SUMMARY ASSESSMENT |
As a part of on-going quality development activities, and as a first step in response to the California Child and Family Services Review, Orange County Department of Children and Family Services (CFS) and Orange County Probation Department have completed the 2004 Self Assessment Report, as summarized below.
This self-assessment report was developed with input solicited from CFS staff, the Orange County Probation Department and other stakeholders throughout Orange County. Over 45 individual and group stakeholders provided information in response to requests for feedback regarding child welfare services in Orange County. Staff and stakeholder input is included in the summary below, and is also interwoven throughout the body of the report. Data outcome information provided through the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and the University of California, Berkeley, has been analyzed in terms of Orange County's performance in each of the outcome factors. Systemic factors affecting these outcomes have been described and analyzed. Information specifically pertaining to the Orange County Probation Department is indicated in italicized type.
DATA OUTCOME INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS
Probation statistical data is not included in the County outcome measures. The California Chief Probation Officers Association (CPOC) is working with CDSS to develop probation-specific outcome measures and data collection methods as Probation does not have access to CWS/CMS.
Children are, first and foremost, protected from abuse and neglect.
Child safety has always been the number one priority for Orange County CFS. This priority is reflected in strong outcome data in the area of safety.
Recurrence of maltreatment
In the area of recurrence of maltreatment, Orange County data demonstrates that 5.8% of the children receiving a substantiated allegation of abuse have another substantiated allegation of abuse within the specified period. This rate is lower than the national standard of 6.1%, and significantly lower than the California statewide average of 11.2%. Rates of recurrence of abuse or neglect of children who remain in their own homes and receive child welfare services are 8.0% for Orange County, compared with a California statewide average of 9.5%.
Orange County CFS policy does not require a substantiated allegation to provide voluntary Family Maintenance services. This policy results in the provision of intensive preventive/early intervention services to families, reducing recurrence of abuse and strengthening families before areas of concern escalate and require court intervention. Additionally, families receiving court-ordered family maintenance services have access to an intensive array of CFS-contracted and community-based services that support child safety and the amelioration of child welfare concerns.
Issues that may negatively impact recurrence of abuse include the refusal of voluntary services by families that are not court mandated. Also, when families do receive services, providers working with the family may report abuse that would have gone otherwise unobserved, and actually increase the reported rates of recurrence even though the family may be actively engaged in a recovery process.
Abuse in foster care
Rates of abuse or neglect of Orange County children while in foster care are also favorable. Orange County data shows an abuse in foster care rate of .2%, or 2 out of every one thousand children placed in foster homes. This is less than half the national standard of .57%, and only one quarter of the California average of .81%. Although recent changes have been put in place to correct the situation, data collection restraints have limited this outcome information to children placed in foster or Foster Family Agency (FFA) homes (and does not include children in group homes and homes of relatives and non-related extended family members).
Orange County contracts with the State to license its own foster homes. Once licensed, foster parents have access to a wide variety of supportive services, including training, information sharing, basic needs resources, and limited amounts of child care and respite care. In addition to support from licensing workers and continuing social workers who have children placed in foster homes, CFS has three dedicated social workers and a foster care liaison to provide on-going support. CFS foster home monitors provide on-going support to caregivers, and also immediately investigate allegations of abuse or neglect in foster homes.
Children in group homes are seen at least monthly by their assigned social worker, and group home monitors provide support to staff, and investigate any allegations of abuse, neglect, or quality of care issues in group homes. To assure safety for children placed in the homes of relatives and non-related extended family members (NREFM), CFS has recently implemented a comprehensive assessment and annual reassessment process that applies the same health and safety standards as those used to assess licensed homes.
Timeliness of social worker contacts and response to reports of suspected child abuse or neglect
Prompt investigation of child abuse reports, and making face to face contact with children and their caregivers on a regular basis once child welfare services have begun, are vital to ensuring child safety. Orange County's compliance with state-mandated timeframes for responding to reports of suspected abuse or neglect is excellent, with a 94% compliance rate on reports designated to have a response within 10 days, and an outstanding 99% compliance rate for responding within 24 hours to reports indicating that a child may be in imminent danger.
