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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 09282004 - SD.3 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ------ C + », FROM: Jahn Cullen, Director Employment & Human Services department o Costa DATE: September 23, 2004 ` �r'' County SUBJECT: APPROVE Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan (SIP) by S9.3 Employment and Human Services Department's Children and Family Service Bureau SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION: APPROVE the Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan (SIP) for submission by the Employment and Human Services Department's Children and Family Services Bureau to the California State Department of Social Services. FINANCIAL IMPACT: Contra Costa County is a Cohort 1 County under the State's Child Welfare Redesign Plan and has and will continue to receive grant funding to implement the goals outlined in the SIP. For FY 04-05, Contra Costa is expected to receive at least $500,000. CHILDREN'S IMPACT STATEMENT This action impacts five of the community outcomes: 1) Children Ready for and Succeeding in School; 2) Children and Youth Healthy and Preparing for Productive Adulthood; 3) Families are Economically Self-Sufficient; 4) Families that are Safe, Stable and Nurturing; and 5) Communities are Safe and Provide a High Quality of Life. BACKGROUND: On August g, 2004, the Children and Family Services Bureau (CFS) of the Employment and Human Services Department (EHSD) presented its Self-Assessment Report (SA) to the Family and Human Services Committee (the Executive Summary is attached for your reference). The SA is part of the current federal/state requirement that each county collect data on its child welfare demographics, including county characteristics and elements of its current service delivery. The SA was submitted to the state at the end of June 2004, and all counties were then charged with developing a System Improvement Plan (SIP) to guide our efforts to improve their service delivery. The SIP follows a state--prescribed performance improvement planning process. For each indicator being addressed the county specifies an improvement goal and the corresponding strategies, milestones, timeframes and assignment that will assure successful implementation. Contra Costa's SIP has four components (corresponding to the outcome indicators listed below) that were identified as areas in need of improvement. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X YES SIGNATUREA4_ L't„/i _ ECOMMENDP,TION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE ,APPROVE OTHER -1 SIGNATURE(S): s z� ACTION Of BOA R1' ONPPROVED AS RECOMMENDED— OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED ON THE r UNANIMOUS(ABSENT_ /s t i.k� 1 MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN, AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTAIN: r T, ATTESTED: Z '`i CONTACT: Danna Fabefla,EHSD JOHN SWEETEN,VTL_.ERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR BY �r '� y'`.rte r` y . : t� DEPUTY APPROVE Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan (SIP) by Employment and Human Services Department's Children and Family Service Bureau September 28, '2004 Page 2 A key issue identified for improvement is the overrepresentation of African-American children in the County's child welfare system. Overrepresentation of African-American children in public child welfare is not only a local concern; it is a concern for the state and nation as a whole. We are committed to addressing this inequity and to apply promising practices in how we deliver services and make decisions about dependent African-American children and families in our county. We will tackle overrepresentation of African-American children in the child welfare system with two approaches: • Rate of first entries: To address the rate of first entries to care of African-American children under 'l year of age ■ Outcome indicator 3A: Percent of children reunified within 92 months If children must be removed from home, the Bureau wants to increase the rate at which we safely return those children home. There are two other outcome indicators that will be addressed in the SIP. These outcomes were selected since they are key to ensuring safety of children, and our data reveals a need to improve in these key outcome indicators. ■ Outcome indicator 2B: Percent of child welfare investigations with a timely response The Bureau' intends to improve its compliance in timely 10-day investigations to 90%. • Outcome indicator 2C: Timely social worker visits with child The Bureau' recognizes the need to improve its required social worker visits to all children without a visit exception. Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan Narrative Section System Improvement Pian Narrative 1. Local Planning Bovies Self Assessment Team The Self Assessment Team that assisted with the Bureau's self assessment represented a wide array of stakeholders. The input and contributions of this group informed the choice of outcome indicators for inclusion in the System Improvement Plan. The concerns and interest of Team members also helped to bring racial disproportionality to the fore as a major focus for intervention in this initial SIP. Members in the first list below also provided comment and input to the development of the SIP. Members of the Self Assessment Team included: Probation Richard Birss, Probation Manager Bill Grunert, Manager ! Mark Morris (consultant to Juvenile Systems Planning Adviso Committee or JSPAC Parent Cheryl Barrett Youth Narcissus Ho ue, Former Foster Youth Mental Health Rich Weis al, Supervisor_ Gary Solak, Mental Health Liaison Education Loretta Morris, Vocational Administrative Specialist Catherine Giacalone, Manager Public Health Marilyn Condit-Fonseca, PHN Alcohol and Cather Drugs Amelia Gonzalez-Valle, Manager Court Appointed Special Advocates Keith Archuleta, Executive Director Court ; Martha Rosenber , Assistant to the Director Labor Kate Acosta, Social Casework S cialist I! Community Taalia Hasan, Executive Director Youth Services Bureau Final 1 September 28, 2004 Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan Narrative Section Self Assessment Members and Guests, Children and Family Services Bureau Ken Adams, Social Work Supervisor 11 Ray Merritt, Division Manager Evelyn Aguilar, Social Casework Specialist 11 Lisa Molinar, Staff Development Specialist Ann Arvanian, Social Casework Specialist 11 Carl Nishi, Social Casework Specialist 11 Yvonne Chevalier, Social Work Supervisor II Kristine Nishi, Social Casework Specialist 11 Melissa Connelly, Social Work Supervisor 11 Michelle Paterson, Social Work Supervisor 11 Victoria Danby, Social Casework Specialist 11 Patricia Perkins, Social Work Supervisor 11 Leslie Davis, Social Work Supervisor 11 Steve Peavler, Division Manager Ted Gempf, Social Casework Specialist II Jessie Rojas, Social Casework Specialist 11 Preston Gilmore, Social Work Supervisor 11 Ellen Scharffenberg, Social Casework Specialist 11 Gloria Halverson, Division Manager Jeri Smith, Social Casework Specialist 11 Holliedayle Hertweck, Social Work Supervisor 11 Rhonda Smith, Social Casework Specialist 11 Bree Marchman, Intern Stefanie Thomas, Social Casework Specialist 11 Neely McElroy, Social Work Supervisor 11 Pam Wilson, Information System Analyst CWS/CMS Redesign Steering Committee The Redesign Steering Committee grew out of the Bureau's stakeholder group that was formed over three years ago when the Bureau began its own "redesign" and strategic planning process simultaneous with the launch of Family to Family. The group has since expanded and reformulated in support of Contra Costa County's role as a Cohort 1 County in the state-supported child welfare redesign process. Members of the Steering Committee participated in the Self Assessment process in a variety of ways. As all geographic areas of the County are represented on the Steering Committee members helped to identify service strengths and gaps in their regions when the Self Assessment process was first launched. Staff involved with the Self Assessment shared the analysis and findings related to the Bureau's performance on the outcome indicators as well as the findings related to racial disproportionality within the local child welfare system. Steering Committee members identified the need to reach out, dialogue and educate the African-American community about the differences between physical discipline and child abuse and a sub-committee has been formed to continue this work. This suggestion has also been included in the SIP.A presentation was made to Steering Committee members as the SIP was drafted and input and comments were gathered from all members present. Final 2 September 28, 2004 Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan Narrative Section Members of the Redesign Steering Committee members are: Kate Acosta Local 535 Steven Bautista Contra Costa County Probation—Department Brenda Blasin ame First 5 Contra Costa Bianca Bloom Contra Costa Count Office of Education Kevin Bristow Independent Living Skills Program Barbara B siek Famil Stress Center- CBS} Carol Carrillo Child Abuse Prevention Council Sister Roberta Carson St. Bonaventure's Church Danna Fabella Children and Famil Services Director Larry Hanover Contra Costa County Mental Health, Health Services ,.Department Rev. Yaahn Hunter New Faith Cathedral Church of Cod I David Lee STAND Against Communi Violence { Che 1 Maier Opportunities West - CBO Rev, HenryPerkins First Baptist Church Lois Rutten Children and Family Services Division Manager Dorothy Sansoe County Administrator's Office Intisar Shareef Contra Costa Community College Brenda Underhill Underhill &Associates Rich Weisgal Contra Costa County Mental Health, Health Services —Department Ran Wetter Independent Business Consultant if. Findings that Support Qualitative Change Contra Costa embarked on its own local redesign process in 2000. Since that time, community meetings have occurred throughout the County to solicit input from families, community based organizations, local schools, faith-based organizations, the business community and other interested parties. Thriving "Redesign partnership" meetings regularly occur in all three of the Bureau's district offices. The Self-Assessment process brought many of these interested parties together on the Self Assessment Team itself or through the Redesign Steering Committee. This strong history of community involvement, inclusion and increased transparency supported Contra Costa in the Self- Assessment and System Improvement Plan effort. In addition, in