Report 2013-110 Recommendations

To ensure that referral response decisions are accurate, the Butte County CWS agency should develop policies requiring a supervisory review of the hotline tool and a monitoring system to ensure that supervisory reviews are completed.

To ensure that the statewide case management system contains accurate and complete information for each referral, the Butte County CWS agency should update its policies or otherwise provide clear guidance to social workers about the importance of ensuring that all alleged perpetrators, victims, and types of maltreatment are accurately recorded upon intake.

To ensure that social workers are making reasonable and timely efforts to make in-person contact with children who are allegedly being maltreated, the Butte County CWS agency should develop clear policies for how frequently social workers must follow up with alleged victims in the event that initial attempts at contact are unsuccessful.

To ensure that social workers are making reasonable and timely efforts to make in-person contact with children who are allegedly being maltreated, the Butte County CWS agency should develop clear policies about the method and duration of social workers attempts at making contact with hard-to-reach families, and clearly state under what circumstances a referral may be closed for lack of contact.

To ensure that all required SDM assessments are completed, the Butte County CWS agency should develop and implement clear guidance regarding which assessments are required in different situations.

To improve the timeliness and accuracy of SDM assessments, the Butte County CWS agency should ensure that its supervisors are promptly reviewing assessments.

To improve the timeliness of its supervisors reviews, the Butte County CWS agency should develop time frames for supervisors review and approval of assessments and monitor supervisors compliance with those time frames.

To improve the quality of the investigative information available to social workers, the Butte County CWS agency should expand on its investigative narrative templates to include fields such as relevant criminal history, substance abuse, or mental health concerns.

To ensure that required safety plans are created, the Butte County CWS agency should have supervisors review all safety assessments in a timely manner and verify that a written safety plan signed by the responsible parties accompanies any assessments designating the need for a safety plan.

To help strengthen safety plans to effectively mitigate safety threats, the Butte County CWS agency should ensure that supervisors are reviewing and approving all safety plans.

As part of its responsibility to help children remain safe at all points during the investigation of a referral, the Butte County CWS agency should vet temporary living situations and caregivers to the extent allowable under the law, including a review of information contained within the statewide CWS database.

As part of its responsibility to help children remain safe at all points during the investigation of a referral, the Butte County CWS agency should perform statutorily required background checks and inspections before allowing children to be placed in a home.

To ensure that they provide clear, up-to-date guidance to its social workers, the Butte County CWS agency should designate specific personnel to stay informed of relevant statutory, regulatory, and needed practice changes and to ensure that corresponding updates are made to its policies and procedures.

To be able to review regularly more referrals and cases, the Butte County CWS agency should consider adding additional staff to its quality assurance function.

To ensure that referral response decisions are accurate, the Orange County CWS agency should ensure that all intake supervisors are trained on the use of the hotline tool and that they are regularly reviewing their staffs use of this tool.

To ensure that the statewide case management system contains accurate and complete information for each referral, the Orange County CWS agency should update its policies or otherwise provide clear guidance to social workers about the importance of ensuring that all alleged perpetrators, victims, and types of maltreatment are accurately recorded upon intake.

To ensure that its social workers are following its policy regarding timely follow-up visits, the Orange County CWS agency should provide training or other clarification of its policy and have its supervisors regularly review whether their staff are complying with this requirement.

To improve the timeliness and accuracy of SDM assessments, the Orange County CWS agency should ensure that its supervisors are promptly reviewing assessments.

To improve the timeliness of its supervisors reviews, the Orange County CWS agency should more closely monitor supervisors compliance with its existing policy setting a 30-day time frame for review and approval of assessments.

To ensure that required safety plans are created, the Orange County CWS agency should have supervisors review all safety assessments in a timely manner and verify that a written safety plan signed by the responsible parties accompanies any assessments designating the need for a safety plan.

To help strengthen safety plans to effectively mitigate safety threats, the Orange County CWS agency should ensure that supervisors are reviewing and approving all safety plans.