Orange County's compliance with monthly contacts with children receiving CFS services averaged 94.2% over the second quarter of 2003. This percentage is higher than the California statewide average of 85.2%, and is in compliance with state requirements that contact compliance be above 90%. However, due to the importance of regular contact between social worker and child as the foundation for ensuring child safety and adequate provision of services, Orange County began implementation of several strategies to maintain consistent compliance in this area over a year ago. These strategies have included:
· Case carrying social workers complete monthly statistical reports indicating completed and attempted contacts for each child in their caseload.
· Monthly Business Objects reports are run that determine contact compliance within each program, drilling down to a level of detail that enables managers and supervisors to work proactively with staff to increase completion of timely contacts.
· Contact reports are reviewed monthly at managers' meetings.
· Supervisors conduct monthly conferences with staff and complete quarterly reviews on selected cases to verify compliance with contact requirements.
Children have permanency and stability in their living situations without increasing reentry to foster care.
Outcomes in this area measure the percent of children reunified with their parents within 12 months of removal from their home and what percentage of reunified children return to foster care. For those who do not return to their parents but must go on to another permanent home, the percentage of children adopted within 24 months of removal from their home is measured. Additionally, the number of out of home placements children experience while in care is measured.
Rate of reunification and re-entry to foster care
Orange County CFS' rate of reunification is somewhat slower than the rest of California, with 57.2% of children reunified within 12 months, compared to a national standard of 76.2% and a California state average of 65.3% Although this reunification rate is slower than desired, it is at least somewhat mitigated by Orange County's rate of successful reunifications. In measurements of re-entry to foster care following reunification, Orange County data demonstrates a return rate of 5.0%, which compares favorably with the national standard of 8.6%, and a California statewide average of 10.8%.
Analysis of Orange County practice and other systemic factors indicates that a wide range of issues contribute to the rate of reunification. Stakeholder feedback has indicated that all parties involved in reunification services need to be aware of federally mandated time frames, looking towards permanency for the child from the first date of detention. Despite a comprehensive array of services available to support families, issues such as Juvenile Court continuances and contested hearings that delay parents' commitment to engaging in services, social work practice that is based on court timelines rather than the readiness of families to reunify, and a lack of affordable housing for families in need all contribute to a slower rate of reunification.
Stakeholder feedback indicates that it is more desirable to reunify a little more slowly than it is to risk bringing children back into custody after a failed reunification. However decreasing time for successful reunification continues to be a priority for Orange County CFS. Recent implementation of the Family to Family initiative, including the progressive implementation of Team Decision Making meetings for all key decision making points in the life of a case, is anticipated to decrease time to reunification through the early and on-going engagement of parents, family and community in the reunification process. Other best-practice programs such as Wraparound, multi disciplinary case reviews, expedited mental health services for seriously emotionally disturbed children and coordinated case planning for parents receiving both CalWORKs and CFS services will continue to support families in their reunification process.
Decreasing time to reunification will be a focus item for the Orange County System Improvement Plan.
Time to adoption
According to the most recent data outcomes, October 2002 through September 2003, 24.1% of the children receiving child welfare services in Orange County were adopted within 24 months of removal from their parent's home. This is in keeping with a California statewide average of 23.6%, and is lower than the national standard of 32.0%. This compliance rate is a significant improvement over averages from the past 5 years, and reflects CFS' commitment to expedited permanency to meet the needs of children and families.
Rate to adoption represents a complex set of circumstances that includes assessed prognosis for reunification, the likelihood that a child will be adopted, parents' progress with their court ordered case plan, and willingness and ability of relatives and other caregivers to provide a permanent home for the child. Judicial issues such as continuances and contested hearings also affect the rate to adoption. Additionally, social work practice that does not quickly re-assess failing reunification efforts and provide timely referrals to the adoption program may delay the adoptive process.
A practice issue that positively impacts children but negatively affects rate to adoption statistics is recent increased efforts to find adoptive homes for difficult to place children. When a child who may have been previously thought of as unadoptable, due to the child's age, behaviors or intensive needs, is placed in an adoptive home, the extended length of time needed to finalize these difficult adoptions reflects negatively in the overall rate. This means that increased diligence and success in finding adoptive homes for children never before considered for adoption will actually have a negative impact on this outcome.
