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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 12171996 - C111 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS F&HS-03 .SE-.:L.-..oma Contra FROM: FAMILY AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE o..� s Costa County DATE: December 9, 1996 .,_COUN TTA_ ___-;�.j SUBJECT: OVERSIGHT OF THE STATUS OF THE ADOPTIONS IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. ACCEPT the attached report from the Social Service Director on the status of the implementation of the Adoptions Improvement Program. 2. DIRECT the Social Service Director to make a further status report on the various elements of the Adoptions Improvement Program to the 1997 Family and Human Services Program in March 1997. 3. REMOVE this subject as a referral to the 1996 Family and Human Services Committee and instead REFER it to the 1997 Family and Human Services Committee. BACKGROUND: On September 10, 1996, the Board of Supervisors approved a report from our Committee which contained the following recommendation, among others: 2. REQUEST the Social Service Director to make a further report to our Committee on December 9, 1996. On December 9, 1996, our Committee met with Assistant Social Service Director Danna Fabella, and Child Welfare Division Supervisor Linda Canan. Ms. Fabella reviewed the attached report with our Committee in some detail. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BO DCT E APPROVE OTHER - MARK DeSAULNIER J F TH SIGNATURE(S): Becembe, 17, 1996 ACTION OF BOARD ON APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS(ABSENT ------- ) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. ATTESTED DecemhPr 17. 1996 Contact: ;=ERVZrAND CLERK OF THE BOARD OF cc: County Administrator COUNTY IN T O Social Service Director County Counsel BY P F&HS-03 In the area of Organizational Structure one of the most challenging issues was whether we could reach agreement on how we would restructure the work of the Department in order to accomplish co-assignment of a court worker and a social worker at the same time. She noted the importance of the concurrent planning model in speeding up the permanency planning for a child. We also discussed the need for a Training Academy in the Bay Area, where a university would establish training programs for the child welfare staff in the Bay Area counties, utilizing Federal and State funds, with the universities providing the local matching share. Ms. Fabella noted the importance of the services provided by our foster parents and the foster parent recognition program which has just been held. In the area of Performance Outcomes, the Child Welfare Research Center (CWRC) has just completed an update of the statistics which show substantial progress on the part of this County in making adoptive placements, compared with other urban counties in the state and statewide statistics, as are reflected in the report. The draft of their report will be available within a few days. Danna Fabella also noted the Governor's Adoptions Initiative, through which we hope to test the idea of concurrent planning, where reunification and permanency planning are developed concurrently. Ms. Fabella noted the status of the implementation of the CWS/CMS system, which will be implemented in this County in May 1997. This will make it possible to maintain a variety of child welfare statistics. We would like to have a further progress report made to the 1997 Family and Human Services Committee in March 1997. -2- SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT Contra Costa County TO Family and Human Services Committee DATE December 3, 1996 FROM John Cullen, Director. SUBJ ADOPTION IMPROVEMENT PROJECT UPDATE Over the last three years, the Social Service Department has regularly reported to this Committee the efforts that have been undertaken to improve the adoption program in our County as recommended by the Child Welfare Research Center (CWRC) of the University of California. Those recommendations were reviewed, and those accepted have been referred to as the Adoption Improvement Project. The Board of Supervisors, through this Committee, has been interested in the tasks as outlined in the Breck & Associates' Adoption Improvement Project timelines and whether we are adhering to that schedule. This report follows that format. Following Section I of this report, which deals with the Adoption Improvement Project, we've also included material in Section II on Performance Outcomes and in Section III, CWS/CMS Implementation. On September 10, 1996, the Board of Supervisors approved the Adoption Improvement Project update presented by the Social Service Department to the Family and Human Services Committee on August 12, 1996. As per the direction of the Board, the following is part of our continuing update on specific areas of the Adoption Improvement Project and other activities in the Children's Services Bureau. 