HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 04201999 - C139 FHS#30 -s� .
TCS. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS __ CONTRA
COSTA
FROM: Family and Human Services Committee COUNTY
DATE: April 20, '1999
SUBJECT: Update on the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS)
SPECIFIC REQUEST(S) OR RECOMMENDATION(S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDATION{S):
1. ACCEPT the attached report on the status of the Child Welfare Services/Case Management
System (CWSICMS).
2. AUTHORIZE the Chair, Board of Supervisors, to execute a letter requesting state funding of
the staff and hardware necessary to efficiently utilize the state mandated CWS/CMS system.
BACKGROUNDIREASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS:
On April 12, 1999, the Family and Human Services Committee reviewed the attached report on the
status of the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWSICMS) from Danna Fabella,
Assistant Social Service Director.
Joyce Baird, SEIU, stated that CWS/CMS was positively evolving here in Contra Costa County and
that she was very pleased with the local efforts to improve the system. She also stated that the
added personnel was very helpful. However, she said that, from a statewide perspective, the system
is difficult to change or improve and that it was a "disaster." She also stated the state was in the
process of deciding whether to renew their contract with the initial vendor, IBM, or to reissue a
request for proposals. Consequently, IBM has been very slow in raking any changes.
CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE:
RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR____RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE
—APPROVE —OTHER
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SIGNATURE(S): V�.�.E
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ACTION OF BOARD ON APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS
€HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS#S A
UNANIMOUS{ABSENT 9 TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN
AYES: NOES: ACTION TAKEN AND ENTERED
ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ON MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF
SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN.
Contact Sam#offtnan,33S-9090 ,
ATTESTED f !, _
PH#L SATCHEebllk,CLERK OF
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
/CAOAND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
(
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tr,�Fabella
BY
Joyce Baird E UTY
FHS#30
BACKGROUNDIREASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS (conVd)°
Danna Fabella stated that from her perspective, the system was not a total disaster and that it provides
for systematic information which has some very positive programmatic results, such as facilitating the
transfer of cases, she also stated that CATs/CIMS will be saving worker time with regard to court reports
and allows the County for the first time to meet the federal requirements on health and education
information on children in placement.
Ids. Fabella said part of the problem with changes to CWS/CMS is Haat, as a statewide system, the
consortium needs to agree on all changes, which means a consensus among the counties, she also
stated that the vendor can only make one change at a time(or batch them) because of the need to have
a stable computer base from which to operate. This slows down the number of changes that can be
handled at any one time.
Supervisor bark Desaulnier and supervisor Gayle Uilkema agreed that progress is being made, but
continued oversight is necessary, They also agreed Haat it would be advisable to keep reminding the
state of the need to support the CWS/CIMS system and requested Ms. Fabella to prepare letter for the
Chair of the Board of supervisors on the meed for state funding for additional staffing and hardware for
the County,
2
The Beard of Supervisors �jVl
Contra Phil Batchelor
clerk of the Board
Costa end
County Administration Building County Adm'sris±star
651 Pine Street, Room 106 (925)335-1900
Martinez,California 84553-1293 County
John Glole,tst District
Gayle Ulikema,2nd District
Donna Gerber,3rd District
Mark DeSaul+nier,411h District
Joe Danclamille,5th District
April 20, 1999A..
Marjorie Kelly, Deputy Director
Children and Family Services
California Department of Social Services
744 P Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Ms. Kelly;
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors continues to have concerns regarding the
automated child welfare service system, CWS/CMS. Our county has supported the
Social Services Department's implementation plan which called for a careful roll out of
this system utilizing mandated components and implementing other components only
after concerns have been addressed and modified by the CWS/CMS Project staff.
Because of problems with many of the components, full implementation has not been
possible in our county or in any other California county. Thus counties continue to
require additional county resources beyond the state allocation to support the system.
We are requesting that the California Department of Social Services (CRSS) review
allocations to our county for implementation of this system. We understand and
support the "yardstick" study in progress, yet understand funding is two years in the
future, at best. Costs to run this system continue to impact us in a variety of ways,
including overtime costs caused by the system being down and screeners needing to
input the information at later times; application training mentors required because the
program has numerous screens and is complicated to even experienced workers; and
retraining workers on new components and new usage.
We further understand that there is discussion at the CWS/CMS Project to delay the roll
out of the modified Case Plan Component. We have heard from social workers that this
is a key component for management of cases and without it, the system is not effective
for social workers and families. Delay beyond the September/October planned release
will place this component in jeopardy as the Year 2000 and contract rebidding becomes
the focus of effort.
Marjorie Kelly
April 20, 1999
page 2
We recommend CDSS work closely with fiscal to ensure appropriate funding to fully
reimburse counties the casts of implementation. We also recommend that CDSS ensure
that the Case Plan component is implemented as quickly as possible.
Sincerely,
WBod
illa, Chair
pervisors
CC: Board .Members
Phil Batchelor, County Administrator
Contra. Costa County Legislative Delegation
Crantland Johnson, Secretary, Health and Human Services Agency
Rita Saenz, Director, CA Department of Social Services
John Cullen, Director, CCC Department of Employment and Human Services
Joyce Baird, SIEU 535 Business Representative
Social Service Department Contra Costa Count
DATE: April 5, 1999
MEMO TO: Family& Human Services Committee
Supervisors Gayle Uilkema and Mark DeSaulnier
FROM: John Cullen, Director
SUBJECT. CWS/CMS Update
The implementation of the statewide Child Welfare Services/Case Management System
(CWS/CMS) continues to see progress in our County and throughout California. Attached is a
copy of the report prepared by the CWS/CMS Coordinator for the last Oversight Committee
meeting. The CWS/CMS Oversight Committee continues to meet approximately every 6 weeks
to discuss policy and operational issues. The Department's District Operational Support Team
continues to meet almost every Monday afternoon to identify problems and recommend actions
for resolution and to propose CWS/CMS enhancements. This team is comprised of the
CWS/CMS Manager, the full-time Application Trainer/Mentors, and district staff from various
offices, CWS programs, and staff levels. We also continue to actively participate at the State
level in the design sessions for systems enhancements. The following is a summary update of our
status report.