the summer of 2003, money supplied by CDSS to counties interested in preparing for the Redesign was used to survey over 20100 parents and families in Family to Family target neighborhoods. The purpose of the survey was to learn about which services families used and which they believed that "families needing help with their children" might need. Community-basest organizations received contracts to hire surveyors from the target neighborhoods, training was provided by the Bureau and the surveys were administered door-to-door in the native language of the respondents. The results of this survey have been reviewed in the district offices by the Redesign Partnership meetings, informed the planning of these community groups, and Final 3 September 28, 2004 Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan Narrative Section addressed through mini-grants. Further information and the findings can be found in Contra Costa's Self Assessment report, pp. 74-77. Ill. Summary Assessment (Section V, Self-Assessment) System Strengths and Areas Needing Improvement Contra Costa County's Children and Family Services Bureau has a rich history of innovative, creative and collaborative program development and service provision. Conducting this Self-Assessment has provided Bureau staff, community members and collaborating partner agencies the opportunity to further explore Bureau performance, identify areas for improvement, and underscore what is already working and deserves expansion or preservation. The next several years will further enhance the Bureau's capacity to provide improved services to children, youth and families. As a Redesign Cohort 1 county, Contra Costa is looking forward to piloting a safety and risk assessment framework that combines the best of the Fresno and the new risk/safety constructs developed by the Safety and Risk Assessment Workgroup of the Stakeholders Committee. Bureau staff and partners have worked diligently in designing an operational plan for a differential response system which is already being piloted with a small number of families using Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) funding. Once in place, differential response should reduce the number of families being referred for investigation, help reduce recidivism and foster care reentry by providing families served by the Bureau with culturally appropriate and community-based after care services, and support efforts to address racial disproportionality. The Redesign's emphasis on permanency and youth transition will assist the Bureau in addressing racial disproportionality and the fact that over 50% of children still in care after 54 months are African-American. While respecting the cultural viewpoint of African-American families regarding terminating parental rights and adoption of kin, the Bureau recognizes that it needs to improve its permanency focus for African-American children and youth. We intend to work with our collaborating agencies, faith-based communities and African-American community members in crafting an approach that will address this need. The recently-awarded Family to Family System of Care grant will further the efforts of the Bureau in addressing permanency and the needs of youth in our system. The grant provides the funding to expand TDMs for children already in placement, provide peer mentoring to parents involved in the system, and address the needs of children at high risk for multiple placements. This discussion of strengths and areas for improvement is a summary of this report. Detailed explanation of the outcome indicators and systemic factors can be found in their respective sections of this document. Final 4 September 28, 2004 Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan Narrative Section Participation Rues and Outcome Indicators Contra Costa has identified the following four areas for inclusion in its System Improvement Plan: • Number and rate of first entries to foster care • Outcome indicator 3A: Percent reunified within 12 months Both of these components of the SIP are directed at addressing the disproportionate representation of African-American children in the child welfare system. First entries to care will examine the overrepresentation of African-American children under 1 year old entering the system. Addressing reunification rates will also target this population in addition to older African- American children (and children of other ethnic groups as well). Outcome indicator 213: Percent of child welfare investigations with a timely response • Outcome indicator 2C: Timely social worker visits with child The Bureau recognizes the need to improve its performance in completing 10-day investigations within the mandated timeframe as well as improving its required social worker visits to all children without a visit exception. A wordabout participation rates: While not a federal or state-required outcome indicator, per se; participation rates are an important tool for analyzing the representation within the system of the ethnic groups served by the Bureau. Referral and substantiation rates, first entries to care, and point-in-time counts of children in care are all important measures of Bureau efforts to address racial disproportionality. Safety Outcome Indicators For both state-enriched measures of recurrence of