Abused children shouldn't be sent back into home, child death committee says

The Department of Social Development must do more to protect children who have been abused, according to a committee that investigates the deaths of at-risk children.

Social workers shouldn't put a child who has suffered "a non-accidental injury" back in a home until "the perpetrator has been identified," the province's child death review committee says.

• Public should know more about child deaths, privacy commissioner says
• Government will look at making child death reviews 'more transparent'
• How New Brunswick's child death review system works

The recommendations also flag problems with communication between the Department of Social Development, police and hospital emergency rooms when a child is injured.

The committeereleased its findings of reviews into the deaths of three children known to the minister of social development on Friday afternoon.

The press release says nothing about how the three children died or if any were abused.

More counselling needed in foster care

One child's death prompted five recommendations, all focused on what to do when abuse is suspected.

They included a call fora system to flag social workers when a child in protection has been taken to a hospital with a non-accidentalinjury.

A second death prompted a recommendation that youth who are in permanent foster care receive counselling to help them deal with being raised outside their biological homes.

In the third case, the committee recommended that coroners remember to attach pictures to areport on the death of a child.

The chief coroner has issued a directive to all coroners to make sure a file includes photos of the scene where the child died.

Government reviewing child death system

Earlier this year, a CBC News investigation called The Lost Childrenfound New Brunswick's child death review system labours almost entirely in the shadows.

It means the public is allowed to know very little when a child dies under the watch of child welfare officials.

That includes the case of 13-year-old Mona Sock, who took her own life in 2007after being sexually abused by a man in her foster home.

The public wasn't told that no one did a background check on that man, who had a previous sexual assault conviction.

New Brunswick's current and former child and youth advocate, family members of children who died in the system and the province's privacy commissioner have allcalled for a more transparent child death review system.

The government announced it would review itschild death systemin March but hasn't announced any changes yet.

The province's chief coroner is working with senior officials from government andthe child and youth advocate on that review, according to Elaine Bell, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice and Public Safety.

"We have the same objective an approach to child death reviews that better balances the need for privacy with the public's right to know and government's commitment to transparency," Bell wrote in an email.

She said government would provide an update "later this year."

Part 1:The Lost Children: The secret life of death by neglect

Jackie Brewer, the 2-year-old who was ignored to death

How New Brunswick's child death review system works

Part 2:The Lost Children: 'A child that dies shouldn't be anonymous'

Haunted byJuli-Anna: An 'agonizingly painful' preventable death

Part 3:The Lost Children: Change on horizon for First Nations child welfare

Mona Sock, a life stolen by abuse

Part 4:The Lost Children: Government weighs privacy over transparency in child deaths

Baby Russell: A few minutes of life, then a knife in the heart