1. ADOPTION IMPROVEMENT PROJECT A. Organizational Structure • Breck & Associates' completion date: December 2, 1996 • Anticipated completion date: May, 1997 Since our last report the organizational structure task groups that were formed as part of the Concurrent Planning Design Committee's recommendation have finished their work. The six groups worked on the following issues: relative placement; long-term assessment agreements; shelter care; permanency evaluations; legal representation; Family and Human Services Committee December 3, 1996 Page 2 case management; licensing/adoption home study issues. The Concurrent Planning Design Committee received these reports and reached consensus on most items. The Department is proceeding with implementation plans in each area starting in November and continuing into February, 1997. The recommendation of the task group that worked on case management issues will involve the most change from staff. In summary, it will require a "co-assignment" of a case at the detention hearing, which is held approximately three days after the removal of a child from their home. Rather than a court worker being assigned, which is the current practice, the task group recommended a "co- assignment" of a court worker to be responsible for the investigation and the court work and a service worker be assigned to provide services to the child and the parent(s). After the jurisdiction/disposition hearing, the court worker would no longer be involved, and the service worker would continue providing service to that family until permanency is established. Thus, a case would stay with one worker until reunification occurred or until the case was ordered to adoption for a termination-of-parental-rights hearing. At that time the case would be transferred to the Adoption Unit for completion of the termination report and finalization into the adoptive home. This new case management structure will allow services to start earlier, assessment of the child's needs early in the placement and less disruption to the child and family as cases are moved from Court to Family Reunification,Family Maintenance and Permanency Planning. B. Fost-Adopt Program • Breck & Associates' completion date: October 6, 1997 • Anticipated completion date: Same As outlined in previous reports, fost-adopt is only one component of the major revamping of our system to address permanency for children in our care. Our model is a concurrent planning model and requires addressing issues of permanency beginning with intake. We remain on schedule for implementation of concurrent planning (and, therefore, for fost-adopt). Family and Human Services Committee December 3, 1996 Page 3 The success of concurrent planning will hinge upon our ability to find, recruit and prepare a pool of families who can foster children while the Department's goal is reunification and can also commit to adopting and raising the child if reunification fails. Toward this goal we have submitted two proposals for funding to the California Department of Social Services to assist the effort of specialized recruitment. The first proposal is a joint project with the Black Adoption Placement and Research Center (BAPRC). As outlined in our previous report, BAPRC is the only African-American private non-profit agency in the region that specializes in recruitment and preparation of families for adoption. We are currently engaged in meetings with BAPRC staff to tailor their approach to highlight concurrent planning. The second funding proposal suggests using former foster youth as recruiters in partnership with California Youth Connections (CYC). C. Home Study • Breck & Associates' completion date: December, 1995 • Completion date: April, 1996, for Home Study #1 November, 1996, for Home Study #2 As reported previously to this Committee, we determined that the home study for relatives and foster parents who are adopting children in their home should be different from the study of those people who apply without any child placed in their home. The Relative/Foster Home Study was completed approximately seven months ago and has been implemented. Home Study #2 was completed in August, 1996, and has been piloted by staff in the Adoptions Unit. "Final" revisions took place in November. We would like to remind this Committee that these are "transitional" home study formats which will be revised as we fully implement concurrent planning. The Concurrent Planning Design Committee did come to consensus that a combined orientation be developed for those applying for foster home licenses and adoption. In addition, we plan to do a combined home study that will result in applicant families having both an approved adoptive home study and a foster home license. D. Training • Breck & Associates completion date: April 3, 1996 C.SII Family and Human Services Committee December 3, 1996 Page 4 • Anticipated completion date: Ongoing training has no end date; first cycle of new worker training began in September, 1996, and will be completed in December, 1996. We are very proud of the work that has been done to develop a sound training plan for both new workers and journey-level staff. New worker training has covered more than 67 topics over 31 sessions. More than 71 trainers have participated and have been experts from within the Department and from outside. Workers were provided with eight volumes of reference material during the process. The Training Coordinator is currently in the process of culling down the material to the essential/priority