(Napa County) Grand jury calls for more child caseworkers

ISABELLE DILLS | Posted: Tuesday, July 5, 2011 8:15 pm | (10) Comments
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Napa County’s grand jury believes the Child Welfare Services system has “too many kids, not enough help” after investigating the agency this past year.
Caseworkers are overloaded, not enough employees are bilingual, the number of foster homes has declined and the service used to hire new employees is “outdated and rigid,” the grand jury concluded.
Linda Canan, director of Child Welfare Services, said the problems cited by the grand jury are the result of inadequate state funding, which she said has stayed “pretty flat” despite increasing caseloads.
The grand jury’s investigation, which included interviews, document analysis and Internet research, began in August 2010 and concluded with the issuing of its final report in June.
Child Welfare Services has 90 days to formally respond to the jury’s findings and recommendations, said Judith Bernat, forewoman for the 2010-2011 Napa County grand jury.
At the time the grand jury wrote its report, Child Welfare Services had six full-time caseworkers, plus three caseworkers who each carried less than a full-time caseload, Canan said. The average full-time-equivalent caseload was 25 to 30 cases, and only one of those caseworkers was certified as bilingual, she said.
Child Welfare Services has since hired four half-time caseworkers, Canan said. One of the new hires is certified bilingual, and the average caseload has dropped to about 20.
“The goal is to get down below that,” Canan said. “Research indicates the ideal number of cases is 12 to 15, but we’re not funded for anywhere near that.”
The California Department of Social Services bases its funding on the premise that a caseworker carries about 39 cases, despite a workload study in 2000 that indicated a caseload should never exceed 18, Canan said.
Caseloads have significantly increased since the economic downturn, she said. In December 2008, Child Welfare Services had 78 children in foster care. By May 2011, that number had increased to 143, she said.
Meanwhile, the number of county-licensed foster homes has fallen into the 40s — down from about 70 in the mid-1980s when a grand jury last reviewed Child Welfare Services.
“One of the main problems we have is the rate of compensation (for foster families) is so inadequate, it’s basically a volunteer job,” Canan said.
She hopes more foster homes will soon be available since the Ninth District Court of Appeals ruled last August that the state had to increase its payments to families.
Canan said Child Welfare Services can now offer 18 percent to 27 percent more to foster families — the numbers vary depending on the age of the child. For a child up to 4 years old, this means a foster family can now receive about $600 per month.
The grand jury credited Child Welfare Services in its increased efforts to place foster children with extended family members. In recent years, that rate has risen from 5 percent to 30 percent, according to the report.
In the grand jury’s investigation into the hiring process, it found that Child Welfare Services’ use of Merit System Services, a statewide personnel recruiting system, was a “hindrance to a smooth and efficient procedure.”
If Merit System Services has an existing list of applicants, those names are forwarded without opening the position to other people. This method of hiring has the potential to exclude more qualified, local candidates, according to the report. When Merit System Services does not have an existing list of applicants, a recruitment list is open for only one to four days or until 30 applicants apply, according to the report.
“It basically comes down to who hits the ‘send’ button first on the computer,” Canan said.
The length of the applicant screening process mandated by Merit System Services also adds three or more months to the hiring process, she said.
For the four recently hired half-time employees, Canan said the entire hiring process took from December to May.
The grand jury recommended that Merit System Services be replaced by the Napa County Human Resources Department, which provides recruitment and hiring services for most Napa County agencies and departments. To make that happen, the county would have to appeal to the State Personnel Board to begin the process of removing Napa County from Merit System Services.
Managers and employees were credited by the grand jury as knowledgeable and devoted to their work, but were also noted for lacking communication.
“The Child Welfare Services overall performance has been and still is affected by a chasm that exists between management and staff,” the report said. “A number of caseworkers believe that management and supervisors alike are not supportive enough in their day-to-day guidance. Often when confronting difficult situations requiring supervisor guidance, caseworkers believe they are left on their own.”
Canan said staff informed her of communication problems prior to the grand jury’s report, and that it is an issue they hope to improve.
“It’s very stressful work,” Canan said. “Even if you have support, it may feel like you need more.”
Canan said she appreciated the work of the grand jury in bringing many of these problems to light.
“I really appreciate their interest and their efforts in supporting our programs,” she said.


Read more: http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/grand-jury-calls-for-more-child-caseworkers/article_d4578f4c-a77d-11e0-9748-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1ROScAKoU