Wudrich's trial says Wudrich was given permission to find one of these. She did but the background check process never got going and final approval was never given.
The children's advocate says the government should ensure that the support worker is in place before more children come to the home.
“It is the responsibility of the state. You take children from their parents because the parents dan’t ensure that their safe. There is a high calling to ensure the state is a good parent”
The ministry says finding support workers are not a chronic need but sometimes there is a gap between approving a support worker and getting one in place.
The children's advocate has launched an inquiry into Daniels' death. They hope to make recommendations to ensure something like this never happens again.