information as we develop a training manual. We continue to be on schedule to complete that project at the end of February as previously reported to this Committee. Along the lines of training, both the Training Coordinator and her Division Manager are participating in the development of a Bay Area Training Academy to provide child welfare training on a regional basis to journey-level staff and supervisors in advanced-practice issues, among other things. E. Improved_Relations With Caretakers • Breck & Associates' completion date: January, 1996 • Anticipated completion date: Ongoing As stated in the previous report, we have completed the activities outlined in the Breck & Associates' planning document. However, we see this as an ongoing activity and have continued activities aimed at supporting our caretakers. We have continued the Foster Pride/Adopt Pride training and continue to work with relatives and foster parents through our Caregiver Committee. On October 5, 1996, we held our Foster Parents' Recognition Luncheon where we celebrated 40, 35, 30, 20, 15, 10 and 5 years of service of many of our foster parents. It was especially rewarding to see several of the adult former foster children of Mrs. Johnnie Thompson, who has been a foster parent for 40 years, literally sing her praises and provide testimony to the important role of foster parents. F. Juvenile Court • Breck & Associates' completion date: May 2, 1996 Family and Human Services Committee December 3, 1996 Page 5 • Anticipated completion date: October, 1996, and ongoing We have completed all the activities as outlined in the Breck & Associates' planning document. Additionally, we received consultation from the American Bar Association through Alice Bussiere from the National Center for Youth Law. This consultation was held with County Counsel and provided us with suggestions that could provide for better representation. Ms. Bussiere also provided training on petition writing to court workers for the purpose of developing skills on writing strong petitions which will lead to better permanency outcomes. We continue to meet monthly with the Presiding Judge and her bench officers to discuss operational and policy issues. We also have an active Social Worker/Attorney Committee working on training issues and other protocols. II. PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES The following chart was recently provided to the Department by CWRC. It shows the work produced by the Adoption staff in terms of the number of adoptive placements and the number of finalization. From this perspective clearly the efforts of the Department are succeeding. This chart notes that there was an almost 92% increase in the number of placements between FY 93/94 and FY 94/95 with a concomitant increase in finalization. CWRC advises that this is in sharp contrast with the statewide downward trend in placement and finalization. NUMBER OF PLACEMENT AND FINALIZATIONS FY 93/94 vs. FY 94/95 Placements Finalizations County FY FY % FY FY % 93/94 94/95 Change 93/94 94/95 Change Sacramento 127 125 -1.6 183 102 -44.3 San Diego 329 249 -24.3 314 295 -6 San Francisco 91 94 +9.7 87 92 +5.7 San Mateo 46 39 1 -15.2 43 42 -2.3 Statewide 2953 2799 -5.2 3020 2883 1 -4.5 Contra Costa 62 119 +91.9 62 117 +88.7 Family and Human Services Committee December 3, 1996 Page 6 III. CWS/CMS IMPLEMENTATION The Child Welfare Case Management System (CWS/CMS) is proceeding as planned. We currently have installed all the hardware, staff have had basic Word training and the CWS/CMS Implementation Team has been meeting regularly to evaluate the workload impact to the Department. The Training for Trainers on the CWS/CMS application has taken place which involved 12 of our staff receiving two 'weeks of intensive training. We will begin training all child welfare staff in February, 1997. Conversion activities will occur in March and April with the system being activated in May, 1997. While staff is on one hand excited about automation, the CWS/CMS is a rather complex case management system requiring the development of new skills by our work force. This will change social workers' activities and how they approach their jobs as well as have an impact on our clerical staff roles. We anticipate 1997 being a year of many changes which will require much of our time, energy and focus. JC:ceb a:aip.fhs f-disk 4 SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT Contra Costa County TO Family and Human Services Committee DATE December 3, 1996 FROM John Cullen, Director SUBJ ADOPTION IMPROVEMENT PROJECT UPDATE Over the last three years, the Social Service Department has regularly reported to this Committee the efforts that have been undertaken to improve the adoption program in our County as recommended by the Child Welfare Research Center (CWRC) of the University of California. Those recommendations were reviewed, and those accepted have been referred to as the Adoption Improvement Project. The Board of Supervisors, through this Committee, has been interested in the tasks P g as outlined in the Breck & Associates' Adoption Improvement Project timelines and whether we are adhering to that schedule. This report follows that format. Following Section I of