Report 2013-110 Recommendation 16 Responses

Report 2013-110: Child Welfare Services: The County Child Welfare Services Agencies We Reviewed Must Provide Better Protection for Abused and Neglected Children (Release Date: April 2014)

Recommendation #16 To: San Francisco Human Services Agency, City and County of

To improve the timeliness and accuracy of SDM assessments, the San Francisco County CWS agency should ensure that its supervisors are promptly reviewing assessments.

1-Year Agency Response

Policy: The SDM Policy and Desk Guides were completed on 3/13/2015. Final approvals are being obtained and they will be disseminated to all staff by 4/30/2015.

To ensure that supervisors are reviewing assessments in a timely manner, each SDM Assessment Tool section contains the timeframes for the supervisor to review and approve each tool.

Additionally, the new SDM Policy mandates that Program Directors utilize the Safe Measures application to monitor the completion, supervisory approval and overrides of tools, as well as fidelity to the tools. The Intake Director conducts systematic reviews, to ensure that the supervisors are reviewing for accuracy.

- See Supporting Documentation

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

The policy referenced above became effective on April 27, 2015. As a result, this recommendation is fully implemented.

6-Month Agency Response

Please see response #13.

Additionally, once the policy, desk guides and staff training is completed, CQI will conduct ongoing reviews to ensure that supervisors are reviewing assessments in a thorough and timely manner.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

To date we have hired a Policy Supervisor who will develop policies and procedures requiring supervisory review of the hotline tool. The supervisor will come on board June 9, 2014. Additionally, we are in the process of redirecting 5 Protective Services Worker (PSW) positions to the Policy unit. We expect to have them on board by July 21, 2014.

Once the unit is established, the policy unit will develop and implement policies and procedures clarifying expectations on when and how to use SDM.

The county will work with the Childrens Research Center and the Bay Area Training Academy, to provide training and initial coaching, as needed, to ensure consistent use and completion of the SDM tool.

We are waiting for approval to hire 6 Quality Assurance (Q.A.) staff including 1 supervisor and 5 analysts to ensure compliance with new policies. Once in place, Q.A. will develop a review system and tools for ongoing compliance monitoring.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2013-110

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.