San Diego County Grand Jury
• 2018-2019
Executive Summary As a city, county, state and nation, we have an obligation and precedent to protect and nurture
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 19 findings
F01
Social workers spend approximately half of their time on documentation and half of their time with the children and parents.
No recommendations for this finding
F02
On average, 12 children need out-of-home placement each day in San Diego County due to abuse and neglect.
No recommendations for this finding
F03
Of the approximately 2,100 children in foster care, 20% of group home children were reported to be abused in their foster home. Most complaints involved physical abuse and/or neglect.
No recommendations for this finding
F04
The County of San Diego’s 985 instances of substantiated maltreatment in foster care were similar to the State of California averages for the same time periods. 33 www.cssr.berkeley.edu/ucb_childwelfare/ 12
No recommendations for this finding
F05
San Diego County social workers often feel overwhelmed with the number of monitored children. With AB 403, the increased need for administrative documentation reduces the time a social worker can spend with a foster child/family.
No recommendations for this finding
F06
CWS management and staff, in all units, need reduced workload sizes.”34
No recommendations for this finding
F07
Some foster families do not feel they have enough contact with their social worker. There are families that feel a lack of communication with CWS workers.
No recommendations for this finding
F8
All foster children caregivers need parent training, respite care or other supportive services.
No recommendations for this finding
F9
Abuse and neglect may be reduced through enhanced screening/training of prospective non-relative and kinship foster parents.
Related Recommendations (1)
19-43
Page 14
Request CWS to establish a training program on maltreatment of children
F10
Safety Organized Practice (SOP) is a required statewide strategy designed to enhance social work skills in family engagement and critical thinking. For the County the percentage increased from 53% in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 to over 65% in FY2018. The goal is 80% for FY2019.
No recommendations for this finding
F11
For CWS to achieve its mission it is critical for the agency to attract, train, develop and retain a capable and prepared workforce.
No recommendations for this finding
F12
CWS loses a number of social workers per month to different county departments, other outside agencies or retirement.
No recommendations for this finding
F13
High employee turnover negatively impacts clinical outcomes.
Related Recommendations (1)
19-44
Page 14
Request CWS to study turnover rates for staff and to develop best practices for
F14
Communication between the Region and the Hotline workers could be more extensive.
No recommendations for this finding
F15
On average, 15% of Hotline calls were from foster parents stating that the foster child was being abused by someone other than the foster parents.
No recommendations for this finding
F16
The current Hotline system does not notate whether abuse happened before or after entry into foster care.
Related Recommendations (2)
19-41
Page 14
Request CWS to investigate the addition of a system to
19-42
Page 14
Request CWS to require any new or modified database system to delineate
F17
Foster child telephone calls to the Child Abuse Hotline are not red flagged as being from a foster child therefore the percentage of calls from foster youth are not tracked. San Diego County Annual Review Written Report, December 6, 2018; The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Resource Family Approval (RFA) Technical assistance team, . 13
Related Recommendations (1)
19-48
Page 15
Recommend that Hotline workers specifically document foster child calls and
F18
The Child Abuse Hotline transfers over to A.B. and Jessie Children’s Polinsky Center from 10:30 pm to 6:00 am every day; however, Polinsky staff training is not as extensive as those stationed at the Hotline.
Related Recommendations (1)
19-49
Page 15
Request CWS that all Polinsky workers answering Hotline calls between
F19
Regional case carrying staff do not have a complete understanding of the Resource Family Agency (RFA) process and its requirements, resulting in a lack of communication with RFA workers when children are in placement.35
No recommendations for this finding
No Responses Found 1
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
County of San Diego
Agency