this report, which deals with the Adoption Improvement Project, we've also included material in Section II on Performance Outcomes and in Section III, CWS/CMS Implementation. On September 10, 1996, the Board of Supervisors approved the Adoption Improvement Project update presented by the Social Service Department to the Family and Human Services Committee on August 12, 1996. As per the direction of the Board, the following is part of our continuing update on specific areas of the Adoption Improvement Project and other activities in the Children's Services Bureau. I. ADOPTION IMPROVEMENT PROJECT A. Organizational Structure • Breck & Associates' completion date: December 2, 1996 • Anticipated completion date: May, 1997 Since our last report the organizational structure task groups that were formed as part of the Concurrent Planning Design Committee's recommendation have finished their work. The six groups worked on the following issues: relative placement; long-term assessment agreements; shelter care; permanency evaluations; legal representation; 0./// Family and Human Services Committee December 3, 1996 Page 2 case management; licensing/adoption home study issues. The Concurrent Planning Design Committee received these reports and reached consensus on most items. The Department is proceeding with implementation plans in each area starting in November and continuing into February, 1997. The recommendation of the task group that worked on case management issues will involve the most change from staff. In summary, it will require a "co-assignment" of a case at the detention hearing, which is held approximately three days after the removal of a child from their home. Rather than a court worker being assigned, which is the current practice, the task group recommended a "co- assignment" of a court worker to be responsible for the investigation and the court work and a service worker be assigned to provide services to the child and the parent(s). After the jurisdiction/disposition hearing, the court worker would no longer be involved, and the service worker would continue providing service to that family until permanency is established. Thus, a case would stay with one worker until reunification occurred or until the case was ordered to adoption for a termination-of-parental-rights hearing. At that time the case would be transferred to the Adoption Unit for completion of the termination report and finalization into the adoptive home. This new case management structure will allow services to start earlier, assessment of the child's needs early in the placement and less disruption to the child and family as cases are moved from Court to Family Reunification, Family Maintenance and Permanency Planning. B. Fost-Adopt Program • Breck & Associates' completion date: October 6, 1997 • Anticipated completion date: Same As outlined in previous reports, fost-adopt is only one component of the major revamping of our system to address permanency for children in our care. Our model is a concurrent planning model and requires addressing issues of permanency beginning with intake. We remain on schedule for implementation of concurrent planning (and, therefore, for fost-adopt). Family and Human Services Committee 0.0 December 3, 1996 Page 3 The success of concurrent planning will hinge upon our ability to find, recruit and prepare a pool of families who can foster children while the Department's goal is reunification and can also commit to adopting and raising the child if reunification fails. Toward this goal we have submitted two proposals for funding to the California Department of Social Services to assist the effort of specialized recruitment. The first proposal is a joint project with the Black Adoption Placement and Research Center (BAPRC). As outlined in our previous report, BAPRC is the only African-American private non-profit agency in the region that specializes m recruitment and preparation of families for adoption. We are currently engaged in meetings with BAPRC staff to tailor their approach to highlight concurrent planning. The second funding proposal suggests using former foster youth as recruiters in partnership with California Youth Connections (CYC). C. Home Study • Breck & Associates' completion date: December, 1995 • Completion date: April, 1996, for Home Study #1 November, 1996, for Home Study #2 As reported previously to this Committee, we determined that the home study for relatives and foster parents who are adopting children in their home should be different from the study of those people who apply without any child placed in their home. The Relative/Foster Home Study was completed approximately seven months ago and has been implemented. Home Study #2 was completed in August, 1996, and has been piloted by staff in the Adoptions Unit. "Final" revisions took place in November. We would like to remind this Committee that these are "transitional" home study formats which will be revised as we fully implement concurrent planning. The Concurrent Planning Design Committee did come to consensus that a combined orientation be developed for those applying for foster home licenses and adoption. In addition, we plan to do a combined home study that will result in applicant