maltreatment, Contra Costa performs better than the statewide average. For indicator 1 B (recurrence of maltreatment within 12 months) the state average is 14.6% with Contra Costa performing at 11.1%. For indicator 213 (rate of recurrence in homes where children are not removed) the state average is 9.4% with Contra Costa performing at 9.3%. Recurrence of maltreatment is a perfect example of a "counterbalanced outcome'; i.e., when a change in one outcome may affect other outcomes. In this case, the County's efforts to improve reunification within 12 months of system entry may result in an increase in the rate of recurrence as staff works hard to return children home sooner. The goal of any public child welfare system is to minimize recurrence of maltreatment by families already served. Contra Costa hopes to address its recurrence rates through implementation of both a safety and risk assessment framework and a differential response system over the next several years. While the County has a myriad of services available to families already, further improving community capacity to provide Final 5 September 28, 2004 Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan Narrative Section preventive services to families and aftercare services to families already served by the child welfare system will positively impact recidivism. The Self-Assessment Team identified services for parents of adolescents and Afro- centric parenting classes as service needs within the county. As discussed in the Service Array systemic factor, mini-grants have been provided to community agencies to expand community capacity and address needs such as these. Parenting classes for 60 parents, a Spanish-language father support group, respite for special needs children, and gang prevention and reduction activities for youth have all been funded in targeted communities. Providing increased numbers of TDMs by expanding the population served to include children age 0 to 1 in Family to Family and providing TDMs to children and youth in placement through the System of Care grant will address recidivism as well. Improved data collection and ability to further analyze the data would help all counties to address recurrence rates. Only the 2A data provides information on the type of abuse or neglect for the initial substantiation and subsequent substantiated report. Not surprisingly, general neglect is by far the highest number of recurrences. Providing this type of data for both indicators and the ability to analyze family versus child cases and whether some of the recurrence is a function of multiple reports on sibling groups would also assist in analysis. The rate of maltreatment in foster care is at 0.67% as compared to a statewide average of 0.81% and a federal benchmark of< 0.57%. Contra Costa anticipates the possibility of this rate increasing in the near term with data entry correction underway. Given the high number of county-licensed foster homes and the lower rate of usage of foster family agencies as compared to many counties, one could anticipate that Contra Costa would have a higher rate of maltreatment in care. Finally, the process indicators 213 (percent of child welfare investigations with a timely response) and 2C (timely social worker visits with child) are two areas in need of improvement for the County. For 213, only 52.1% of all 10 day investigations were responded to within the 10 day timeframe. As discussed in the body of this report, the Bureau has already worked to address this rate but will refocus attentions on increasing this rate to 95% or above. This will be a major focus of the SIP. As for indicator 2C, timely social worker visits with the child ranged from 55.6% to 58.5% during the 3 months of the County Data Report. Staff members on the Self Assessment Team maintain that often visits are completed but work demands result in delayed entry into the CWS/CMS, system. Concern was also raised that visit exceptions may not be entered correctly. While both of these points may have some validity, the Bureau intends to address this indicator in the SIP as well. All children in care deserve regular, on-going contact with their social worker. Final 6 September 28, 2004 Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan Narrative Section Permanency and Stability Outcomes The County's performance on the length of time to exit foster care to reunification is 36.9% as compared to a statewide average of 34.6%. Contra Costa hopes to improve its timely exits from foster care to reunification with a special emphasis on African- American children in foster care. In addition to further analysis of first entries to care, improving reunification rates will be another way to address the issue of racial disproportionality. One factor impacting reunification rates is the litigious nature of child welfare practice in general and within the County in particular. While progress has been made in improving relationships with Juvenile Court and the private attorneys and public defenders representing parents and children, attorneys continue to advise parents not to speak with workers, sometimes making it difficult to engage families early in the casework process. The County's performance on the percent of children adopted within 24 months is 5.4%. As discussed earlier in this report, there