Department of Human Services: Child Welfare
FY 2023 Program Summary & Performance Measures
MISSION
Cabarrus County Child Welfare is committed to achieving safety, permanence, and well-being for children at risk for abuse, neglect or dependency based upon received and accepted reports, working one-on-one with the family by assessing, coordinating, and providing services that address the safety, risk, and family needs of the child. Staff will be vigilant in their effort to protect these children.
MANDATE
The following Child Welfare Services are mandated services by federal and/or North Carolina laws, policies and standards:
- Adoption Services and Adoption Assistance are mandated by G.S. 108 A-49 & 50, Title IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act, P.L. 96-272, P.L. 99-514, P.L.103-382, P.L. 106-385, P.L. 105-89, P.L. 106-169 and P.L. 109-171;
- Foster Care Services for Children and Foster Care Assistance payments are mandated by titles IV-E and IV-B of the Social Security Act, CAPTA (P.L. 93-247) and G.S. 108A-48 and 49; 45, G.S. 143B-153 (2) (d) ; 10A NCAC 21; 10A NCAC 22F;
- Home studies are ordered by the District Court Judges; P.L. 103-432; G.S. 7B-38, 143B-153; 10A NCAC 70C;
- CSST Services are mandated through 10 NCAC 436.0203;
- Individual and Family Adjustment Services are mandated under G.S. 143B-153 and 10 NCAC 436.2023;
- Protective Services for Children are mandated by the Federal Child Abuse Protection and Treatment Act (CAPTA), Titles IV-B, IV-E, P.L. 108-36, P.L. 105-89, G.S. 108A-14 and G.S. 7B Article 3;
- Intensive Family Preservation Services are established under G.S. 143B-150.5;
- Contracts with the Child Advocacy Center and the local LME-MCO are authorized under provisions of G.S. 143B-10 and G.S. 143B-153.
Overview
- Child Protective Services (CPS) Program is responsible for receiving, screening, investigating, and assessing reports of alleged abuse, neglect, and dependency.
- In-Home Services Program provides services directly to families that have received a substantiation of abuse, neglect and dependency that help to address the issues identified through services and case management.
- Foster Care provides a safe, temporary place for children to live until they can be in a permanent home. A permanent home may include being reunified with the biological parents, legal placement with a relative or court approved guardian, or adoption. Children enter foster care when a department of human services files a juvenile petition outlining the reasons why a child cannot remain in their own home AND a judge signs a non-secure custody order. When these two things occur, children are placed in the legal custody of a department of human services.
- Adoption Services are provided for children in the legal custody of the department and are placed in temporary living arrangements with the goal being reunification with the biological parent. If reunification cannot occur and the child is cleared for adoption, the placement provider may be considered as an adoptive placement at that time.
- Foster Home Licensing services are provided by the department to license foster families to provide temporary protection and care of children who are in the legal custody of the department and who must live apart from their biological family for a period of time due to abuse, neglect or dependency. Extensive training and home consultations occur over a period of 10 weeks to prepare families for their critical role in caring for children. Licensing standards set forth by the state guide the department in determining eligibility/suitability of those wishing to become foster parents.
- LINKS Program services youth between the ages of 13 and 21 who are or were in the legal custody of a local child welfare agency. The LINKS program is based on positive youth development principles in which the social worker and the youth build a network of relevant services to ensure the youth will have ongoing connections with resources to facilitate their transition to adulthood.
- Prevention/Aftercare Support Services is a voluntary program that offers case management services to assist families in the coordination and access of community resources that enhance the overall health, behavioral, and emotional safety of children and their caregivers. We partner with families who have had previous CPS involvement and families with no prior CPS history. In accordance with the Families First Prevention Act, we are targeting vulnerable families identified through Screen out child protection reports and providing voluntary services.
- Stepping Up Program is a national initiative designed to reduce the numbers of adults with mental health, substance use and co-occurring disorders in jail. Stepping Up provides voluntary case management services to identified individuals in the Cabarrus County Detention Center and continues services in the community post-release. Case managers connect clients with the appropriate treatment and care providers and direct them to other available community resources. Linking clients to their support resources reduces the repetition of incarcerations, assist with treatment, and helps to create a successful individual.
