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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 09132005 - C140 FHS #75 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS -•'8'""" "••�.� . Contra FROM: Family and Human Services Committee _ Costa mak° DATE. September 13 2005 osr - --- u n c6u-. SUBJECT: Children and Families Data Archive 0 SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION: ACCEPT report from the Children's System of Care Planning and Policy Council recommending that the CCFuture Data Archive project be suspended pending advances in technology and availability of funding for development, maintenance and periodic data updating. FISCAL IMPACT: None BACKGROUND: The Contra Costa Future Corps was established March 3, 1998 as a public and private partnership to increase resources for children and families services. The Data Archive was originally designed as a component of the Contra Costa Future Corps to identify neighborhood/community issues and to assess neighborhood/community impacts. As originally conceived, it would link individual, confidential data on children and families that was maintained by various County agencies and school, districts, strip the data of individual identifiers, and create an anonymous integrated database. The Data Archive would have the capacity to identify at-risk children and families by geographical location, by type of risk factors and by user-driven queries that would help craft targeted programs designed to improve outcomes for children and families. On January 4, 2005, the Board of Supervisors referred the issue of Children and Families Data Archive to the Family and Human Services Committee. On March 10, 2005, the Children's System of Care Planning and Policy Council discussed the Data Archive. They recognized that no new data had been incorporated into the Data Archive since 2001. They acknowledged that they would like to continue the Data Archive concept, but members do not have the necessary resources nor do they anticipate developing those resources in the immediate future. Therefore, the Policy Council recommended that the Family and Human Services Committee officially recognize that work on the Data Archive has stopped. They further recommend that work on the current project be suspended until funds become available, necessary technological capacity exists to support the Archive, and agency administrative data information systems can be correctly and adequately integrated into a single database. r,. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SI ATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE PPROVE OTHER SIGNATURE(S): f)EDERAL GLOVER MARK DeSAULNIER ACTION OF BOARD ON APPROVE AS RECOMMENDED OT ER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE UNANIMOUS (ABSENT 'a-kto } AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD AYES: NOES: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ATTESTED JOHN 9WEETEN,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Contact Person: Dorothy Sansoe(5-1009) CC: CAO ti HSD(Vern Wallace) BY: DEPUTY y T DATE: August 15,2005 TO: Supervisor Federal Glover, Chair Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier,Member Family and Human Services Committee FROM: Sara Hoffinan 5 4 Assistant County Administrator SUBJECT: CCFUTURE DATA ARCHIVE-REFERRAL#75 RECOMMENDATION ACCEPT the Children's System of Care Planning and Policy Council's recommendation that the CCFuture Data Archive project be suspended pending advances in technology and availability of funding for its development,maintenance and periodic data updating. BACKGROUND/REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION On March 3, 1998,The Board of Supervisors officially launched the Contra Costa Future Corps, dedicated to increasing resources for children and families services.This initiative was conceived as a public and private partnership that included the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors/Family and Human Services Committee,Children and Families Policy Forum and its Executive Committee, the Juvenile Systems Planning Advisory Committee GASPAC), the East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF) and the S.H. Cowell Foundation. (Note: by 2000 the Contra Costa Future Corps was being referred to as CCFuture. The CCFuture Fund,established in 2004,is an outgrowth of CCFuture.) This public/private partnership was committed to improving outcomes and increasing the well-being of children and their families by creating a countywide environment that encouraged investments in prevention and early intervention strategies. Key characteristics of this investment approach includes: • Funding systems,as well as programs • Collaborative and integrated services • Prevention and early intervention • Community focus • Accountability for results • Reinvestment of realized savings into prevention services. CCFuture adopted a multi-pronged interactive strategy: Identify service needs by neighborhood or c mmunity through the Data Archive.- Craft targeted service delivery mechanisras/programs to address those needs; • 0 Use program performance software to assess the efficacy of the programs m achieving positive results for clients and reducing the demand for costly ctisis and safety net programs; Maximize use of cross-categorical claims of funds for these Dro ms while.L gra attracting new grant funding-,and e Measure the neighborhood/c ramunity-wide impact of these programs over time. The Data Archive was designed to identify the neighborhood/community issues and to assess neighborhood/community unpacts.As originally conceived,it would individual, confidential.data on children and families that was stained by various County agencies and school districts.,strip the data of individual identifiers,and create an anonymous integrated database.The Data Archive would have the capacity to identify at-tisk children and families by geographical location,by type of risk factors and by user-driven queries that would help craft targeted programs designed to 'enillrove outcomes for children and families. Both the Fiscal Strategy and Progress Performance software elements of CCFuture have been very successful. Unfortunately, the Children and Family Data Archive's ambitious goal of providing a comprehensive,integrated data base was never re ed,pi'murily due to complexities involving the size and technical characteristics of the source databases, the wide variances in the reporting integrity of individual data entries and resource stations. On March 10,2005,The Children's System of Care