Report 2011-101.1 Recommendation 10 Responses

Report 2011-101.1: Child Welfare Services: California Can and Must Provide Better Protection and Support for Abused and Neglected Children (Release Date: October 2011)

Recommendation #10 To: Social Services, Department of

As part of its instructions related to its outcome review process, Social Services should direct county CWS agencies to include completed internal death reviews in the development of their self-assessments and improvement plans.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2013

Fully Implemented/Completion Date: September 2012. In addition to the September 2012 ACIN, in December 2012 CDSS released a draft of the California-Child and Family Services Review (C-CFSR) Instruction Manual to counties. In the manual, the Critical Incident Review Process states counties shall describe the process by which they review and respond to critical incidents such as fatalities and near fatalities. The process also suggests that counties should consider the appropriateness of including systemic issues in their respective SIPs if such issues are identified during the review process.

Counties have been utilizing the draft Instruction Manual when completing their CSAs and SIPs. CDSS is in the process of finalizing the Instruction Manual, which is expected to be published via ACL in the Fall of 2013.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2012

Social Services released a September 2012 letter to county CWS agencies encouraging them to use information gathered from death reviews in their county self-assessments. However, the department did not indicate that it revised its instructions related to its outcome review process.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2011-101.1

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.