1.2.5 Voluntary Placement of Children

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

• Legislation

   

  Voluntary Placement Agreements

  On October 1, 2024, the Voluntary Placement Agreement (Section 14) of the CFS Act was repealed. Transitional provisions allowed existing voluntary placement agreements to continue until the agreement expiry date. Effective October 1, 2025, all transitional voluntary placement agreements have expired, and no active voluntary placement agreements should be in effect. Agencies have the option of entering into another type of agreement to support children and their families.

   

  The CFS Act now includes the voluntary care agreement (VCA) (Section 13.4) that is similar to the former VPA. The intent of this agreement is to allow agencies to enter into an 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 legislation allows agencies to enter into a VCA 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 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 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.  Critical Incident Reporting - Critical Incident Reporting section 1.7.4. applies to all young adults and children who were previously in care under a VPA within one year of the critical incident.

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