Although Orange County's rate to adoption is slower than desired, implementation of concurrent planning policy and practices that assess prognosis for reunification, and then place children in foster homes that are potential adoptive homes (concurrent planning homes) have proven to be very successful. A recent study indicated that all but two children placed in concurrent planning homes were adopted within the federally mandated timeline of 24 months from detention. One of the two children not adopted within 24 months was reunified with his or her parents. The other child was not placed in a concurrent planning home until six months after detention. Adoption took 26 months for this child.
Time to adoption will be a focus area for the Orange County Peer Quality Case Review.
Number of placements within 12 months
In Orange County, 73.6% of the children in placement experienced 2 or less placements in twelve months. This compares with the national standard of 86.7% and the California statewide average of 83.9%. Children in Orange County have historically begun their time in out of home care with an admission to Orangewood Children's Home (OCH). Although a safe and nurturing transitional shelter, OCH is no longer seen as an automatic first placement in Orange County. Orange County CFS has changed its practice in several substantial areas in the past few years to prevent initial admissions to OCH whenever possible. Current efforts include two units of senior social workers, known as Diversion Units, who are available 7 days a week, 12 hours a day to complete expedited assessments of relative and non-related extended family members for initial placements of children immediately following detention. Additionally, the First Step Assessment Center has recently opened, providing a safe place where children waiting placement can have their medical and emotional needs assessed while Diversion and other staff complete a thoughtful assessment of potential placements.
Additional efforts to stabilize placements for children already in care include Placement Preservation Meetings and Team Decision Making meetings. These meetings involve the child, family, extended family, community and service providers in placement decisions, with the goal of preserving existing placements whenever possible. Since implementation of Placement Preservation Meetings (PPM), 75% of the placements that were subjects of a PPM have been preserved.
As the well-being of children in care is strongly influenced by the quantity and quality of placements they experience, reducing the number of placements for children will be a focus of the Orange County System Improvement Plan.
The family relationships and connections of the children served by Orange County Children and Family Services will be preserved, as appropriate.
Children's family relationships and community and other vital connections can be preserved even when children must come into out of home care. Orange County CFS is committed to preserving these connections, as demonstrated by some of the practices described below.
Siblings placed together in foster care
The most recent point in time data indicates that there were 3,410 children in child welfare supervised foster care in Orange County. Sixty one percent of these children had at least one sibling in out of home care. These children were placed with all their siblings 49.9% of the time, compared with a California statewide average of 42.%. Additionally, 69.1% were placed with some of their siblings, compared with a California statewide average of 66.4%. Orange County has been able to achieve this rate despite a shortage of foster homes that will accept large sibling groups. As of January 1, 2004, sibling sets of 3 or more comprised a total of 1,191 children in foster care-57% of the total number of children in care with siblings. The high cost of housing in Orange County, coupled with current approval requirements for relative caregivers, are issues in recruitment and retention of foster and relative caregivers.
When placement with siblings is analyzed by placement type, children placed with relatives are placed with all or some of their siblings 79.3% of the time. This is in contrast to a 58.0% rate when placed in a foster home, a 79.9% rate when in a FFA home, and a low 36.5% when placed in a group home. Orange County's commitment to identifying and assessing all available and willing relative placement possibilities results in a higher than usual percentage of children placed with all or some of their children.
The Orange County CFS Self Evaluation Team has analyzed placement type and placement with siblings by ethnicity. Results preliminarily indicate that black children and Native American children are less likely to be placed with all or some of their siblings than are children of other ethnicities. A sub-committee has been established to explore this issue.
Social Work practice issues that affect placement of siblings together include the need to select placements that will meet children's special needs (e.g. group homes that provide intensive services. Another practice issue affecting this outcome is the priority of placing children with relatives, sometimes resulting in half-siblings being placed with different sides of the family (e.g. one mother, 2 or more fathers).