Functionality
Eight of the twelve modules have been implemented here, with plans currently underway to add
two major areas of functionality for CWS/CMS.
• Adoptions:
Adoptions implementation in Contra Costa (and throughout the state) is on the fast track.
California Department of Social Services (CDSS) recently sent a letter advising that
federal reporting for the Adoption Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS)
must be through CWS/CMS entries. Actions are now being taken to record adoptive
finalizations that occurred since CWS/CMS implementation. This conversion will be
completed by the end of April. Following that effort, full implementation of the Adoptions
module for ongoing activity will continue. CRSS, CWS/CMS Bureau, is currently chairing
a statewide taskforce to identify enhancements for the Adoptions module.
• Court Reports:
This February, CWS/CMS enhancements were distributed to the counties to allow the
generation of court reports before a referral disposition was recorded (since generation of
court reports and recording of referral disposition occur very quickly and are frequently
I
To: Family&Human Services Committee
Subj: CWS/CMS Update
April 5, 1999
happening simultaneously, this was a necessary change). Also in February, a major
redesign of the court report documents was distributed. Contra Costa actively
participated in the redesign of the Court module in order to insure that it addressed local
needs,
Currently, a department taskforce is reviewing the revised court documents. This
taskforce will be recommending a county wide approach to summer implementation and
training which will incorporate systems procedures with program and policy information
regarding the court report content, One Social Casework Specialist who participated in
the redesign of the court reports is "piloting" the court module for Contra Costa. The
court approves of the document and the worker has found this module user friendly. Initial
feedback from other department CWS staff is very positive.
Following implementation of these two modules, there will only be two remaining areas of
functionality not yet implemented in Contra Costa,
• Case Plan:
The Case Plan module has been one area of widespread agreement that major redesigns
are needed, in order to properly support workers. The planned enhancements, including a
redesign of the input screens and Case Plan documents, is scheduled for Fall of 1999,
Contra Costa will begin implementation after the revised programs have been received.
• Health &Education Passport:
The Health & Education Passport has also been redesigned to better allow the tracking of
health and education information for children in placement and the generation of a
document that can be given to a foster parent when a child is placed. The new passport
will only print headers for information that has been recorded in CWS/CMS for a child.
This will allow counties to input as much or as little data as they choose and still be able to
generate a viable, readable document for foster parents. The current release date for these
changes is fall of 1999. Contra Costa has identified a proposed work flow for entry of
health information to CWS/CMS and will be ready to begin planning for implementation
after the enhancements are received,
System Support
Staff in district offices continue to rely on Application Trainer/Mentors (ATM's) for support in
use of CWS/CMS. Originally, it was thought that the ATM function would be short-term. We
have learned that this need will continue as additional functionality is implemented and the system
is relied upon as the primary Child Welfare support system. Department Personnel has been
asked to review this function to determine a permanent classification for this ongoing support,
2
To: Family&Human Services Committee
Subj: CWS/CMS Update
April 5, 1999
Preliminary administrative budget costs submitted to the state requested continued ATM staffing
continue with an increase of two full-time ATM's to support Screening and Adoptions.
State Focus
The focus of the new Governor, State administration and project vendor is Y2K. The
CWS/CMS vendor, 313M Global Services, has already spent considerable time assuring that
CWS/CMS and supporting system are Y2K ready. The current state and project focus is on
county preparedness. The Bay Area Regional CWS/CMS Coordinators are identifying
emergency procedures that can be put into place should problems occur.
CDSS is also chairing a committee to conduct a "yardstick" study (SB2030) to identify impact of
CWS/CMS and new program requirements on the workload of staff. It is anticipated that the
result of this study will be an increase in CWS staff allocation.
The vendor, IBM Global Services, has also been focusing on technical upgrades including a
change in the application from 16 to 32 bit processing. This change is necessary because software
products currently used for maintenance (such as Visual Basic) are no longer supported in the 16
bit format. This is a major revision to CWS/CMS and has been occupying most of the vendor
time. Planned implementation for this change is June, 1999. The change should provide greater
system stability; however, the PC's that staff are using may prevent an increase in response time.
Contra. Costa has considered an upgrade in hardware but is waiting for state funding to make this
change.
Conclusions
The department continues to work with the state to resolve workload and funding issues that are
apparent to counties due to CWS/CMS implementation. This effort includes participation in
design sessions to improve CWS/CMS usability and support of the "yardstick" study". We also
continue to meet with unions and CWS staff to identify changes in CWS/CMS that will improve
usability and advocate for those changes at the state level.
We ask the Committee and the Board to keep this issue on referral in order to:
• Continue your support of the Department's phased-in approach to implementing CWS/CMS;
• Continue your support of the additional social worker, technical and application-support
personnel that allows an effective implementation process;
• Continue your support of the Department's requests for State funding of the necessary staff
and hardware to efficiently utilize this State-wide system.
JBC/GH:sjb
Attachment
CWS-CMS Status Report 4/94
3
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