Report 2018-126 Recommendations

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.

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 establish thresholds for the number of days that will trigger follow-up from the department's various levels of management.

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 implement a tracking mechanism to monitor and follow-up on uncompleted or undocumented initial home inspections and background checks.

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 implement a tracking mechanism to monitor live scan criminal record checks.

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 conduct annual reviews of community organizations that perform home environment assessments to ensure that they complete these assessments on schedule.

To ensure that its staff appropriately use SDM assessments to identify safety threats and risks, the department should incorporate SDM instructions into its policies and procedures by July 2019 and provide mandatory annual SDM training for applicable staff, supervisors, and other members of management by May 2020.

To ensure that supervisors review investigations, assessments, and other documentation on time, the department should, by November 2019, specify time frames by which each type of document should be reviewed. In doing so, the department should acknowledge the particular urgency of reviewing safety assessments and related safety plans, which are key to determining whether to leave a child in the home.

To improve the accuracy of its assessments, the department should require supervisors to regularly review and evaluate assessments against available evidence and observations. It should implement this process by July 2019.

To improve the quality of supervisors' reviews and to allow it to hold supervisors accountable, the department should, by May 2020, reduce the number of social workers assigned to each supervisor to at least the ratio specified in its union contract.

To strengthen and improve its quality control processes, by November 2019 the department should follow through on its plan to create a quality improvement division and increase the number of cases it regularly reviews.

To strengthen and improve its quality control processes, by November 2019 the department should enhance the focus of its case reviews to not only include a review of particular case outcomes, but to also determine whether critical assessments are accurate and thorough.

To strengthen and improve its quality control processes, by November 2019 the department should broaden its case reviews to include an evaluation of the quality of supervisor reviews.

To strengthen and improve its quality control processes, by November 2019 the department should establish a mechanism to identify and address case management problems that are prevalent and persistent among social workers, supervisors and regional offices.

To strengthen and improve its quality control processes, by November 2019 the department should implement a tracking system to monitor the implementation and results of recommendations resulting from child-death reviews.