Foster care in least restrictive setting
Orange County outcome data indicates that relative placements comprise the largest percentage of any placement type, followed by FFA and foster placements. However, the rate of initial placements in group homes (OCH, Orange County's transitional shelter) was 77.0%, compared to a statewide average of 20.6%. Additionally, Orange County children were more likely to have a group home as their primary placement (30.2%) than the California statewide average of 9.1%.
As summarized above in the Placement Stability section, it has been Orange County's historical practice to admit children to Orangewood Children's Home (OCH) following detention to provide a safe environment for children while other placement possibilities were assessed. Implementation of expedited assessments of relative/non-related extended family member placment possibilities, as well as the opening of the First Step Assessment Center in October, 2003, has resulted in fewer admissions to OCH. For the first six-month period of operation there were 753 children admitted to the Assessment Center. Suitable placements were located for 303 of the children (40%), with the remaining 60% admitted to OCH. Of the 303 children, 166 (55%) were placed with parents, relatives or non-related extended family members. Fifty-three children (17%) were placed in foster homes, 56 (18%) in emergency shelter foster homes and 24 (8%) in group homes. One child was released to the Probation Department and three of the children were from other counties/jurisdictions.
Recent implementation of Family to Family in Orange County is anticipated to alleviate the need for some group home placements. The key Family to Family strategy of using Team Decision Making to involve the child, family and community in placement decisions, along with Building Community Partnerships, and Recruitment, Training and Support of community-based resource families will all contribute to the identification and retention of family oriented placement resources. Other best practices such as Wraparound, Placement Preservation Meetings and the Multidisciplinary Treatment Team will also support least-restrictive placements.
Rate of Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) placement preferences
Orange County outcome data indicated that 50% of ICWA identified children are placed with relatives, 10% with non-relative Indian families, 10% with non-relative non-Indian families, and 30% with non-relative families where ethnicity is not identified.
Although there are no Indian reservations or ICWA recognized Indian tribes in Orange County, effort are made to determine Indian heritage for children coming in to care, and to make appropriate placements for children meeting ICWA criteria.
Due to some historical difficulties in identifying and providing appropriate notices for ICWA children, an ICWA unit was established almost a year ago. This specialized unit is dedicated to identifying children with Indian heritage, and then following through to make sure that appropriate notices and services are provided. Staff from the ICWA unit are involved in increasing knowledge of and interaction with Indian tribes from contiguous counties. Stakeholder feedback, including feedback from the judicial system, indicates that efforts of this specialized unit have been successful in meeting ICWA criteria for noticing.
Youth emancipating from foster care are prepared to transition to adulthood.
Orange County provides extensive emancipation services to eligible youth. Orange County's Independent Living Program (ILP) has developed a data base that tracks individual youth participation in ILP workshops, vocational assessments, employment training, academic enrichment programs, and transitional housing for both foster and emancipated youth.
SYSTEMIC ISSUES
Issues systemic to provision of services to children and families, and their relative strengths and weaknesses are summarized below.
Management Information Systems
The primary method of managing information in Orange County CFS is through full utilization of the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS). Social work, clerical and public health nursing staff all have responsibility for entering data into CWS/CMS, with the assigned social worker responsible to ensure that all mandated data entry is entered.
To assure data integrity, the Orange County Self Evaluation Team (SET) has recently identified areas of CWS/CMS where data clean up was needed. A power point presentation illustrating the importance of data entry as a case management and data collection tool was presented by training staff to all programs. Additionally, individual programs and units have concentrated efforts on improving the quality of data entered into the system.
In addition to full utilization of CWS/CMS, Orange County CFS management utilizes monitoring tools in the forms of Business Objects reports to monitor compliance with targeted practice and data entry issues.
Utilization of CWS/CMS has enabled staff to organize client information to enhance case management, and also to provide historical information, and information for data reporting. At the same time, use of CWS/CMS has continued to represent a challenging workload issue for social workers and clerical staff.
Case Review System
Court Structure--The relationship between Orange County CFS and the Juvenile Court continues to be challenging for CFS staff. Stakeholder input indicates a need for further training to increase understanding of the roles of all parties involved in the juvenile court system, as well as to increase knowledge of court expectations and legislation, and of clinical issues pertinent to decisions made regarding children and families. Additionally, numerous court continuances, and a judicial system that is possibly encouraged towards conservatism by an active appeals system are not supportive of compliance with state and federally mandated timelines.
