Describing the agency charged
with protecting local children as caring but understaffed, the Mendocino County
grand jury declared in a recent report that there is “a disaster waiting to
happen” in regard to the Family and Children’s Services Agency.
Formerly known as Child
Protective Services, FCS is tasked with serving children at risk of being
abused or neglected, and receives funding from state and federal programs.
According to the grand jury,
the county’s FCS “is one of the lowest-scoring child protective services
agencies in the state,” and that all indications point to “understaffing as the
main culprit.
“In spite of a dedicated,
caring and hard-working staff, the agency appears to be falling further
behind,” the report titled “Family and Children’s Services: Children at Risk”
states. “The understaffing has many causes: non-competitive compensation, work
overload, poor management and low morale. Senior management is aware of the
issues and their consequences, but has failed to address them.”
The grand jury began
investigating the agency after receiving complaints about the agency’s ability
to provide “timely and appropriate services to children at risk,” alleging that
the “services are not provided in a timely manner, or not provided at all, due
to staff shortages and management decisions.”
To explore the issue, the
grand jury interviewed 15 members of staff and management, and both current and
former employees of the county’s Health and Human Services Agency.
It found that “more than
one-third of the allocated social work positions are unfilled,” and many of the
others are filled by employees who do not have the proper “educational or
experience requirements.”
This lack of staff has
“translated into work overload and a significant number of late or unscreened
referrals, which may not be processed within the guidelines FCS uses.”
In addition, the grand jury
notes that the agency’s workload is only increasing, with the average number of
allegations of child abuse “increasing by more than 12 percent in the last six
years.”
The grand jury notes that
after salaries were cut by 10 percent in 2011, “there was an exodus of
experienced staff.” Then a “reorganization” of the agency in 2013 caused
“controversy among the staff and supervisors, significantly decreasing morale.”
The level of morale was described as “almost malignant.”
The grand jury recommends
that:
• FCS management bring to the attention of the Mendocino County
Board of Supervisors the ranking of the county with respect to all measures of
its agency’s performance with respect to the rest of the state, which is “at
the bottom for two of the three state measures for job performance.”
• Management bring to the MCBOS the consequences of late
investigations and late court reports.
• That the Health and Human Services agency report to the MCBOS
that the county “is not in compliance with the staffing requirements” for the
agency, and that the county “institute an active, continuous and
well-publicized effort to recruit qualified staff.”
• And that the MCBOS supply the Health and Human Services “with
the resources necessary to provide adequate services to the children of
Mendocino County.
Responses are required by the
Mendocino County CEO, as well as the directors of the county’s Health and Human
Services agency and its Human Resources department.
May
30, 2015
Ukiah
Daily Journal
By Ukiah
Daily Journal Staff
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