Planning and Policy Council discussed the Data Archive and its future. They recognized that no new data had been incorporated into the Data Archive since 2001. They acknowledged that they would like to continue the Data Archive concept,but members do not have the necessary resources nor do they anticipate developing those resources in the immediate future. Therefore,the Policy Council recommended that the FHS Co ttee: Officially recognize that work on the Data Archive has stopped. Suspend the current project until and unless funds become available;necessary technological capacity exists to support the Archive;and agency adninistrative data information systems can be correctly and adequately integrated into a single database. Children and Family Data Archive History:From the beginning CCFuture significantly co. underestimated the time,necessary resources and technical barriers involved in design, development and implementation of the Data Archive. In 1999 the East Bay Community Foundation provided a grant to Resource Development Associates (RDA) to create the Data Archive and develop the software inquiry system and the ability to integrate all County databases into a single children and family data base. By 14.0 December 2000,on advice from County Counsel,the RDA contract was transferred from East Bay Community Foundation to the County A strator's Office to resolve confiden ty and data security issues related to the contract. It then took nearly two years to reach agreements with all County Agencies and two major school districts regarding confidentiality protections and the right to share data. The initial Contra Costa County-RDA contract covered the period of December 1,2000 through November 30,2001 and included tasks related to developing a data 'inquiry participating program,ob cleaning,and from all p ' * ating agencies and creating an anonymous data base.RDA adapted a geographical mapping program for the Data Archive to make it possible to display newly configured anonymous data by neighbor-hoods,zip codes,and census tracts. Over the next year,RDA received 1995-2000 data from Child Welfare Services,,Probation,,Children's Mental Health,Contra Costa County Office of Education,West Contra Costa Unified School District and the Mt Diablo Unified School District The Policy Forum Executive Committee established a Data User Group to guide the process and develop protocols for making the data available for p r and research purposes. The Data User Group reviewed the initial prototype of the Data Archive and developed an extensive list of issues. RDA was requested to modify the Data Archive,and the RDA contract was extended to Match 31, 2002. RDA did not complete the terms of their contract within the specified timeframe.The RDA contract was then extended twice more, once to June 30,,2002 and again to December 2002. RDA still did not e the recommended improvements to the Data Archive. In January 2003,the Children and Families Policy Forum Executive Committee directed the Children's System of Care P_ LY and Policy Council(Policy Council) to assume oversight responsibility for the Data Archive. The Policy Council, established three years earlier to oversee the Spirit of Care Project in Children's Mental Health,consists of representatives of the school districts, as well as County Agencies serving children and families. Most Children and Fames Policy Forum Executive Co- ,-I'Littee member agencies also have representation on the Policy Council.The Policy Council routinely reported to the Executive Com nittee,, and so could provide periodic updates on the Data Archive's progress. After the Policy Council accepted oversight responsibility for the Data Archive, day-to-day management of the project was shifted from the County Administrator's Office to the Research and Evaluation Unit of Children's Mental Health. Childten's Mental Health was an ideal sponsor to house and oversee the Data Archive because its Research and Evaluation Unit had the necessary technical expertise and an established relationship with RDA. Also, they had worked closely with the highly competent information system division of the Health Services Department Early in 2004 the Data Archive was installed on two computers in the Research and Evaluation Unit A systematic review of the history and progress to date on the system was completed in order to develop a work plan with specific deliverables and timeframes for completion of the transition.A second testing of the functionality and usability of the system was conducted. As a result,RDA was given a list of corrections and improvements and asked to make improvements within the next six months,along with a new contract. 1R)ATa""iA did not complete these contract obligations. In the meantime,Contra Costa County has experienced severe budget cuts and the Health Services D*eparttnent/C ddren's Mental Health Program no longer has access to the necessary manpower or information system experts for management of the Data Archive. With the acceptance of the suspension of the Data Archive,Children's Mental Health will retrieve all p ' data sources as well as secondary data files held by RDA and ensure that all electronic files are deleted from all RDA computers The Data Archive is perhaps an excellent example of expectations of information te ology beyond its capacity. It was a highly ambitious project, from which valuable insights were learned,includes Legag System Incompatibi6fies—The Data Archive sought to combine infonm:ation from vastly different a * ' trative data systems from Children's Mental Health, CalWorks,,Child Welfare,Probation,and school districts that were not necessar:ily amenable to extraction of the needed data. Database PA29'orw Too Small—The Data Archive was created on an Access platform, 0 which proved too small for the administrative files of the source databanks. Prior winnowing of data within the Legacy Systems also proved ur nanageable. 9 Ckent Identifiers Not Reliable—Information on names of family members,spelling of family member names,and addresses for those members was not consistent among or within databases.This created a high rate of unusable data and,consequently, the potential for misleading neighborhood profiles. The concept of combining client data into an anonymous database to iden targeted service needs widiin neighbor-hoods was very advanced for its time. It is still valid. As technology improves and participating agencies move to data systems that are based on more flexible technology,it may be possible to revisit the feasibility of the Data Archive.