Probation-Court Structure and Relationship: The Probation Department reports that the court is supportive in their handling of Probation Placement cases. As most children in Probation Placements have Juvenile Justice considerations in conjunction with child welfare concerns it is rare that termination of parental rights is a consideration.
Timely Notification of Hearings-Stakeholder feedback indicates that in most cases notices of hearings are received on a timely basis. Exceptions include notices to Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and a historical issue of appropriate ICWA notices. Issues with ICWA notices have been effectively dealt with by the implementation of a specialized ICWA unit.
Probation-Notifications of Hearings-Parents are notified of the minor's next review hearing, along with a copy of the minor's case plan. The Court does not send out a notice for 6-month reviews.
Parent and Child Engaged Case Planning-Individualized case plans are created for each family, based on judicial timelines, or when necessary, on the changing needs of the family. Practices to engage families in case planning include: monthly visits by social worker with discussion of needs and services, Team Decision Making meetings, Family Group Decision Making meetings, Wraparound (development of the Plan of Care), Permanency Placement Mediation to allow caregivers, parents and youth to provide input regarding post-adoption agreements, Emancipation Planning Conferences, development of the Transitional Independent Living Plan, and coordinated case planning for clients receiving services from both CFS and CalWORKs.
Stakeholder feedback indicates that parents are often overwhelmed with multiple case plan requirements. It has been suggested that short-term, staggered case plan activities and goals that are presented to parents with supportive, strength-based interaction from the social worker, will enable parents to be successful in completing their court-ordered activities.
Staff have stated that using CWS/CMS to develop case plans encourages "boiler plate," generic case plans, rather than individualized plans developed in the field with families. Access to lap top computers would enable social workers to develop case plans with their clients.
Probation-Parent-Child-Youth Participation in Case Planning. The probation officer completes the case plan with the minor within 30 days of receiving a placement order. Goals, areas of needs and the overall plan needed for the minor to succeed are discussed.
Increased efforts have been made to encourage parents to meet with the Probation Officer to discuss the minor's case plan.
Fairness and equity in case planning-Case plans can be formatted in Spanish, however the content is developed in CWS/CMS in English. This requires Spanish speaking social workers to provide translations to their clients. Additionally, case plans are not available in other languages.
Permanency Hearings-Concurrent planning in Orange County begins at detention with the identification of all relatives and non-related extended family members (NREFM) who may be willing to provide a permanent home for children, if needed. Additionally, a reunification prognosis is completed for each child in custody, and each child is assessed for adoptability. If the reunification prognosis is poor, children are placed either with a relative or NREFM, or in a pre-adoptive (concurrent planning) foster home. Analysis of concurrent planning placement efforts has indicated that for children placed soon after detention into concurrent planning homes, there is an almost 100% success rate in finalizing adoption within the 24 month federally-mandated timeline.
Foster/Adoptive Parent Licensing, Recruitment and Retention
Orange County CFS is contracted with the state to complete its own licensing of county foster homes. Additionally, Orange County CFS has an established policy and procedure regarding the assessment and annual reassessment of relative/NREFM homes, utilizing the same health and safety standards as those utilized for licensed foster homes.
Securing sufficient quantity of foster homes is a challenge in Orange County. Resource homes are especially needed for adolescents, adolescent mothers with their children, children with severe behavioral and mental health issues, sibling sets, and Hispanic and Vietnamese children. Additionally, more in-County placements are needed for all children.
Recent implementation of the key strategies of Family to Family, including Building Community Partnerships, Team Decision Making, and Recruitment, Training and Support of resource families is a positive step towards filling the need for resource homes. Special attention is being given to recruiting homes from the communities where the majority of children in care originate. One example is a recent partnership formed with a Santa Ana elementary school, the local Boys and Girls Club and CFS. A part of this program will be the recruitment of 30 community-based resource families to provide placements for children coming into care from Santa Ana. This recruitment is to be done by staff hired to serve as "promotoras," a culturally acceptable method of bridging the gap between the neighborhood and the CFS agency.
