Report 2016-126 Recommendation 23 Responses

Report 2016-126: California Department of Social Services: Its Caregiver Background Check Bureau Lacks Criminal History Information It Needs to Protect Vulnerable Populations in Licensed Care Facilities (Release Date: March 2017)

Recommendation #23 To: Social Services, Department of

To ensure that it can accurately monitor its pending cases, by May 2017 Social Services should develop a work plan to identify and address its exemption process backlog by September 2017. At a minimum, the work plan should include reviewing the cases its database identifies as open without activity 150 days after receiving a RAP sheet and closing the cases in its database where Social Services already performed its final exemption decision action.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2018

The Caregiver Background Check Bureau (CBCB) has reduced its backlog of open cases that have had no activity within 150 days of receiving a RAP to 160 cases. This represents only 2 percent of CBCB's overall open cases of 7,457. CBCB continues its monitoring efforts by generating internal reports from the CBC system, which can only be generated by individual Analysts as the CBC System does not have the capability to generate a consolidated report. Refer to the Tickle reports attached.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

If the case processing statistics are as Social Services represents in its response, then we agree that this recommendation is fully implemented. However, we are unable to fully validate this response without performing onsite follow-up work.

1-Year Agency Response

In order to reduce the backlog, the Department has developed a work which includes monitoring open cases on a bi-weekly basis using inventory reports and has authorized and used overtime hours. As a result, the Department has reduced the timeframes for each step to ensure timely process.

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

Social Services has demonstrated that it has established a tickler system for identifying backlogged cases. However, the department has not provided a report showing the total number of cases that were backlogged (open for more than 150 days) as of the time of its response. During our audit, we found that more than 2,500 cases were open for longer than 150 days as of June 30, 2016. To demonstrate full implementation, Social Services should submit evidence that it has significantly reduced the number of backlogged cases.

6-Month Agency Response

See 60-day response to Recommendation 21.

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

Social Services' response to recommendation 21 states that it has developed time frames for its exemption process. However, the department has not provided a work plan to address its backlog nor provided documentation to demonstrate how many cases remain in its backlog.

60-Day Agency Response

The Department has developed a monitoring process that will identify and address overdue cases, including those currently open over 120 days without activity. The Community Care Licensing Division recently began receiving the raw data from the CBC Database and is developing dashboards for the managers and analysts to use to monitor their case work. These dashboards will allow both management and analysts to easily identify aging cases. The dashboards will also be utilized to develop the reports to the Deputy Director noted in the response to Recommendation 11.

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

In its response, Social Services refers to recommendation 11. This number is different than the numbers assigned to recommendations on our website. Social Services is referring to the recommendation that we have numbered 21.

All Recommendations in 2016-126

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.