OAP “waitlist” numbers update – June 2020
Like clockwork, MCCSS released their new numbers today, as they do each month on the 15th.
As I’ve written about previously back in April and May, this new format they’re using doesn’t give us a lot to go on, as they’ve scrubbed most of the useful information from their numbers page.
What they’re trying to get across at this point is that most kids should have received an invite for some kind of funding, but what they fail to show is the story of the uncounted numbers.
Since they only provide current month updates, here’s a summary of the last 4 releases:
The changes from last month:
- A net increase of 1,026 kids registered in the program
- No change to the number of invites for childhood budgets
- An increase of 4,574 in the number of invites for interim one-time funding
What about the uncounted kids?
If you subtract the kids who have received invitations for either type of funding from the total number registered:
41,321–11,105–23,769 = 6,447
It represents a combination of:
- The kids still in the old version of the OAP, sometimes referred to as “legacy kids,” who have been promised continued extensions until the core service portion of the eventual new program is ready
- The kids still waiting for an invitation for interim one-time funding
The number still waiting should be quite low at this point, especially since these families were previously promised an invite by the end of March. Anecdotally we know this number is definitely not zero though, as many appear to still be waiting.
Let’s say there’s still a few hundred waiting for invites. This leaves only about 6,000 or so kids left in the old legacy program.
Last summer that number was over 10,000.
Let that sink in.
In a province with over 40,000 autistic children registered with the OAP, only about 15% of them are in a program where their actual need is taken into account.
The rest have been given or promised arbitrary age-based cheques, with needs either left unmet, or funding far exceeding what would have been required for their clinically recommended therapy.
What aren’t they telling us?
If the ministry wants to show that 35,000 kids have received funding invitations, why aren’t they telling us how many have actually received funding, or how many are still in therapy under the old program?
If we take a look back at the last time the Ministry used their old number format:
Then compare to my version of the same chart:
The number of kids receiving needs-based therapy was dropping every month, and has continued to drop, to the tune of 2,000 in just the last 4 months alone.
Why have so many kids been transitioned out of service, when they should have been moved right into the new program when it was ready? Were they encouraged to take cheques instead of needs-based therapy?
How many of the 11,105 who received a Childhood Budget invitation actually got a cheque? As of 4 months ago it was only 5,069, with a chronically low uptake rate. Maybe it’s as high as 6,000 now? It’s anyone’s guess.
How about the one-time funding invites? How many of them actually have cash-in-hand? Impossible to know right now.
When Minister Todd Smith started his tenure on this file last summer he promised to be open and transparent, but it’s clear he has been anything but.
Every month that passes seems to reveal more and more problems with how this file has been handled by the Ford government, and the hole they’re digging for themselves just keeps getting bigger.
They need to get the new program started as soon as possible if they’re going to have any chance at all of getting us all out of this mess.
The well-being of vulnerable children is at stake.