Probation-Foster/Adoptive Parent Licensing, Recruitment and Retention. Probation has developed a formal process for conducting relative and non-related extended family member caregiver assessments, according to the requirements of AB1695.
The Probation Department does some limited recruitment of potential foster homes, primarily through the Orange County Fair, however the majority of foster families come forward as the result of wanting to become a foster parent for a specific child, or having been recruited by another Probation Foster Family. The Orange County Probation Department is the only probation department in the State to operate its own Foster Family Agency.
The Probation Department currently utilizes 38 programs, three foster families, a short-term placement facility (transitional), and a Transitional Housing Placement Program for higher functioning youth. Needed placement resources include placements for adjudicated fire setters, female sex offenders, severely emotionally disturbed and physically impaired minors. Additionally, transitional housing programs are especially needed for probation minors who are emancipating from the juvenile justice system and have no other positive support system in the community.
Quality Assurance System
Orange County has a dedicated Quality Development (QD) program. Staff in QD evaluate compliance with selected practice and data entry issues, respond to client concerns, and monitor compliance with contract expectations for CFS service providers.
Additional quality development is done through the implementation and analysis of Business Objects reports, supervisory monitoring of social worker's case management and data entry, as well as other on-going quality assurance activities.
Probation Department Data Systems is developing a new Placement Management System that will be integrated with the current Probation computer system. This system will allow for the tracking of case plans, ILP's, Health and Educational Passports, and court dates.
Service Array
The depth and breadth of services available in Orange County, directly through CFS and other County agencies, as well as through contracted and community-based service providers, is a strength for Orange County, and a benefit to children and families.
Families receiving both court-ordered and voluntary family maintenance and family reunification services are eligible for most, if not all available resources, though the resources are allocated in greater quantities to family's working towards reunification. Coordination of CalWORKs and CFS case plans and resources has resulted in a more unified and continuous delivery of services to mutual clients, as well as more effective use of resources.
Stakeholder feedback indicated that strengths in Orange County's service array include:
· Wraparound
· Children's System of Care
· Continuing Care Placement Unit
· Family Resource Centers
· Domestic Abuse Services Unit
· CalWORKs/CFS Mutual Clients Project
· Family Group Decision Making
· Emancipation services, including transitional housing
· Conditional Release Intensive Supervision Program (CRISP)
· TEAM (foster parent support)
· Family to Family
Suggested areas for improvement in Orange County's services include:
· Increased support for caregivers, particularly child care, respite care, and increased services to relative caregivers.
· Increased substance abuse resources, including increased quantity and quality of testing and residential treatment for women that includes their children.
· Implementation of a Family Drug Court in Orange County
· Increased availability of affordable housing and transportation services.
· Increased support for families not in the child welfare system (preventive, early intervention).
· Increased mental health services, especially for individuals needing intensive services due to a severe mental illness.
· Increased pediatric services, especially for children with severe physical, emotional or developmental disorders.
The Probation Department utilizes Wraparound, Children's System of Care and Youth and Family Resource Centers (YFRC) to help children return safely to their families.
The Probation Department provides services to foster parents through bi-monthly, in-person contact, as well as regular phone contact. On-going training regarding licensing issues, discipline, and various communication techniques is provided.
Minors' needs are identified as they enter the Placement Unit through an assessment of the Placement Suitability Report, prior Probation Reports and current information obtained from the minor, parents/guardians, Juvenile Hall staff and teachers, and the Court Evaluation and Guidance Unit.
Probation strategies for the future include the need to improve housing for emancipating foster youth. The current Transitional Housing Placement Program (THPP) has been modified to allow for a level of supervision needed for probation youth. The new THPP site would provide 24-hour supervision, and support youth to learn skills necessary to care for themselves. A housing voucher program for youth who were in foster care after their 16th birthday to use after emancipation is also in the development state.
The Orange County Probation Department has selected transitional housing for emancipated youth as a focus item for the Orange County System Improvement Plan.
