Alameda County Supervisors Lena Tam and Nikki Fortunato Bas led a Social Services Committee meeting to receive updates on multiple departments, including the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS).
The department has been under scrutiny in recent months after a California audit reported slow response times to suspected child abuse emergency calls, also known as immediate referrals. This is the department’s fifth update since the release of the state audit in September.
DCFS assistant agency director Michelle Love talked about the state audit during the Feb. 23 committee meeting and their progress towards implementing the audit’s recommendations.
Several recommendations involve the hiring of enough staff to connect foster kids to timely medical and mental health services, and to start suspected child abuse investigations more quickly.
Love said the department developed a strategy after forming a Diverse Ideas Workgroup. They decided to have both a clerical worker and the child welfare supervisor work on emergency response referrals. That way, a child welfare worker can get assigned more quickly.
The department started a pilot study to see how much of child welfare worker responsibilities can be given to clerical staff, so workers can focus more on starting suspected child abuse investigations. DCFS is also updating their memorandum of understanding with mental health providers and Regional Center of the East Bay to make sure children are receiving timely services.
Love also shared updates on child welfare worker recruitment. DCFS job posts were sent to eight local colleges and 68 community and faith based organizations. The department is looking for child welfare workers with a bachelor’s and master’s degree. Love said 12 bachelor level welfare workers have just been hired. The hiring for this position is continuous, with application deadlines throughout the year. The next deadline is March 16, with 140 applications received so far.
Love addressed the timing of emergency calls regarding alleged child abuse, and how the state audit suggested hiring more bachelor level child welfare workers to help with that workload.
“We’re assessing abuse at a time where it could be ongoing,” she said. “These are knocking on the door where we haven’t met you before and there’s no ongoing relationship. Those cases should be staffed by our most skilled workers.” (Skilled workers are child welfare workers with a Master’s degree.)
Love said bachelor level workers start with a light workload for several months before receiving emergency referral assignments. But, she said that is still not enough time for workers to get fairly trained to handle emergency referrals. “We’re stuck with the liability of the outcome of the work that they do,” Love said.
DCFS is expected to provide an update during a March Board of Supervisors meeting.
