Report 2016-126 Recommendation 24 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 #24 To: Social Services, Department of

To ensure that Social Services processes arrest-only cases as quickly as possible, it should immediately follow its arrest-only and investigation policies, and monitor against those time frames for the various stages of the process.

1-Year Agency Response

The Department maintains a tracking log documenting the procedures are successful and effective in meeting and processing timelines. The Department consistently follows detailed procedural steps for its Arrest Only and investigative procedures. The Department management enters dates and monitors timeframes utilizing the Arrest Only tracking log. (Attachment 14)

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


6-Month Agency Response

The Caregiver Background Check Bureau continues to track and review arrest cases (see Attachments H, I and J) and provide ongoing training to staff as needed. On September 20, 2017, the Investigations Branch trained staff on updated procedures for researching arrest cases. A pilot of the new procedures began October 2, 2017 with an evaluation of effectiveness scheduled to occur in January 2018.

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


60-Day Agency Response

The Caregiver Background Check Bureau has developed a monitoring tool and is utilizing this to track and review arrest cases including the preliminary review of the RAP. The Arrest Unit received additional verbal direction and instruction to adhere to existing procedures. This verbal direction was followed up with formal training on April 20th as noted in the response to Recommendation 20.

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

Social Services is monitoring its arrest only cases against its established processing time frames. We look forward to reviewing whether Social Services' monitoring efforts are resulting in faster processing of arrest only cases as part of its six-month response.


All Recommendations in 2016-126

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.