Staff/Provider Training
Staff training-Orange County CFS provides comprehensive training for social work, supervisory and management staff through the Training and Career Development Department. Additionally, training for staff is accessed through the Public Child Welfare Training Academy and other resources, as needed.
Recent training has emphasized strength-based practice, grief and loss issues, implementation of Family to Family practices and philosophy, as well as data entry. Training for social workers involved with the Juvenile Court has included the PCWTA Court Room Drama Class, Advanced Court Testifying, New Legal Issues (yearly), Legal Aspects of Children's Issues, and Orange County's Court Survival Training and Advanced Court Survival Training.
New Social Work staff attend the Orange County CFS 15-session New Employee Orientation, and the Core Line Worker services through the PCWTA. Supervisors and Managers attend Core series classes.
On-going training includes Culturally Competent Practice, Risk Assessment, Investigative and Interviewing Skills, Strength Based Practice Issues, Sexual Abuse Issues, Substance Abuse, Legal and Ethical Issues, Adolescent Issues, Out of Home Placement Issues, Adoption Issues, and Multi-Disciplinary Practice.
Stakeholder feedback indicates that training strengths include cross-training with community providers and CFS staff, and the variety of on-going trainings for staff.
Training needs include further information regarding utilization of CWS/CMS and court report writing.
Probation Department training of staff includes a minimum of 40 hours of annual mandatory in-house training, in addition to on-going training for each staff member as needed. Additionally, Placement Probation Officers have attended Basic Probation Officer Core training, and then a minimum of 40 hours of Standards and Training in Corrections each year. In-house training is also provided for issues such as health and education, foster care funding, and independent living services.
Probation requirements for foster care providers includes an initial 40 hours of intensive training, as well as on-going training and educational videos for foster parents to enhance their skills and knowledge regarding the needs and care of probation minors. Additionally, referrals to other training in the community is provided.
Probation discusses departmental expectations regarding Title 22 regulations, the terms and conditions of probation and other court orders that affect the minor's placement, incident reporting procedures and documenting, as well as establishing a protocol for on-going communication and support when a new group home is initially assessed and approved. Specialized trainings are provided for topics such as gangs, teen violence, and other probation-related issues upon request.
Agency Collaborations
Orange County participates in a wide variety of collaborative relationships, including partnerships with the Orange County Children and Families Commission (Prop 10), the Orange County Health Care Agency (public and mental health, drug and alcohol services), CalWORKs, Probation, Regional Center, Orange County Department of Education, the Orange County Juvenile Court, law enforcement, Orange County hospitals, cities, parents, youth, caregivers, and many others.
The commitment to collaborative services across Orange County has positively impacted the system of care, resulting in a more coordinated provision of services, with fewer children and families getting lost between programs. However, much progress needs to be made in the areas of shared responsibility, resources and outcomes. The Children's Services Coordination Committee (Board of Supervisors' appointed membership), the Orange County Child Welfare Redesign Planning Council, as well as the four Family to Family Strategy teams are working to identify and implement opportunities for collaborative efforts that include shared outcomes.
The Orange County Probation Department has established liaisons with medical, educational, foster care funding, emancipation services and social services programs and agencies. Collaborative activities include involvement with the Children's System of Care, including the Health Care Agency, Social Services, the Orange County Department of Education, and the Regional Center.
COUNTY-WIDE PREVENTION ACTIVITIES AND STRATEGIES
Orange County Children and Family Services participates in many collaborative prevention activities. These activities include increasing public awareness about child abuse and neglect, partnering with other service organization including the Orange County Social Services Agency Financial Self Sufficiency Program, local law enforcement, hospitals, schools and school districts, Orange County Health Care Agency (public and mental health, alcohol and drug services), Orange County Probation, local Family Resource Centers, the Children and Families Commission of Orange County, the Orange County Children Services Coordination Committee, and others.
Major prevention activities include:
· Voluntary preventive and early intervention services to over a thousand children and their families
· Administering funding for and partnering with Family Resource Centers
· Collaborative case planning and use of resources for CalWORKs and CFS mutual clients
· Out stationing CFS social workers with law enforcement, Family Self Sufficiency and schools