are both practice and court-related factors that impact this rate. Many adoptions do not occur until 36 months or later. While of concern, it is not an area that will be addressed in the SIP this year. The County is doing relatively well on limiting the number of foster placements for children in care. It exceeds both the federal benchmark on the federal indicator and the statewide average on the state-enriched indicator. Possible explanations for this are the high number of kin placements, the dedicated group of county-licensed foster care providers, the training provided these providers, and the diligence and expertise of staff in providing services to both kin and non-kin care providers. Rate of foster care reentry is an area to continue to monitor. Further analysis of this data will be done by the new quality assurance team that is under development. Contra Costa's performance on the state-enriched indicator, 3G (percent of children who reentered care within 12 months of reunification), is slightly above the statewide average and approximately 50% greater than the federal benchmark (12.9% versus a benchmark of 8.6%). Family Relationships and Community Connectedness Placing siblings together whenever possible is a Bureau goal. Even with small sibling groups of 2, 45% of those children are placed separately. However the overall rate of placement with all or some siblings stands at 60%. While the Bureau works hard at placing siblings together in care various factors impact our ability to improve the rate at which we do so. These include the high cost of housing in the county and the ability of caregivers to afford a home with extra bedrooms that can accommodate sibling groups. Licensing regulations also hamper the ability to address this issue in a creative manner. The Bureau performs well when examining its least restrictive setting placement rate. This is primarily due to the strong emphasis by the Bureau on recruiting, training, and retaining county-licensed foster homes. Final 7 September 28, 2004 Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan Narrative Section Well-Being Outcomes The Bureau's Independent Living Services program is a vital, dynamic program that serves'a large number of the youth eligible for services. This Self-Assessment has surfaced the need to begin reaching out to and engaging youth at an earlier age than 16 years old and plans are already underway for monthly ILS open houses. The County's performance on this indicator regarding youth transitioning to self-sufficient adulthood is good. We look forward to the future development of targeted well-being outcomes. Systemic Factors There are many system strengths in Contra Costa County in addition to a few areas of need. Systemic factors that are strengths include use of a management information system, foster/adoptive parent recruitment, licensing, and retention, service array, staff/provider training, and agency collaborations. The first systemic area in need of improvement is case review, in particular parent and youth participation in case planning. An all-staff meeting was recently held that provided staff the opportunity to give input into how the Bureau is doing in the areas of family engagement and "good" case planning and future changes needed to support these practices. Court structure and relationship is another area for improvement given the highly litigious nature of the child welfare work within the County and the impact this has on case planning, reunification and adoption rates. The second systemic factor in need of improvement is the quality assurance system. Much activity is currently underway in addressing the County's needs in this area. This includes the purchase of Safe Measures, training all supervisors in its use and developing a policy regarding the use of Safe Measures in supervising staff and reporting to the Division Manager. The County also has Business Objects and a number of staff are learning how to use that application. Finally, a consultant with expertise in evaluation, data analysis and statistics has recently come on board. Areas for the Peer Quality Case Review (PQCR) There are a number of practice-related areas that the Bureau wishes to explore through the Peer Quality Case Review process. Some of these areas of concern can be addressed through case file review to learn which type of family engagement assessment and case planning practices have the greatest impact on the practice area. The Bureau is also interested in learning from counties that are using new or creative best practices in responding to these practice areas. Potential areas for further exploration through the PQCR include: • Reunification of African-American children. Why aren't we more successful at reunifying African-American children sooner? Are some staff better at working with African-American families than others? What are the factors that contribute to their success? How can this success be replicated? Final 8 September 28, 2004 Contra Costa County System Improvement Plan Narrative Section • What can we do to improve concurrent planning practices at the front end? Examining concurrent planning practices to learn why we have a more difficult time doing concurrent planning early in the casework process with relatives versus non-relatives. • Examining permanency planning cases to discover the reasons why so many children are coming into adoption with insufficient exploration of relatives as a permanent resource. We would also like to look at ways to improve our work with kin care providers to help them understand the legal definition of permanency and identify ways we can persuade them to move from long term foster care to a more permanent, legally acceptable relationship with the child. 