An area autism services provider cannot say for certain it will be able to rehire half of its autism staff scheduled to be laid off, even as the provincial government has committed to rethinking its autism plan.
“For over a year now it has been a rollercoaster, but particularly for the last six months where we have seen the government make announcements and then change direction on a pretty consistent basis,” said Linda Kenny, CEO of KidsAbility Centre for Child Development.
On Monday, the Ontario government announced it would backtrack on plans to provide funding based on age, and go back to offering needs-based funding.
Kenny welcomes the change, but said the government does not appear to be considering going back to funding agencies like hers directly, instead offering the funding directly to parents.
“From our perspective we are delighted that they are moving forward with a needs-based program, we have said all along — as have many others — that treatment for autism really can’t be determined by age. It really does need to be based on need,” said Kenny. “What we have not seen them waiver on is their commitment to moving to a direct funding model.”
She said some parents may experience sticker shock when they discover what the end cost of those autism services are and some parents could be forgiven for thinking the services they have been receiving were free.
“Families don’t necessarily see the transaction,” said Kenny. “It’s the same thing when we go to our doctor. We always have more of a sticker shock when we go to the dentist than the doctor, because we don’t see the transaction.”
Last month, KidsAbility announced it would be reducing its autism services staff by about 50 per cent starting Jan. 1. Kenny said the decision was made because of the agency’s loss of base funding direct from the government.
“These are really unfortunate decisions we are having to make and we actually believe the government is taking choice away from families by removing base-funded model,” said Kenny.
KidsAbility is in the process of shifting its entire business model to one of fee for service. It received notice of the loss of base funding in early February, less than two months before its fiscal end of year.
“With less than two months notice, we were told we needed to shift gears and move ourselves into a fee-for-service organization. That’s a new way of doing business for us, we have never really done that before. To tell you the truth, I don’t know if it’s doable,” said Kenny.
She hopes the government will at least meet agencies like hers halfway and provide some base funding to offer some stability and perhaps allow it to rehire some of its staff.
“If the government does a change in direction in terms of base funding for agencies such as ours, we are happy to walk back that plan — but it’s too early for us to know if we can do that,” said Kenny.
She said in the meantime KidsAbility is doing everything it can to serve its clients.
“We are still here, we are still in business and we still want to come to work every day to do what we do really well — which is look out for kids and families.”
