Data justice for youth in and leaving care: mapping the child welfare data landscape in Ontario

ABSTRACT

The digitization of social services provides the public sector with new tools to monitor and meet managerial and legislative objectives. But these practices re-shape service provision and the experiences of those receiving social welfare interventions. This article reports on results from phase one of an institutional ethnography of public sector policy, knowledge, and technology. We begin by describing our iterative mapping methodology. We then share preliminary results of our efforts to investigate the socio-technical processes that shape people’s experiences on the frontlines of child welfare agencies in Ontario Canada –those who are the targets and recipients of these services and those involved in service delivery and governance. Results include a map of child welfare data holdings, as well as a synthesis of key informants’ concerns about how and whether the provincial child welfare information management and policy landscape enables their legislative duty to promote the best interest, protection, and wellbeing of youth. Results suggest data holdings are compromised by methodological and infrastructural issues that undermine the utility of the Child Protection Information Network for clinical practice as well as for monitoring systemic trends.

KEYWORDS:

• Data justice
• data mapping
• information and communications technology
• child welfare

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Formerly known as Crown Wards, young people receiving services through the ESC program are legally ordered into the care of a CAS.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: [grant no SSHRC Insight Grant # 435-2019-0876].

Notes on contributors

Naomi Nichols

Naomi Nichols is an Associate Professor of Sociology and a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Community-Partnered Social Justice at Trent University.

Kody Crowell

Kody Crowell is a frontline caseworker in the social service sector with a background in public health and statistics.

Michael Lenczner

Michael Lenczner has worked in the area of nonprofit and public interest technology for nearly two decades. Currently, he serves as the founder and CEO of Ajah, a company that works across North America in the field of digital transformation and data management for the nonprofit sector.

Jesse Bourns

Jesse Bourns is the COO of Ajah and the co-founder of Powered by Data. He has an extensive background in technology, data, and the social sector-including information architecture, open data, user experience, software development, digital transformation, and data collaboratives.