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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 01281997 - C80 "TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Contra FROM: John Cullen, Directo Costa Social Service Depa t .. rp DATE: January 16, 1997 `0.•4= County o.s '4 COU SUBJECT: ADOPT the "Emergency Shelter System" for Child Protective Services and AUTHORIZE the issuance of an RFP for a Receiving Center. SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION• 1. ADOPT the "Emergency Shelter System" for Child Protective Services (see attached Concept Paper) and; 2 . APPROVE and' AUTHORIZE the Social Service Director, or designee, to issue Request for Proposal (RFP) #1044 for the provision of a Receiving Center as a pilot program to assess the needs of children and their families at the point they enter. Child Protective Service. FINANCIAL IMPACT: The issuance of an RFP for the Receiving Center will .'allow us to identify interest in providing services, specific design options and costs. Any awards will be made based on the availability of funding. State and Federal funds are being sought for the Receiving Center concept from the State Department of Social Services, and via Demonstration Project legislation sponsored by Contra Costa and Alameda counties. We expect that Federal, State, and any required County share of cost in this system will be offset by both reductions in numbers of children being placed into long-term foster care or more costly levels of care, and an increase in family reunification. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE OTHER SIGNATURE (S): ACTION OF BOARD ON oT8 99�' APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS 1 HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE UNANIMOUS(ABSENT V 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, CC: Social Services (Contracts) � LZ - 1129, /9 9'7 ATTESTED Attn: Debbie PHIL BATCHELOR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF 40 Douglas SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR M362 (10/88) BY �i -_ DEPUTY BACKGROUND/SUMMARY• The Social Service Department Children's Services program has made numerous changes over the past two years in an effort to improve protective services, reunify children with their families sooner and increase permanency planning opportunities for children for whom reunification is not possible. As part of these efforts, the Department is reorganizing its approach to meeting the needs of children who must be removed from their caretakers due to abuse, neglect, abandonment or exploitation. Our new "Emergency Care System" (Concept Paper attached) has three basic components which include receiving center, dedicated short- term emergency group homes and emergency foster homes. Currently, the county does not have a receiving center and our short-term shelter services are not dedicated or geographically uniform. We view the receiving center and designated short-tern dedicated group homes as essential components of our Children' s Services Concurrent Plan Redesign. Specifically, the receiving centers would provide a single point of reception/entry into the shelter care system and offer support services for less than 24 hours. The Center would provide crisis intervention counseling, food, clothing and bathing facilities for children when necessary. The ongoing assessment of out-of-home care placement needs and available resources for children would be a regular part of the services offered at the center. Currently children are "received" at police stations, at Social Service offices, at the scene of the incident, at schools, at medical facilities, etc. The current means of "receiving" often prevents more thorough crisis counseling, placement option assessment and transition care for the child. Emergency Shelter System Concept Paper Executive Summary Contra Costa County is in the process of redesigning the emergency shelter system for children who are"at risk of abuse, neglect, abandonment, or exploitation." It calls for: • Redesign of how we support and develop county emergency foster homes; • Negotiating with local Foster Family Agencies for certified homes to be dedicated to shelter care; • Development of four 6-bed Dedicated Group Homes; and • Development of Receiving Centers to provide very short term care and supervision of children while returning home or other placement options are considered. Under the proposed new shelter system, at the point at which a police hold has been signed for a particular child, the social worker would transport the child to the regional Receiving Center. The child's immediate needs would be identified and attended to by child care staff. While the child's needs are being met by center staff, the social worker could do an initial assessment of the child's developmental, physical, and emotional needs and contact the Emergency Placement Coordinators with information adequate to do "matching" of the child to a shelter resource. The values underlying Contra Costa County's new system are stability in placement, focus on the needs of the individual child, minimizing moves, and supporting permanency at the earliest stages. Proposed Receiving Center Program Design Regionalized receiving centers are an innovative service delivery model in that they would offer services in the community they are serving on a local basis. Care would be provided for less than 24 hours while other activities designed to assess the needs of the child and his/her family in order to match them with the appropriate level of care take place. The receiving center will be the point of entry into the shelter system of care and allow for issues of permanency to be addressed at the earliest possible point. This model is unlike any other county's shelter care program. The major program features would be: • Care for less than a 24 hour period; • Single point of reception/entry into the shelter care system; • Up to 24 hours, seven days a week availability; • Ability to feed, clothe, and bathe children as necessary; • Appropriate space for a child to nap or sleep; • Crisis intervention and support for those children in the center; • Ability to supervise visitation of children with parents or relatives; • Office space for CPS staff; • Emergency mental health assessments; • Public health evaluations on short notice; and • Resource center for training and support of shelter foster families. Proposed Dedicated Group Home Program Design As currently envisioned, county emergency foster homes will continue to serve as the backbone of shelter care. Enhancing the county homes would be foster homes certified through Foster Family Agencies and a residential component composed of four six (6)bed group homes. The group homes would be located regionally and dedicated to providing only shelter care. Shelter care is limited to 90 days, with extensions beyond that time only on an exceptional basis. The dedicated group homes would offer an intensive level of treatment for children with behaviors which prevent them from being cared for in a foster care setting. The major program features would include: • Care for up to three months-, • Intensive child care and supervision 24 hours seven days a week-, • Crisis intervention and support for children in the shelter; • Behavior management and modification; and • Short term residential placement for children. Background The county has a centralized screening unit which assigns cases to the districts for investigation. Contra Costa County receives approximately 900 referrals and conducts 700 investigations each month. Of the investigations conducted, an average of 67 petitions are filed monthly. Currently there are approximately 2100 children in out of home placement in Contra Costa County. Federally funded studies have demonstrated that focused efforts to improve pre-placement screening, systematic case management, and concentrated efforts to remove barriers to permanency planning can substantially decrease child welfare case loads (Lindsey, 1994). The redesign of the shelter system of care is aimed at meeting this goal. In combination with concurrent planning (case management which develops an alternate long term plan for children while simultaneously attempting reunification), the proposed Receiving Center and Dedicated Group Homes will help identify placement options for children which will lead to more permanent options than the existing use of long term foster care and group care. This offers the therapeutic benefits of attachment and stability for children as well as financial savings. A system of care designed to reunify children with their families sooner and increase adoption opportunities for children for whom reunification is not possible could offer substantial savings. A recent report by the University of California, Berkeley reviewed both group care and adoptions. Results highlighted in the report indicate that once , children are placed into a particular type of care, such as group care, they tended to "drift" at that level for a long period of time. A dedicated group home program designed to provide shelter care would divert children from entering into long term group care and subsequently reduce the time before a child might be reunified. A review of Contra Costa County's 1990 Child Welfare cases revealed that significant improvement in the number of cases with an adoption outcome could be attained. The revised system of care is designed to reduce the population of children in foster care. If only a ten percent reduction in the foster care population occurred the savings would be $2,066,149, of which $723,152 would be County dollars. i Y • is�::;:2:•:;-;z::i:_3'=ilii;:;...;.i 'ii-ii:= ;%i::i::i_:i;+:_:::: Yv -s::: :........}: ... � m ro C CD ca m 0 n, rn o CD 3 i cn- :.:..: : .. :::.. {ty —I rn -is>:::viii:>�>5�2:: ':><t::a_2i::;:k•�:�<;i>'[�::.::ii::2:: .. ....... ....:.... ... ..........