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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 09102002 - C168 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Contra FROM: JOHN SWEETEN, County Administrator _ Coster DATE: SEPTEMBER 10, 2002 � County SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO GRAND JURY REPORT NO. 0213 ENTITLED "FADE-TO-FACE VISITS OF CHILDREN IN GROUP HOMES" SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION: ADOPT report as the Board of Supervisors' response to Grand Jury Report No. 0213 entitled, "Face-to-Face Visits of Children in Group Homes". BACKGROUND: The 2001-2002 Grand Jury filed the above-referenced report on June 14, 2002, which was reviewed by the Board of Supervisors and subsequently referred to the County Administrator and Employment and Human Services Department, who prepared the attached response that clearly specifies: A. Whether the finding or recommendation is accepted or will be implemented; B. If a recommendation is accepted, a statement as to who will be responsible for implementation and a definite target date; C. A delineation of the constraints if a recommendation is accepted but cannot be implemented within a six-month period; and D. The reason for not accepting or adopting a finding or recommendation. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE y__ '✓ ----------------.-__......-----.._-----___--------------`--._-_-----""--------_-----._---.___....__ , RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR _„„RECO ME DATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE �APPROVE OTHER w SIGNATURE(S): t _ �____ _ ACTION OF BOAR,6 ON r' IIS, 2002 APPROVE AS RECOMMENDED X OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS i HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN X UNANIMOUS(ABSENT" Nome ) AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE AYES: NOES: SHOWN. ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ATTESTED SePtetber 10, 2002 CONTACT: JULIE ENEA(925)335-1077 JOHN SWEETEN, CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CC: PRESIDING JUDGE OF THE GRAND JURY COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR EMPLOYMENT AND HUMAN SERVICES DIRECTOR , BY: ,DEPUTY -Face-to-Face Visits of Children in Group Homes September 10, 2002 County Response to Grand Jury Report No. 0213 Page 1 RESPONSE TO GRAND JURY REPORT NO. 0213 FACE-TO-FACE VISITS OF CHILDREN IN GROUP HOMES FINDINGS 1. There are 51 Group Homes and 2 Emergency Shelters in Contra Costa County with licenses issued by the State of California, Social Services Department, Community Care Licensing Division (CCL). Response: Agree, noting that the two "Emergency Shelters"are also licensed as group homes but, by contract with the Contra Costa County Employment and Duman Services Department, have agreed to provide care for this specialized population. 2. Of the 53 facilities, Contra Costa County uses 37. The County pays an additional fee of$5,000 per month each for the exclusive use of the 2 Emergency Shelters. Response: Agree. 3. According to a September 2001 census, the Contra Costa County Department of Employment and Human Services, Children and Family Services Division housed 105 children in Group Homes outside of Contra Costa County. Response: Agree, noting that the majority of children placed out of county are placed in adjoining or Bay Area counties. 4. Senate Bill 933, Section 69, which was passed in 1998, added Section 16515.5(a) to the Welfare and Institutions Code to read: "Notwithstanding any other provisions of law or regulation, all foster children placed in Group Homes by County Welfare Departments or County Probation Departments shall be visited at least monthly by a county social worker or probation officer." Response: Agree. 5. Contra Costa County Department of Employment and Human Services, Children and Family Services Division Manual, Group Home Policies and Procedures (Section 31-403) states: "Ail children in Group Homes, both in emergency and long term placements, MUST have face-to-face contact visits with the assigned department Social Worker(or, upon approval of the Supervisor, the Caseworker Assistant) every month. There are no exceptions to the monthly contact requirement." (Emphasis in original) Response: Agree. 6. Contra Costa County Department of Employment and Human Services, Children and Family Services Division, employs 217 Social Workers as caseworkers and 7 Casework Assistants. Response: Partially disagree. The Employment and Human Services/Children and Family Services Division, employs 206 Social Workers as caseworkers and 19 Casework Assistants. 7. Each child within a Group Home may have a different Social Worker. Response:Agree. 8. Some Group Homes directors and staff have registered complaints of children not receiving face-to-face monthly visitations by their assigned Social Worker. Response: Partially disagree. Only one group home provider has contacted the Director of Children and Family Services regarding one child lacking regular face-to- face contacts by the social worker. 9. Some Social Workers do not notify the Group Homes when visitations are made off- site. Face-to-Face Visits of Children in Group Homes September 10, 2002 County Response to Grand Jury Report No. 0213 Page 2 Response: Partially disagree. Social Workers may not notify group home providers in advance when they have contact with children at school, during supervised visits with the birth parent, or during other activities. However, this information is generally shared during their follow--up contacts with the group home providers. 10. Each Contra Costa County Social Worker creates their own method of keeping visitation notes and personally enters them, or has a Casework Assistant enter them, into the computerized Child Welfare System/Case Management System (CWSICMS). Response: Agree, with the clarification that the Social Worker may have the Unit Clerk enter the notes (rather than the Casework Assistant) into the CWSICMS (Child Welfare ServiceslCase Management System). 11. Social Worker's visitations to children placed in Group Homes are not verified. Response: Partially disagree. While Supervisors do not routinely contact group homes to verify each visit a Social Worker makes, the Social Workers are required to sign out or leave calendars of their schedules for Supervisor access. When case situations arise requiring consultation with the assigned worker, Social Workers are called at the location where they are visiting clientslchildren. In addition, when serious concerns arise regarding an individual workers performance, the department conducts a more intense review and verification of visits through contact with clients and caregivers of children, including group homes. 