Deputy Minister's Response to the Residential Programs Persons with a Developmental Disability Audit

Deputy Minister's Response February 10, 2000Re: Residential Programs- Persons with a Developmental Disability Audit ReportThank you for the final audit report of the Residential Programs - Persons witha Developmental Disability (your file number 39117), provided with thememorandum dated September 27, 1999.Following my review of the report I would like to provide the followingcomments. As referenced in the report, the findings and recommendations werebased on file reviews (1997 and earlier), interviews and a review of ministryprocesses that were in place over two years ago. At that time, the ministry hadbeen in existence for less than one year and was still in its early period oftransition.Since the audit was conducted, the Ministry for Children and Families hasincreased the number of residential beds for persons with developmentaldisabilities by approximately 20 percent from approximately 4,300 in1995/96to over 5,200 beds at present to serve this client group. The findings of the audit are consistent with feedback we have received fromstaff in the ministry’s Community Living Services to Adult program stream,which has in large measure guided the changes made to the program since thefield work for the audit was completed. The recommendations and suggestionsmade by the Internal Audit Branch are helpful to the ministry and confirm thedirections of varied initiatives to address them, some already in progress andothers in the planning stages.The audit ...