In the last year, the Child Welfare Services Division has experienced an increase in overall workload. An internal analysis revealed the primary drivers of the increased workload were immediate response referrals and supervised visitation.
Immediate Response Referrals
Immediate response referrals occur when a person reports suspicions of child abuse or neglect and staff deem the alleged maltreatment as severe enough to require an investigation within 24 hours.
From January 2016 to April 2017, Child Welfare Services experienced a 96.15% percent increase in the number of referrals that required immediate response. The following table depicts the trend over time, illustrating a dramatic uptick in the last two months compared to the previous fourteen months.
Number of Child Welfare Services Referrals that Required Immediate Response by Month
| January 2016 |
26 |
| February 2016 |
21 |
| March 2016 |
20 |
| April 2016 |
24 |
| May 2016 |
28 |
| June 2016 |
24 |
| July 2016 |
28 |
| August 2016 |
32 |
| September 2016 |
25 |
| October 2016 |
17 |
| November 2016 |
23 |
| December 2016 |
31 |
| January 2017 |
25 |
| February 2017 |
28 |
| March 2017 |
57 |
| April 2017 |
51 |
Concurrently, staff also noted an increase in the number of children removed from unsafe situations. From January 2016 to April 2017, Child Welfare Services experienced a 42.86 percent increase in removals.
Number of Children Removed from Unsafe Situations by Month
| January 2016 |
14 |
| February 2016 |
13 |
| March 2016 |
13 |
| April 2016 |
20 |
| May 2016 |
29 |
| June 2016 |
15 |
| July 2016 |
14 |
| August 2016 |
25 |
| September 2016 |
20 |
| October 2016 |
3 |
| November 2016 |
18 |
| December 2016 |
17 |
| January 2017 |
22 |
| February 2017 |
22 |
| March 2017 |
28 |
| April 2017 |
20 |
While the influx in removals is likely correlated with the influx in immediate response referrals, possible causes for the overall influx include:
- Improved cross reporting by law enforcement agencies;
- Improved fidelity when using the safety and risk assessment tool; and
- Increased community awareness due to the Child Welfare Services workshops convened by the Board of Supervisors.
Supervised Visitation
Supervised visitation is the provision of scheduled contact between a child and the child’s family in the presence of a third party. Most commonly, supervised visitation occurs when a child is in a court-ordered, out-of-home placement due to allegations or findings of abuse or neglect. The goal is to protect the child from inappropriate or unsafe parenting, while still enabling the child to maintain a relationship with his or her family.
Similar to immediate response referrals, Child Welfare Services experienced an increased demand for supervised visitation. During the six months leading up to April 2016, staff estimates that internal Social Worker Practitioners covered 30 to 35 hours per month of supervised visits, whereas at present, internal Social Worker Practitioners cover 539 hours per month of supervised visits. Of those 539 hours, staff estimates that at least 351 are overtime hours to accommodate after hours requests.
This coverage is in addition to the supervised visitation already provided by the County’s subcontractor, CommuniCare Health Centers, Inc. At present, staff estimates CommuniCare provides 536.5 hours per month of supervised visitation. Moreover, from July 2016 to March 2017, CommuniCare reported supervising 2,088 visitations.
To temporarily mitigate this influx, staff borrowed five Employment Services Specialists from the Service Center Branch; however, they are due to transition back to Employment Services at the end of June 2017, leaving Child Welfare Services in need of other options.
Strategies for Improvement
On May 8, 2017, the Child Welfare Services Board Subcommittee met to discuss the increased workload. The Subcommittee recommended the following short-term and long-term strategies.
Short-Term Strategies
In an effort to provide immediate workload relief, staff will request Board approval to:
- Initiate a third amendment to agreement No. 2015-0060 with CommuniCare to augment FY 2017-18 funding for supervised visitation by $60,000 for a total of $360,000;
- Seek any willing provider(s) to execute additional one-year, supervised visitation contract(s) for a total of $216,600; and
- Overfill Child Welfare Services’ Social Worker Practitioner allocation with an additional five Social Worker Practitioner full-time equivalents.
Reason for Augmenting FY 2017-18 CommuniCare Supervised Visitation Contract
In March 2017, staff executed a second amendment to agreement No. 2015-0060 with CommuniCare to augment its FY 2016-17 budget by $60,000 for a total of $360,000 and extend the contract through FY 2017-18. However, the amendment did not augment the FY 2017-18 budget, which remains at $300,000. Given that the contract’s current budget of $360,000 is insufficient to meet the supervised visitation demand, staff will initiate a third amendment so that FY 2017-18 funding is at least consistent with FY 2016-17 funding. Staff plans to include the amendment as a future agenda item for formal Board consideration.
Reason for Seeking Any Willing Provider
To further mitigate the increased demand, staff plans to seek any willing provider(s) to execute additional one-year, supervised visitation contract(s). Using the 539 hours per month estimate and the current subcontractor’s rates for salaries, benefits, operating costs and indirect costs, staff approximates the need for an extra $216,600 in subcontractor supervised visitation. Executing additional contract(s) will not only further accommodate the high demand, but also free up internal staff time to focus on other priorities. As with the CommuniCare contract amendment, staff plans to include this request as a future agenda item for formal Board consideration.
Reason for Overfilling Position Allocation
A final short-term strategy is to overfill Child Welfare Services’ Social Worker Practitioner allocation of positions by an additional five Social Worker Practitioners. This means that Child Welfare Services would begin FY 2017-18 with 58 Social Worker Practitioners, exceeding its authorized number of 53 positions by five. Overfilling is a prudent strategy given that over the past five years, the division lost 28 Social Worker Practitioners for an average of 5.6 workers per year. Due to this attrition rate, staff expects no fiscal impact. Furthermore, overfilling is likely to result in the benefits of less time and money spent on recruitment, less strain on the existing workforce, but most importantly less service degradation.
Long-Term Strategies
While dependent on the effectiveness of its short-term strategies, staff anticipates the long-term need of additional full-time equivalent staff members, including Social Services Assistants. An analysis comparing Yolo County’s current cases to statewide caseload standards suggests the need for 11 more positions.
The need, however, is variable and largely reliant on the number of immediate investigation referrals as well as the frequency of court-order supervised visitation. As such, the Child Welfare Services Board Subcommittee will continue to monitor case counts and staff accrual of overtime to determine the appropriate class and number of positions to add. |