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Discussion of System Strengths and Areas Needing Improvement Contra Costa County's Children and Family Services Bureau has a rich history of innovative, creative and collaborative program development and service provision. Conducting this Self-Assessment has provided Bureau staff, community members and collaborating partner agencies the opportunity to further explore Bureau performance, identify areas for improvement, and underscore what is already working and deserves expansion or preservation. The next several years will further enhance the Bureau's capacity to provide improved services to children, youth and families. As a Redesign Cohort 1 county, Contra Costa is looking forward to piloting a safety and risk assessment framework that combines the best of the Fresno and structured decision-making models. Bureau staff and partners have worked diligently in designing an operational plan for a differential response system which is already being piloted with a small number of families using Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF)funding. Once in place, differential response should not only reduce the number of families being referred for investigation but will help reduce recidivism and foster care reentry by providing families served by the Bureau with culturally appropriate and community-based after care services. The Redesign's emphasis on permanency and youth transition will assist the Bureau in addressing racial disproportionality and the fact that over 50% of children still in care after 54 months are African-American. While respecting the cultural viewpoint of African-American families regarding terminating parental rights and adoption of kin, the Bureau recognizes that it needs to improve its permanency focus for African-American children and youth. We intend to work with our collaborating agencies, faith-based communities and African-American community members in crafting an approach that will address this need. The recently-awarded Family to Family System of Care grant will further the efforts of the Bureau in addressing permanency and the needs of youth in our system. The grant provides the funding to expand TDMs for multi-agency children who have experienced a series of placement disruptions and for youth emancipating from foster care who are not fully involved in ILP activities. In addition, it funds peer mentoring to parents involved in the system and addresses the needs of children initially entering out of home care who may be at high risk for multiple placements. This discussion of strengths and areas for improvement is a summary of this report. Detailed explanation of the outcome indicators and systemic factors can be found in their respective sections of this document. 80 Participation Rates and Outcome Indicators System Improvement Plan Contra Costa has identified the following four areas for inclusion in its System Improvement Plan: • Number and rate of first entries to foster care • Outcome indicator 3A: Percent reunified within 12 months Both of these components of the SIP are directed at addressing the disproportionate representation of African-American children in the child welfare system. First entries to care will examine the overrepresentation of African-American children under 1 year old entering the system. Addressing reunification rates will also target this population in addition to older African- American children (and children of other ethnic groups as well). • Outcome indicator 213: Percent of child welfare investigations with a timely response • Outcome indicator 2C: Timely social worker visits with child • The Bureau recognizes the need to improve its performance in completing 10 day investigations within the mandated timeframe as well as improving its required social worker visits to all children without a visit exception. A word about participation rates: While not a federal or state-required outcome indicator, per se; participation rates are an important tool for analyzing the representation within the system of the ethnic groups served by the Bureau. Referral and substantiation rates, first entries to care, and point-in-time counts of children in care are all important measures of Bureau efforts to address racial disproportionality. Safety Outcome Indicators Recurrence of maltreatment: For both state-enriched measures of recurrence of maltreatment, Contra Costa performs better than the statewide average. For indicator 1B (recurrence of maltreatment within 12 months) the state average is 14.6% with Contra Costa performing at 11.1%. For indicator 2B (rate of recurrence in homes where children are not removed)the state average is 9.4% with Contra Costa performing at 9.3%. Recurrence of maltreatment is a perfect example of a "counterbalanced outcome";when a change in one outcome may affect other outcomes. In this case, the