2025–26 Calling for Change: Survey closes on May 8
We want to hear from you
Please complete the 2025-26 Calling for Change survey to help us better understand how decisions made by frontline staff are supported across systems.
We are seeking perspectives from two distinct groups – those who are involved with decision-making oversight and supervision, and those who are involved with workforce planning and organizational support:
- Decision-making oversight and supervision
Individuals responsible for guiding, supervising, or approving frontline decisions. Examples may include: team leads, supervisors, managers, principals, superintendents, and department heads. - Workforce planning and organizational support
Individuals involved in staffing, recruitment, retention, and the development or transfer of knowledge across teams. Examples may include: human resources professionals, workforce planners, training leads, and organizational development roles.
If your role spans both areas, please select the session that best aligns with your primary responsibilities. We will synthesize the information gathered in a non-identifying and non-fault-finding manner into themes to highlight promising practices and systemic gaps.
Contribute today
Please fill out our survey here: Online Survey – Calling for Change 2025-2026
Survey closes May 8, 2026.
Why your perspective matters
The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate (OCYA) is an independent office of the Alberta legislature. We advocate for the rights, interests and viewpoints of young people receiving designated services (child intervention or youth justice).
We are notified whenever a young person passes away or is seriously injured while receiving designated services or received child intervention services within two years of their passing. We review their circumstances to understand their needs, the supports that were available and offered, and whether those supports adequately met their needs. We then release a public report outlining our findings and key themes. Each year, we release a consolidated report, Calling for Change, that highlights key themes identified across the circumstances we reviewed and provides recommendations to public bodies on how to improve services for children, youth, and families.
In the 2025–2026 fiscal year, we released 82 individual investigative reviews. The most common theme identified was the adequacy of assessment within child-serving systems. For this year’s Calling for Change report, assessment refers to the ongoing process of understanding a young person’s needs and identifying the supports they require as their circumstances change.
This is an issue our office has examined previously. Our work has found that legislation, policy, tools, training, and practice guidance are generally in place to support assessment and decision-making, and that most OCYA recommendations related to this area have been addressed.
As concerns about assessment continue to appear in investigative reviews, this year’s Calling for Change report will focus on how decision-making is supported and overseen for frontline staff, the processes used to guide these decisions, and how information and knowledge are maintained and shared within systems.
