Yolo County Grand Jury • 2022-2023

Keeping Families Together Strengthening a Struggling Child Welfare Service a report by the 2022-23 Yolo County Grand

Published: June 01, 2023 19 pages
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Findings and Recommendations 8 findings

F1
Child Welfare Services is facing an acute shortage of social workers, hampering the delivery of needed services to Yolo County’s children and families. This is an ongoing problem dating back at least eight years.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Yolo County Health and Social Services Agency should develop a plan by December 31, 2023, to provide CWS a rapid infusion of temporary or permanent professional staff to reduce caseload to within 80% of best practice as defined by CWS leadership.
F2
Child Welfare Services lacks sufficient staffing to allow for quality training and reasonable caseloads.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency should identify and adopt administrative support tools, such as dictation and outside transcription services, and add clerical staff to reduce workload on social workers
F3
The excessive staff turnover at all levels of Child Welfare Services, compounded by employee burnout, perpetuates the staffing crisis and negatively impacts children and families.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Yolo County Board of Supervisors should, subject to collective bargaining, adopt a compensation and benefit structure for all social worker classifications that is competitive in the regional market
F4
Employee morale, though improving, continues to be wanting, compromising recruitment and retention.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency should establish a fully operational Practitioner Training Unit within Child Welfare Services
F5
Despite the critical need for additional social workers, professional resources dedicated to recruitment are lacking.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency should initiate implementation of the Alternate Response Program
F6
Black children in Yolo County have a continuing history of entering foster care at higher rates than other ethnic and racial groups, which is potentially avoidable.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency should contract with an outside expert in recruitment, retention and support of culturally diverse foster families by December 31, 2023, to assist with increasing the proportion of in-county foster placements. REQUIRED RESPONSES Pursuant to Penal Code section 933 and 933.05, the Grand Jury requests responses to its Findings and Recommendations as follows: Yolo County Health and Social Services Agency: F-1 through F-8 and R-1 through R-6 Yolo County Board of Supervisors: F-1, F-5, F-6, F-7, F-8 and R-3 Reports issued by the Civil Grand Jury do not identify individuals interviewed. Penal Code Section 929 requires that reports of the Grand Jury not contain the name of any person or facts leading to the identity of any person who provides information to the Civil Grand Jury. ENDNOTES 1. Yolo County Strategic Plan, Vision Statement, excerpt: https://www.yolocounty.org/about- us/mission-values-strategic-plan 2. Yolo County Child Welfare Services Vision Statement, excerpt: https://www.yolocounty.org/government/general-government-departments/health-human- services/children-youth/child-welfare-services- cws#:~:text=Yolo%20County%20Child%20Welfare%20Services%20strengthens%20the%20safety %2C,children%20who%20need%20protection%20from%20abuse%20and%20neglect 3. increases training cost: https://www.aecf.org/blog/new-desk-guide-for-child-welfare-leaders- provides-improvement-roadmap-for-c: 4. CWS: https://www.yolocounty.org/government/general-government-departments/health- human-services/children-youth/child-welfare-services- cws#:~:text=Yolo%20County%20Child%20Welfare%20Services%20strengthens%20the%20safety %2C,children%20who%20need%20protection%20from%20abuse%20and%20neglect 5. HHSA: https://www.yolocounty.org/government/general-government-departments/health- human-services 6. Lauren King, “Yolo County Supervisors prioritize child welfare”, Daily Democrat, 11/10/16: https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2016/11/10/yolo-county-supervisors-prioritize-child-welfare/ 7. Webster, D., Lee, S., Dawson, W., Magruder, J., Exel, M., Cuccaro-Alamin, S., Putnam-Hornstein, E., Wiegmann, W., Saika, G., Chambers, J., Hammond, I., Williams, C., Miramontes, A., Ayat, N., Sandoval, A., Benton, C., Hoerl, C., McMillen, B., Wade, B., Yee, H., Flamson, T., Hunt, J., Carpenter, W., Casillas, E., & Gonzalez, A. (2020). CCWIP reports. Retrieved from UC Berkeley California Child Welfare Indicators Project website. https://ccwip.berkeley.edu/ 8. https://ccwip.berkeley.edu/childwelfare/reports/S2/MTSG/r/Fed/s 9. UC Berkeley, Child Welfare Indicators Project: https://ccwip.berkeley.edu/ 10. Lauren King, “Yolo County Supervisors prioritize child welfare”, Daily Democrat, 11/10/16: https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2016/11/10/yolo-county-supervisors-prioritize-child-welfare/ 11. Annie E. Casey Foundation “Every time a case worker leaves the cost to the child welfare agency is 30% to 200% of the existing employee’s annual salary”, 12.29.17, https://www.aecf.org/ 12. Annie E. Casey Foundation, https://www.aecf.org/ 13. Allegations: https://ccwip.berkeley.edu/childwelfare/reports/Allegation/MTSG/r/ab636/s 14. Worker Retention, https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/management/training/ 15. Yolo County Retention: https://ccwip.berkeley.edu/childwelfare/static/PlacementGrids/r/fcp/s 16. Jordan Silva-Benham, Racial disparities seen in Yolo’s foster care system, Daily Democrat, February 16, 2021; https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2021/02/16/racial-disparities-seen-in-yolos- foster-care-system/ 17. Casey.org, Strategy Brief Strong Families, “How Can We Improve Stability for Children in Foster Care”, https:/www.casey.org/media/SF_Strategies-to-improve-placement-stability-1.pdf 16
F7
Yolo County has a long-term, crucial shortage of foster families, especially for Black and Latino children. As a result, children are placed out-of-county, disrupting their school and community relationships and making family visitation more difficult. Additionally, out-of-county placements are more time consuming for social workers, adding to their already over-burdened workload.
No recommendations for this finding
F8
Community resources for child abuse prevention and intervention services essential to family preservation are inadequate, especially for a racially and culturally diverse client base. RECOMMENDATIONS The Yolo County Grand Jury recommends the following:
No recommendations for this finding

Commendations 1

No Responses Found 1

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.

Yolo County Board of Supervisors Elected County Office