County's efforts to improve reunification within 12 months of system entry may result in an increase in the rate of recurrence as staff work hard to return children home sooner. The goal of any public child welfare system is to minimize recurrence of maltreatment by families who have already received services from the system. Contra Costa hopes to address its recurrence rates through implementation of both a safety and risk assessment framework and a differential response system over the next several years. While the County has a myriad of services available to families already, further improving community capacity to provide preventive services to families and aftercare services to families already served by the child welfare system will positively impact recidivism. The County is also helping to organize communities and services to specifically address child safety. 81 The Self-Assessment Team identified services for parents of adolescents and Afro- centric parenting classes as service needs within the county. As discussed in the Service Array systemic factor, mini-grants have been provided to community agencies to expand community capacity and address needs such as these. Parenting classes for 60 parents, a Spanish-language father support group, respite for special needs children, and gang prevention and reduction activities for youth have all been funded in targeted communities. Improved data collection and ability to further analyze the data would help all counties to address recurrence rates. Only the 2A data provides information on the type of abuse or neglect for the initial substantiation and subsequent substantiated report. Not surprisingly, general neglect is by far the highest number of recurrences. Providing this type of data for both indicators and the ability to analyze family versus child cases and whether some of the recurrence is a function of multiple reports on sibling groups would also assist in analysis. Maltreatment in faster care: The rate of maltreatment in foster care is at 0.67% as compared to a statewide average of 0.81% and a federal benchmark of<0.57%0. Given the County's focus on using county-licensed foster homes to maintain children in or near their communities of origin and the lower rate of usage of foster family agencies as compared to many counties, one could anticipate that Contra Costa would have a higher rate of maltreatment in care. Investigations with a timely response: Finally, the process indicators 2B (percent of child welfare investigations with a timely response) and 2C (timely social worker visits with child) are two areas in need of improvement for the County. For 2B, only 52.1%0 of all 10 day investigations were responded to within the 10 day timeframe. As discussed in the body of this report, the Bureau has already worked to address this rate but will refocus attentions on increasing this rate to 95% or above. This will be a major focus of the SIP. Timely social worker visits: As for indicator 2C, timely social worker visits with the child ranged from 55.6%to 58.5% during the 3 months of the County data Report. Staff members on the Self Assessment Team maintain that often visits are completed but work demands result in delayed entry into the CWS/CMS system. Concern was also raised that visit exceptions may not be entered correctly. While both of these points may have some validity, the Bureau intends to address this indicator in the SIP as well. All children in care deserve regular, on-going contact with their social worker. Permanency and Stability Outcomes Length of time to exit to reunification: The County's performance on the length of time to exit foster care to reunification is 36.9% as compared to a statewide average of 34.6%. Contra Costa hopes to improve its timely exits from foster care to reunification with a special emphasis on African-American children in foster care. In addition to further analysis of first entries to care, improving reunification rates will be another way to address the issue of racial disproportionality. One factor impacting reunification rates is the litigious nature of child welfare practice in general and within the County in particular. While progress has been made in improving relationships with Juvenile Court and the private and public attorneys representing 8 parents and children, attorneys continue to advise parents not to speak with workers. Likewise, attorneys have advised clients not to sign case plans or be involved in the case planning process. This makes it difficult to engage families early in the casework process. Length of time to exit to adaption: The County's performance on the percent of children adapted within 24 months is 5.4%. As discussed earlier in this report, there are both practice and court-related factors that impact this rate. Many adoptions do not occur until 36 months or later. While of concern, and we will continue to discuss this issue, it is not an area that will be addressed in the SIP this year. Multiple Ware encs: The County is doing relatively well on limiting the number of foster placements for children in care. It exceeds both the federal benchmark on the federal indicator and the statewide average on the state-enriched indicator. Possible explanations for this are the high number of kin placements, the dedicated group of