Report 2018-126 Recommendation 1 Responses

Report 2018-126: Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services: It Has Not Adequately Ensured the Health and Safety of All Children in Its Care (Release Date: May 2019)

Recommendation #1 To: Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services

To ensure that it protects children by completing investigations, assessments, home inspections, and background checks in a timely manner, by November 2019 the department should require staff and supervisors to utilize tracking reports and email alerts to identify investigations and SDM assessments not completed on time.

1-Year Agency Response

On November 27, 2019, the Department's Structured Decision Making (SDM) email alert system went live as planned. Based on when SDM Safety and/or Risk assessments are due, Children's Social Workers (CSWs), Supervising Children's Social Workers (SCSWs), Assistant Regional Administrators, Regional Administrators, and/or Deputy Directors now receive alerts informing them of any outstanding assessments for appropriate oversight.

On the same date, relevant policy updates were published to include timeframes for SDM completion (refer to attachments).

NOTE: To further assist with tracking efforts, CSWs and SCSWs can review when SDMs are due on their cases and/or opt in to receive email notifications regarding upcoming and incomplete SDMs through the National Council on Crime & Delinquency's WebSDM application.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

The department provided documentation that shows reports it uses to track the number of overdue investigations and SDM assessments, which are automatically generated and sent via email alert to differing levels of staff at different intervals.

6-Month Agency Response

The Department continues to enforce the Director's Escalation Plan to track and escalate investigations to the attention of higher-level managers as the age of investigations increase.

In March 2019, Regional Administrators (RAs) made it a formal management goal to decrease the percentage of investigations aging over 30 days - recognizing that some complex referrals necessarily exceed 30 days to ensure child safety. The Service Bureaus subsequently adopted an action plan to have regional offices with the highest percentages of "over-30s" during various points in time participate in Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats (SWOT) analysis conferences with Executive Team members to discuss problematic issues and contributing factors, and to strategize how to best target systemic barriers causing the undue delays (data regarding progress attached).

As for the oversight/monitoring of Structured Decision Making (SDM) assessments, a workgroup convened in August 2019 to establish the criteria for alert notifications concerning overdue SDM Safety and Risk assessments. Consequently, the Department's Business Information Systems Division developed an automated email alert system that sends notification on a graduated basis to Children's Social Workers, Supervising Children's Social Workers, Assistant Regional Administrators, RAs, and Deputy Directors reminding them of the need to tend to overdue assessments.

Department management has been meeting with its labor partners to discuss the workload impact of the newly created alerts; a follow-up meeting is scheduled for November 26, 2019.

Barring any unforeseen barriers, the Department intends to proceed with implementing the SDM alerts by November 30, 2019.

Background checks are discussed under Recommendation #4.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

On March 22, 2019, the Department issued a memorandum on Emergency Response (ER) Investigations and outlined an Escalation Plan to address the timely closure of ER referrals. The Department also issued a For Your Information (FYI) bulletin titled "Timely Submission and Approval of Structured Decision Making (SDM) Tools" on May 29, 2019 delineating due dates for completing and approving various SDM assessment tools for Children's Social Workers (CSWs) and Supervising Children's Social Workers (SCSWs). On June 24, 2019, the Department further issued a foundational policy on SDM with specific guidelines on how and when to conduct and complete the different assessments.

Now that the needed matrices in place, the Department's BIS division is developing appropriate management tracking reports and email alerts to ensure that timely investigations and accurate assessments are completed.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2018-126

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.