1.2.5 Voluntary Placement of Children

This section pertains to the use of voluntary placement agreements for placing children into the care of a child and family services agency.

• Legislation

   

  Voluntary Placement Agreements

  Amendments to the Child and Family Services (CFS) Act have repealed the Voluntary Placement Agreement (VPA), formerly 14.  Transitional provisions allow existing Voluntary Placement Agreements to continue until the agreement expiry date. Agencies will no longer be able to enter into a VPA with a parent, guardian or other person with care and control of a child and a different type of agreement needs to be used.

   

  The CFS Act now includes the Voluntary Care Agreement (VCA) (CFS Act 13.4), the intent of the implementation of this agreement is to allow for agencies to enter into this type of agreement with parents, guardians or persons with actual care and control of a child to place a child in the care of an agency. Voluntary care agreements do not have the same limits and restrictions as the former VPA. The VCA allows agencies to enter into this type of agreement if there are protection concerns and does not limit the number of renewals that an agency can enter into with a parent, guardian or other person with actual care and control of a child.

• Policy

  Use of Voluntary Placement Agreements

  An existing Voluntary Placement Agreement can remain in effect to the termination date on the agreement. It can also be terminated by any party to the agreement at any time.

   

  Use of Voluntary Care Agreements

  The Voluntary Care Agreement Standards in the Agency Standards Manual can be found in Section 1.2.9.

   

  Placement Priority

  Agencies are responsible to review the placement of a child on an ongoing basis to ensure it meets placement priority standards in section 1.4.1.

• Standards

1. Use of Voluntary Placement Agreements –Voluntary Placement Agreements have been repealed from the  Child and Family Services Act and can no longer be used to voluntarily place a child in the care of an agency.
2.  Use of Voluntary Care Agreements - An agency can now enter a Voluntary Care Agreement as per the standards outlined in Section 1.2.9.
3.  Length of Voluntary Placement Agreements - Any Voluntary Placement Agreement that is made before the amendment to the Child and Family Services Act to repeal the Voluntary Placement Agreement can continue until it’s expiry date or it is terminated.

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