As part of its responsibility to help children remain safe at all points during the investigation of a referral, the Orange County CWS agency should vet temporary living situations and caregivers to the extent allowable under the law, including a review of information contained within the statewide CWS database.

As part of its responsibility to help children remain safe at all points during the investigation of a referral, the Orange County CWS agency should perform statutorily required background checks and inspections before allowing children to be placed in a home.

To promote the consistent application of agency policies and procedures, and to provide a consistent framework for its reviews, the quality assurance unit that monitors the Orange County CWS agency should complete its plans to develop and regularly use tools for examining the quality of investigative and ongoing casework.

To ensure that referral response decisions are accurate, the San Francisco County CWS agency should develop policies requiring a supervisory review of the hotline tool and a monitoring system to ensure that supervisory reviews are completed.

To ensure that the statewide case management system contains accurate and complete information for each referral, the San Francisco County CWS agency should update its policies or otherwise provide clear guidance to social workers about the importance of ensuring that all alleged perpetrators, victims, and types of maltreatment are accurately recorded upon intake.

To ensure that social workers are making reasonable and timely efforts to make in-person contact with children who are allegedly being maltreated, the San Francisco County CWS agency should develop clear policies for how frequently social workers must follow up with alleged victims in the event that initial attempts at contact are unsuccessful.

To ensure that social workers are making reasonable and timely efforts to make in-person contact with children who are allegedly being maltreated, the San Francisco County CWS agency should develop clear policies about the method and duration of social workers attempts at making contact with hard-to-reach families, and clearly state under what circumstances a referral may be closed for lack of contact.

To ensure that all required SDM assessments are completed, the San Francisco County CWS agency should develop and implement clear guidance regarding which assessments are required in different situations.

To improve the timeliness and accuracy of SDM assessments, the San Francisco County CWS agency should ensure that its supervisors are promptly reviewing assessments.

To improve the timeliness of its supervisors reviews, the San Francisco County CWS agency should develop time frames for supervisors review and approval of assessments and monitor supervisors compliance with those time frames.

To improve the quality of the investigative information available to social workers the San Francisco County CWS agency should expand on its investigative narrative templates to include fields such as relevant criminal history, substance abuse, or mental health concerns.

To ensure that required safety plans are created, the San Francisco County CWS agency should have supervisors review all safety assessments in a timely manner and verify that a written safety plan signed by the responsible parties accompanies any assessments designating the need for a safety plan.

To help strengthen safety plans to effectively mitigate safety threats, the San Francisco County CWS agency should ensure that supervisors are reviewing and approving all safety plans.

As part of its responsibility to help children remain safe at all points during the investigation of a referral, the San Francisco County CWS agency should vet temporary living situations and caregivers to the extent allowable under the law, including a review of information contained within the statewide CWS database.

As part of its responsibility to help children remain safe at all points during the investigation of a referral, the San Francisco County CWS agency should perform statutorily required background checks and inspections before allowing children to be placed in a home.

To improve its coordination and communication with local law enforcement, the San Francisco County CWS agency should consider entering into a memorandum of understanding with the applicable law enforcement agency that delineates how the two agencies will share information and assist each other in responding to child maltreatment.

To ensure that they provide clear, up-to-date guidance to its social workers, the San Francisco County CWS agency should designate specific personnel to stay informed of relevant statutory, regulatory, and needed practice changes and to ensure that corresponding updates are made to its policies and procedures.

To ensure that its social workers and supervisors are performing required activities in a timely and effective manner, the San Francisco County CWS agency should follow through on its plans to develop a quality assurance unit. The unit should regularly review and report to management on the degree of compliance with, and effectiveness of, the agencys policies and procedures.

To promote continued improvement in the CWS system, Social Services should encourage each county CWS agency to designate personnel to update regularly their policies and procedures, to include a detailed description of the need for ongoing supervisory reviews of key aspects of their respective service processes and incorporate that description into their policies and procedures, and to designate personnel to perform regular quality assurance reviews.

To promote continued improvement in the CWS system, Social Services should ask each county CWS agency to report to Social Services on the status of these efforts within 60 days, six months, and one year from the publication of this audit report.