Humboldt County Grand Jury
• 2016-2017
Child Welfare in Humboldt: Getting the Door Open
⚠️ 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 4 findings
F1
Humboldt County Child Welfare Services is not meeting the 24 hour response requirement of their “Callbacks to Mandated and Non-Mandated Reporters - Plan & Procedure #09-12,” which could place children at risk.
Related Recommendations (2)
R1
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury recommends that the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) develop and maintain a “timeliness” metric for measuring their response time once a suspected child abuse/neglect event has been reported and until the caller is notified of receipt of report. (F1, F2)
R6
Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury recommends that Child Welfare Services closely assess the qualifications and training of staff dealing with intake calls, as well as providing the proper supervision to ensure competency. (F1) 7
F2
Humboldt County Child Welfare Services does not track the critical time between a report of child endangerment from Mandated Reporters and its return call to that reporter as a part of its overall performance related to response time.
Related Recommendations (2)
R1
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury recommends that the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) develop and maintain a “timeliness” metric for measuring their response time once a suspected child abuse/neglect event has been reported and until the caller is notified of receipt of report. (F1, F2)
R2
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury recommends that the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services add the timeliness metric discussed in R1 into its Child Welfare Services’ System Improvement Plan 2012-2017, and monitor the metric to ensure an acceptable level of timeliness. (F2)
F3
Humboldt County Child Welfare Services collects no information on its overall performance related to response time to Mandated Reporters, and follow-up communication is severely lacking.
Related Recommendations (2)
R3
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury recommends that the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) develop a “community performance” metric that measures how Mandated Reporters judge DHHS as successfully supporting the safety of our children. (F3)
R4
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury recommends that the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services add the community performance metric discussed in R3 into its Child Welfare Services’ System Improvement Plan 2012-2017, and monitor the performance over time. (F3)
F4
In February 2017, Humboldt County Child Welfare Services told the HCCGJ that they have changed their Intake Process by removing the screener and the Intake Form (A-14-30), and connecting the caller directly to a Social Worker. The HCCGJ has no confirmation that this really has happened or, if it has, that these procedures have resulted in any improvement.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
The Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury recommends that the Department of Health and Human Services update its Intake Policies and Procedures to reflect the changes reported to us during our February discussion. (F4)