Department of Health & Social Services Gerald Huber Director 275 Beck Avenue, Ms 5·200

- Child Welfare Services has a workforce turnover rate negatively affecting the perfonnance of the agency and outcomes for the children of Solano County. Response to Finding 1 - The Deparbnent of Health and Social Services partially agrees with the finding. The Department of Health & Social Services agrees that staff turnover rates for any organization can negatively affect an agency's perfonnance and outcomes. Recognizing high rate of workforce turnover is common in the child welfare field; Solano County Child Welfare over the years continues to be proactive towards mitigating many of the factors that cause turnovers. Research from Casey Families Program notes that staff retention within child welfare agencies is common and a dlallenge nationwide. They cite that a healthy annual turnover rate is below 10-12 percent, while turnover rates in child welfare for the past 15 years have been estimated at 20-40 percent. While it is widely known that staff retention is a serious challenge in this field, there is no single solution as an individual's choice to leave the job can be influenced by many factors. This requires a child welfare agency to apply multiple strategies concurrently. Today, Solano County, with a current hiring freeze for the past two months due to the current pandemic, is at a 13% vacancy among its social worker classifications. This percent is very close to optimal and well within reach. Solano County's Child Welfare Services ongoing attention over the years to address this systemic issue within our field and specifically our agency, has afforded us the opportunity to lower our staff turnover in child welfare, while constantly striving to fill remaining vacancies. Efforts such as •stay Interviews• with social workers and strategic planning that involves all staff, online job fairs in partnership with Human Resources, Training Academies for Managers, Supervisors and Social Workers, employee incentives and self care space to address secondary trauma are just a few ways that have assisted our practice towards retention strategies. The Department of Health and Social Services and Human Resources collaborated on implementing Solano County's first •stay-Interview" study. Stay Interview is an opportunity to build trust with employees and a chance to assess the degree of employee satisfaction and engagement that exists in a department or agency. Stay Interviews provide a two-way conversation and a chance to ask questions, and follow-up on ideas. In collaboration with a hired consultant, Solano County CWS conducted a survey on the following categories: • Job Impact: how connected an employee feels to the mission of the organization • Listened to and valued: do the employees feel their ideas and opinions matter and are their contributions valued • Positive Stay Factors: understanding what employees are positive about and how can we replicate positive experiences for retention • Feedback/Acknowledgement: do employees receive feedback and are they acknowledged for their contributions • Exposure to Executives' Leaming and Growth: career growth and learning is important to the workforce. Do employees feel they have exposure to leadership within the organization and are they able to learn and grow their career? • Challenge factor: do staff feel challenged in their work? • Positiveness desirable elements: understanding how the various work duties and responsibilities impact an employee's retention. Using the results from this survey, Child Welfare and Human Resources worked with Social Worker supervisory and management staff to create solutions to promote employee retention. Another area critical to strengthening our recruitment and retention efforts was an intentional focus on building a staff development infrastructure. During the downturned economy in 2008-2009, Solano County Child Welfare was compelled to return its licensing function to California Department of Social Services as well as limit its staff development capacity along with other program areas to maintain core case carrying social workers. We have worked tirelessly to rebuild this infrastructure. Research shows the investment in training that an organization makes shows the employees they are valued. The training creates a supportive workplace. In June 2019, a full-time Staff Development and Training supervisor was brought onboard, who has further helped develop our onboarding process, and was working toward the development of ongoing training and support for our staff prior to the hiring freeze. Whereas not all turnovers are preventable, Solano County Child Welfare understands it must remain vigilant of the factors that are predictive of high turnover and continue to implement strategies to mitigate those factors. Nevertheless, in order to establish a baseline, turnover and retention rates were calculated for 2019, and will continue to be tracked on a quarterly basis. In regard to child welfare outcomes, the graphic that is displayed in the Grand Jury Report on incorrectly identifies the data as •outcome data•, when in actuality the data (number of children, number of substantiations, number of entries, etc.) are rates of participation. Outcome data is defined by the State of California following guidelines outlined by the US Federal Government. The federal government created the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) in response to the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). The CFSR is an assessment of a state's performance related to child welfare. All states are assessed in the areas of child protection, foster care, adoption, family connections and independent living services. Much of the CFSR looks at outcomes data and other sources to assess each state's ability to achieve 1) Safety, 2) Permanency, and 3) Well-being for children and families 1 • All 58 counties in California are held to the same federal and state standards. The CFSRe3 Outcomes2 include: • Maltreatment in Foster Care • Recurrence of Maltreatment • Permanency In 12 Months for Children Entering Foster Care • Permanency In 12 Months for Children in Foster Care 12-23 Months • Permanency In 12 Months for Children in Foster Care 24 Months or More • Re-Entry to Foster Care • Placement Stability The state monitors other child welfare rates and measures including, but not limited: • Referrals by Time to Investigation • Timely Monthly Caseworker Visits-Out of Home • Timely Monthly Caseworker Visits-In Home • Placement Stability-Entry Cohort • Siblings placed together (some or all} • Least Restrictive Placement=Entries~First and Predominant Placement Solano County CWS has a Five-Year System Improvement Plan (SIP) which was developed in 2017 to monitor and address key state and federal outcomes. This plan was developed in collaboration with stakeholders including staff and clients and approved by the California Department of Social Services Department. A copy of the most recent progress report on the county's State Improvement Plan is attached (attachment A) as well as confirmation and approval of the County Progress Plan. (attachment B)

- Retention of Child Welfare staff is difficult due to the complex, demanding, and emotionally challenging responsibilities, exacerbated by limited support from supervisors. Response to Second Finding - The Deparbnent of Health and Social Services partially agrees with the finding. The Department of Health and Social Services agrees with the demands of social worker and trauma on workers. Although this report states one contributing factor may be that of lack of supervisor support, we believe it may be situational while recognizing continuous development of supervisors is something the deparbnent needs to build upon. Additionally, the last child welfare caseload study by the California Department of Social Services was done over two decades ago, and the work we do today with the increase in demands and mandates is different than the work of two decades ago. The resources have not aligned for this change thereby conbibuting to the difficult, complex, demanding and emotionally challenging responsibilities.