12. The Children and Family Services Division is in the process of upgrading the search capability of the Child Welfare System/Case Management System computer programs. Response: Partially disagree. It is unclear what the Grand Jury means by "search capability." The ability to search in the CWSICMS for cases and individuals receiving child welfare services is under state authority and is functioning well from the County's perspective. However, extracting data to produce management reports has been difficult. To remedy that situation, the Employment and Human Services Department) Children and Family Services Division purchased CAD-IQ (County Access to Data- Interactive Queries) software. This system organizes data from CWSICMS into reports for supervisory and management review. Included among the reports available is the "Contacts with Child"report. By running this report, supervisors and managers can view which children have not had a face-to-face visit in the last 60 days. Training for Supervisors on this tool will be conducted in September. Following training, Supervisors will be required to run this report monthly. 13. In some cases, visitations by other than the assigned Social Worker or authorized Casework Assistant are being recorded by Social Workers as the required monthly face-to-face contacts. Response: Disagree. All face-to-face contact made by any person contracted to provide service to a case must be recorded in the case file and on CWSICMS. This would include, for example, Public Health Nurses assigned to foster children, Domestic Violence Liaisons, Educational Liaisons, and Parent Aides who may supervise parental visits or provide transportation. The Social Worker must review the notes of these persons. However, these contacts do not substitute for the Workers required face-to- face contacts for children in group home placements. 14. Some Social Workers are unable to verify the current size of their caseload or where all their children are placed. Response: Disagree. Social Workers who were subpoenaed to appear before the Grand Jury may not have committed to memory specific details about their individual caseloads because such data is maintained in the CWS/CMS and can be easily referenced. In fact, Supervisors use the CWSICMS case logs in determining how to assign new cases. Face-to-Face Visits of Children in Group Homes September 10, 2002 County Response to Grand Jury Report No. 0213 Page 3 15. The Mate Department of Social Services Review of the Contra Costa County Department of Employment and Human Services, division of Children and Family Services (1212000) found that the agency met or exceeded the 90% compliance threshold in the area of visitation compliance. However, in May 2002, it was found that there was a visitation failure rate of 20% over a six-month period. The next State Review will not be conducted until State Fiscal Year 2003-2004. Response: Partially disagree. Subsequent to the grand Jury's report, the State Department of Social Services found that the Employment and Human Services Department met all compliance responsibilities. No further State Reviews are planned at this time. In addition, it should be noted that of the 14 cases reviewed by the Grand Jury, one was substantially out of compliance with face-to-face contacts and two were missing one month's visit. (Of these, one child had run away during the month the visit was not made and his whereabouts were unknown.) The remaining 11 cases met the monthly face-to-face contact requirements, with nine of those exceeding the requirements, receiving between 7 and 12 face-to-face contacts with social work staff(an average of 9.9). 16. Supervisors utilize the honor system regarding the visitation practices of their assigned Social Workers. One supervisor stated that it would be a "terrible thing" to contact Group Homes providers to verify that the visits are made. Response: Partially disagree. See the County's response to Finding No. 11. 17. Some Group Home directors fear that complaints of insufficient face-to face visits and lack of services made to the Department of Employment and Human Services will result in the refusal of the department to place children in their facility. Response: Disagree. Fear of lost County placements has not been communicated with the Director or Division Managers of the Department and such reprisals to complaints would never be the case. On the contrary, through workshops provided by the department, group home providers have been encouraged to communicate openly with the department about any concerns. Despite the alleged fears, group home providers are aware that out of home placement resources are extremely limited in the .Bay Area. In terns of supply and demand, the demand clearly outweighs the supply of good quality programs for children. Nearly all group home providers in this county have a mixture of children from Contra Costa, Alameda and San Francisco counties and could easily fill their beds if one county ceased using"their programs. In this competitive environment, the loss of one county's placements would have nominal impact on the group home. RECOMMENDATIONS 1 The 2001-2002 Contra Costa County Grand Jury recommends that: 1. The Department of Employment and Human Services, Children and Family Services Division, develop and use a method of accounting and verifying that Social Workers are making the required monthly visits to children in Group Homes. Such methods should include: A. A component of the computer programming (CWS/CMS) upgrade that provides Supervisors the ability to review Social Workers'visitation compliance records. Response: Has been implementer. As indicated in the County's response to Finding No. 12, the Employment and Human Services/Children and Family Services Division agrees that Supervisors and Managers are responsible for monitoring the services provided to our children and should have the technology to do that efficiently. To that end, CAD /Q software has been purchased and Face-to-Face Visits of Children in Group Homes September', County Response to Grand Jury Report No. 0213 training has been conducted to enable management staff to obtain the information needed to monitor monthly visits. B. A separate and uniform log located at each Group Home recording all visitations, regardless of location, maintained by the assigned Social Worker or authorized alternate for each child. Response: Will not be implemented because it is unnecessary. Social Workers are already documenting their contacts in CWS/CMS. The Employment and Human Services Department will, however, issue a policy directive to staff advising Social Workers to inform the child's caregiver any time a face-to-face contact is made with a child in out-of-home placement. 2. The Department of Employment and Human Services, Children and Family Services Division, take steps to ensure that all Social Workers obtain documented approval from Supervisors prior to substitute visitations by Caseworker Assistants. Response: Will be implemented. Many Supervisors already require this documentation, but the County agrees that this should be universal practice to ensure consistent, professional services to the child. The Employment and Human ,Services Department will issue a policy directive within 90 days. 3. The Department of Employment and Human Services, Children and Family Services Division, require additional training in applicable State Law and Department Policy and Procedures as it pertains to required face-to-face visitations of children in Group Homes. This training should be required of all Social Workers, Casework Assistants, Supervisors and Division Managers. Response: Will be implemented within the next 90 days. The requirements will be reviewed at the Children's Services Administrative Team, the All Supervisors Meeting and monthly staff Unit Meetings.