county-licensed foster care providers; the training provided these providers, and the diligence and expertise of staff in providing services to both kin and non-kin care providers. Faster care reentry: Rate of foster care reentry is an area to continue to monitor. Contra Costa's performance on the state-enriched indicator, 3C (percent of children who reentered care within 12 months of reunification), is slightly above the statewide average and greater than the federal benchmark(12.9%versus a benchmark of 8.6%). Family Relationships and Community Connectedness Siblings placed together: Placing siblings together whenever possible is a Bureau goal. The overall rate of placement with all or some siblings stands at 60%. While the Bureau works hard at placing siblings together in care various factors impact our ability to improve the rate at which we do so. These include the high asst of housing in the county and the ability of caregivers to afford a home with extra bedrooms that can accommodate sibling groups. Licensing regulations also hamper the ability to address this issue in a creative manner. Least restrictive Placement setting: The Bureau performs well when examining its least restrictive setting placement rate. This is primarily due to the strong emphasis by the Bureau on closely reviewing the level of care needed for each individual child who may need enhanced placement services through the use of the Placement Resource Team (discussed earlier in this document). In addition, the County's strong emphasis on recruitment, retention, and training of county licensed foster homes assists in the development and preservation of family placement settings. Well-Being Outcomes Youth transitioning to self-sufficiency. The Bureau's Independent Living Services program is a vital, dynamic program that serves a large number of the youth eligible for services. This Self-Assessment has surfaced the need to begin reaching out to and engaging youth at an earlier age than 16 years old and plans are already underway for monthly ILS open houses. The County's performance on this indicator regarding youth transitioning to self-sufficient adulthood is good. We look forward to the future development of targeted well-being outcomes. 83 Systernic Factors Where are many system strengths in Contra Costa County in addition to a few areas of need. Systemic factors that are strengths include use of a management information system, foster/adoptive parent recruitment, licensing, and retention, service array, staff/provider training, and agency collaborations. The first systemic area in need of improvement is case review, in particular parent and youth participation in case planning. An all-staff meeting was recently held that provided staff the opportunity to give input into how the Bureau is doing in the areas of family engagement and "good"case planning and future changes needed to support these practices. Court structure and relationship is another area for improvement given the highly litigious nature of the child welfare work within the County and the impact this has on case planning, reunification and adoption rates. The second systemic factor in need of improvement is the quality assurance system. Much activity is currently underway in addressing the County's needs in this area. This includes the purchase of Safe Measures, training all supervisors in its use and developing a policy regarding the use of Safe Measures in supervising staff and reporting to the Division Manager. The County also has Business Objects and a number of staff is learning how to use that application. Finally, a contract staff with expertise in evaluation, data analysis and statistics has recently come on board. B. Ares for further exploration through the Peer Quality Case Review There are a number of practice-related areas that the Bureau wishes to explore through the Peer Quality Case Review process. Some of these areas of concern can be addressed through case file review to learn which type of family engagement, assessment and case planning practices have the greatest impact on the practice area. The Bureau is also interested in learning from counties that are using new or creative best practices in responding to these practice areas. Potential areas for further exploration through the PQCR include: • Reunification of African-American children. Why aren't we more successful at reunifying African-American children sooner?Are some staff better at working with African-American families than others? What are the factors that contribute to their success? How can this success be replicated? • What can we do to improve concurrent planning practices at the front end? Examining concurrent planning practices to learn why we have a more difficult time doing concurrent planning early in the casework process with relatives versus non-relatives. • Examining permanency planning cases to discover the reasons why so many children are coming into adoption with insufficient exploration and/or preparation of relatives as a permanent resource. We would also like to look at ways to improve our work with kin care providers to help them understand the legal definition of permanency and identify ways we can persuade them to move from long term foster care to a more permanent, legally acceptable relationship with the child. 84