- Quality Assurance is a program designed to evaluate, analyze, and provide trends in data, specifically related to compliance, and outcome measures in all aspects of Child Welfare by conducting internal reviews. Data collected in this program yield training, recommendations, and technical assistance to advance the skillset and knowledge base of the policy and practices of Child Welfare. The team also evaluates and coordinates all external reviews requested by the NC Division and Federal partners for program and fiscal compliance and outcomes. Quality assurance is a quality improvement process that can be applied to any activities to establish a pattern of behavior which supports the achievement of compliance of outcomes.
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- In-Home Services has been able to keep caseloads under the State ratio and staffing has been stable over the past year, which has helped to keep caseloads manageable.
- Agency Foster Care Adoptions: Year 2020: 7, Year 2021: 22, Year-to date 2022: 4
- Investigations is working in collaboration with the Hospitals, Dr. Suda through the Sun Project with children born substance exposed, implementing Plan of Safe Care.
- During November and December of 2021, our Prevention Team reached out to 217 local churches in Cabarrus County in efforts to form an ongoing partnership to help families involved with Child Welfare during the Holidays. The result was 13 local churches helped to feed 21 families for Thanksgiving and 11 local Churches helped to feed 12 families and provided gifts for 36 families. We anticipate we will be able to partner with many more local churches in 2022.
- Recruitment of Foster Families within the local church.
- The Prevention team will partner with mandatory services involved with Substance Affected Infant.
- Parenting Specialist in the Prevention Unit has been certified in Active Parenting. She is now certified in Active Parenting of Teens, Active Parenting 4th Edition, and Active Parenting: First Five Years. She is actively applying this curriculum with Families involved in Child Welfare mandatory services with the goal of facilitation of group parenting being offered in the next 6 months.
- With the addition of an Afterhours Supervisor, we have Implemented a more structured process for our Afterhours program that strengthens coverage for CPS needs at night and on weekends.
- The Agency completed 43 adoptions this past year finding forever homes and moving children to permanence.
- Stepping Up increased the Inmate Medical Screenings by 48% with 1,404 IMS screened in 2020 versus 2,707 IMS screened in 2021.
- Stepping Up acceptance rate increased from 48% in 2020 to 55% in 2021.
- Stepping Up completed 293 Program Assessments with eligible clients.
- Client participation in treatment services upon release increased from 20% in 2020 to 73% in 2021.
- Stepping Up has provided services to 535 Cabarrus County residents since 2018.
- Quality Assurance Program specific work which focuses on working with Child Welfare supervisors to focus on staff development, training/policy education, and the improvement of our practice with families. In 2021, QA evaluated 786 cases to include both targeted and full case reviews.
- Quality Assurance is conducting exit interviews to assess the overall employee experience and identify opportunities to improve retention and engagement. This will help us to identify areas that can help improve staff retention. We are also providing peer support/consultation to supervisors as another effort of retention.
CHALLENGES & TRENDS
- Through the challenges brought to us by COVID-19, Child Welfare was still able to initiate cases in a timely manner consistently meeting the Performance Measured outcome of 95% each month. Across the spectrum of Child Welfare programs, we saw an increase in families involved and the need for services. Internal processes and practices were quickly modified to ensure quality services to families as COVID-19 changed our response and working landscape.
- Turnover in permanency planning, investigations, and afterhours staff.
- Staff being out for either COVID exposures, symptoms or COVID.
- Ongoing safety concerns of Social Workers continuing to be in the field during COVID.
BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS & CHANGES
- This department’s budget has increased due to salary and benefit adjustments as well as inflationary adjustments.
- The budget adds two (2) Social Worker Investigative/Assessment positions to work a non-traditional schedule (3 p.m. to midnight) during the busiest time of the week; a Social Worker Supervisor III to oversee their intake staff; a Social Worker Supervisor III to oversee family assessments; and a Social Worker III to receive intake calls. The division has experienced significant turnover in the past year, and continues to manage high caseloads. These positions will provide much-needed stability.
Budget Summary
PERFORMANCE MEASURES
FY 2023 numbers are projections