Sacramento County Grand Jury • 2008-2009

Dedication The members of the 2008-2009 Grand Jury dedicate this Final Report to

Published: June 09, 2009 78 pages Consolidated Report
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Findings 32 findings

F1
There is a longstanding absence on the part of HHS and CPS management to accept responsibility and accountability for the role of CPS in meeting its community responsibilities. This is a recurring criticism found for over a decade of many published reports.
F2
A shield of privacy and secrecy that surrounds much of the operations of CPS is unwarranted. This lack of transparency serves to raise questions and leads to inaccurate conclusions being made regarding what takes place in CPS. The acknowledged need to protect the confidentiality of case information can be accomplished without adopting a “closed door” attitude.
F3
1: CPS personnel have rarely had performance evaluations.
F4
The County’s Human Resources Department (HR) disseminated annual evaluation reminders to CPS management. However no follow-up action was done to see if such evaluations actually took place.
F5
HR has neglected to train supervisory personnel in the proper method of personnel evaluation.
F6
Substantial finger pointing exists between CPS and HR personnel regarding quality of service. 20
F7
Disciplinary proceedings are compromised by the absence of evaluations of all employees.
F8
There is an average time of one year from the start of paid administrative leave to resolution. This contributes to the caseload of other employees, and decreases staff morale.
F9
According to sworn testimony, the recent HR reorganization increased the ratio of CPS disciplinary cases per HR analyst.
F10
Poor communication between HR and CPS contributes to lengthy disposition of discipline cases.
F11
A 22 percent annual turnover rate in CPS social workers is a major impediment to program efficiency and effectiveness.
F12
Skilled social workers who do not want to be supervisors have no way to be promoted.
F13
1: Except for the first year of employment, employees are not compliant with the 30-hour training requirement. In a sample review of 60 employee records, 50 were not in compliance.
F14
Training entries for new employees do not show the correct total number of training hours those employees actually took.
F15
1: A caseload is not defined.
F16
Social workers do work that could be done by support staff.
F17
Management has not required personnel to take full advantage of their available software. CPS management acknowledges its failures to fully use these systems. 23
F18
The Grand Jury found that supervisory personnel and upper management were not adequately using IRIS. The current design of the software changes each case entry information to a red font when the case exceeds certain limits. This is helpful but does not provide enough information about the urgency of the case.
F19
The CWS/CMS software package is provided and controlled by the State and cannot be modified by CPS IT personnel. These personnel can recommend appropriate change through statewide user-councils to improve the software.
F20
There is a lack of management control of SDM usage. It was reported to the Grand Jury that at most 60 percent of the social workers adequately use SDM. The Self Assessment Report states: “. . . its use remains inconsistent and inaccurate.” 24
F21
The SafeMeasures program has not been used adequately by many of the supervisors and managers. Usage is reportedly less than 20 percent.
F22
Quality Assurance (QA) personnel are not knowledgeable in the use of all the software and were not using the SafeMeasures software to assess the quality of services provided.
F23
The CPS in-take phone lines currently do not have recording capability. CPS personnel have investigated this issue and found that other counties have this capability and it did not interfere with reporting.
F24
Testimony from CPS management indicates that social workers do not have electronic devices to record information while they are in the field.
F25
Currently social workers, with password generation devices called “Tokens” (a secure means of handling sensitive data) can access the CWS/CMS computer system from home. CPS has issued about 80 of these “Tokens.” 25
F26
Flaws in the SDM may result in children being exposed to dangerous and abusive conditions. The Risk Assessment process requires that CPS respond within 24 hours if a child is under age two. If the child is over two, the response time may be extended to ten days.
F27
SDM is not been utilized as envisioned. Testimony indicated that this valuable risk assessment tool was frequently completed after the fact and viewed simply as an administrative “requirement” by social workers.
F28
SDM allows a response of ten days even when there is a history of “physical abuse, domestic violence, caregiver mental health, or substance abuse concerns” if there is a “responsible” adult on the premises. Experts in domestic violence state that if there is domestic violence in the home there is a 50 percent chance that the children will also be abused. When these circumstances exist, no adult on the premises should be considered “responsible. “
F29
The California Family Risk Assessment Tool can fail to adequately determine the level of risk to which a child may be exposed.
F30
2: The CPS manual does not have a usable table of contents, index, or electronic search engine capability.
F31
The law governing reporting does not require that the Mandated Reporter hold or detain a child suspected of being abused. It only requires that he or she report the suspected abuse to the proper authorities.
F32
The Grand Jury does not have full access to unredacted reports for legitimate investigative purposes.

Recommendations 32

Conclusions 3

Observations 67