families having both an approved adoptive home study and a foster home license. D. Training • Breck & Associates completion date: April 3, 1996 Family and Human Services Committee December 3, 1996 Page 4 • Anticipated completion date: Ongoing training has no end date; first cycle of new worker training began in September, 1996, and will be completed in December, 1996. We are very proud of the work that has been done to develop a sound training plan for both new workers and journey-level staff. New worker training has covered more than 67 topics over 31 sessions. More than 71 trainers have participated and have been experts from within the Department and from outside. Workers were provided with eight volumes of reference material during the process. The Training Coordinator is currently in the process of culling down the material to the essential/priority information as we develop a training manual. We continue to be on schedule to complete that project at the end of February as previously reported to this Committee. Along the lines of training, both the Training Coordinator and her Division Manager are participating in the development of a Bay Area Training Academy to provide child welfare training on a regional basis to journey-level staff andl supervisors in advanced-practice issues, among other things. E. Improved Relations With Caretakers • Breck & Associates' completion date: January, 1996 • Anticipated completion date: Ongoing As stated in the previous,report, we have completed the activities outlined in the Breck & Associates' planning document. However, we see this as an ongoing activity and have continued activities aimed at supporting our caretakers. We have continued the Foster Pride/Adopt Pride training and continue to work with relatives and foster parents through our Caregiver Committee. On October 5, 1996, we held our Foster Parents' Recognition Luncheon where we celebrated 40, 35, 30, 20, 15, 10 and 5 years of;service of many of our foster parents. It was especially rewarding to see several of the adult former foster children of Mrs. Johnnie Thompson,,who has been a foster parent for 40 years, literally sing her praises and provide testimony to the important role of foster parents. F. Juvenile Court • Breck & Associates' completion date: May 2, 1996 Family and Human Services Committee December 3, 1996 Page 5 • Anticipated completion date: October, 1996, and ongoing We have completed all the activities as outlined in the Breck & Associates' planning document. Additionally, we received consultation from the American Bar Association through Alice Bussiere from the National Center for Youth Law. This consultation was held with County Counsel and provided us with suggestions that could provide for better representation. Ms. Bussiere also provided training on petition writing to court workers for the purpose of developing skills on writing strong petitions which will lead to better permanency outcomes. We continue to meet monthly with the Presiding Judge and her bench officers to discuss operational and policy issues. We also have an active Social Worker/Attorney Committee working on training issues and other protocols. II. PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES The following chart was recently provided to the Department by CWRC. It shows the work produced by the Adoption staff in terms of the number of adoptive placements and the number of finalizations. From this perspective clearly the efforts of the Department are succeeding. This chart notes that there was an almost 92% increase in the number of placements between FY 93/94 and FY 94/95 with a concomitant increase in finalizations. CWRC advises that this is in sharp contrast with the statewide downward trend in placement and finalization. NUMBER OF PLACEMENT AND FINALIZATIONS FY 93/94 vs. FY 94/95 Placements Finalizations County FY FY % FY FY % 93/94 94/95 Change 93/94 94/95 Change Sacramento 127 125 -1.6 183 102 -44.3 San Diego 329 249 -24.3 314 295 -6 San Francisco 91 94 1 +9.7 87 92 +5.7 San Mateo 46 39 -15.2 43 42 -2.3 Statewide 2953 2799 -5.2 3020 2883 -4.5 Contra Costa 62 1 119 1 +91.9 62 117 +88.7 Family and Human Services Committee December 3, 1996 Page 6 III. CWS/CMS IMPLEMENTATION The Child Welfare Case Management System (CWS/CMS) is proceeding as planned. We currently have installed all the hardware, staff have had basic Word training and the CWS/CMS Implementation Team has been meeting regularly to evaluate the workload impact to the Department. The Training for Trainers on the CWS/CMS application has taken place which involved 12 of our staff receiving two weeks of intensive training. We will begin training all child welfare staff in February, 1997. Conversion activities will occur in March and April with the system being activated in May, 1997. While staff is on one hand excited about automation, the CWS/CMS is a rather complex case management system requiring the development of new skills by our work force. This will change social workers' activities and how they approach their jobs as well as have an impact on our clerical staff roles. We anticipate 1997 being a year of many changes which will require much of our time, energy and focus. JC:ceb waiplhs f-disk 4