ONTARIO OMBUDSMAN
Office of the Ontario Ombudsman has assumed all investigative functions of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth. The Ombudsman now has responsibility for investigations related to children and youth receiving services from children’s aid societies or residential licensees and will address complaints using the office’s early resolution and investigations models. Children and youth will be able to use the same telephone number to reach the Ombudsman that previously connected them to the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth. Read more at the Ontario Ombudsman site, or go directly to their Child & Youth Complaint form.
This means our Agency will be
- Informing a child in care, in a language suitable to their understanding, of the existence of the Ombudsman, of the Ombudsman’s functions and of how the Ombudsman may be contacted.
- Affording a child in care who wishes to contact the Ombudsman with the means to do so privately and without delay.
- Notifying the Ombudsman of death or serious bodily harm to children or youth who have received services from a children’s aid society.
- Providing the Ombudsman with private access to children in care who wish to meet with the Ombudsman without unreasonable delay.
- Prominently displaying at their premises, in a manner visible to persons receiving services, a notice advising of the existence and role of the Ombudsman and how the Ombudsman may be contacted.
- Making available on request any informational materials produced by the Ombudsman respecting the Ombudsman’s functions.
- Notifying the Ombudsman in writing and without unreasonable delay of the death of or serious bodily harm to children or youth who have sought or received a children’s aid society service within 12 months of the death or harm if the children’s aid society or residential licensee learns of the death or serious bodily harm.