.
Murphy – Officials have concluded that the Cherokee County Department of Social Services exceeded the majority of federal benchmarks related to child welfare, adult protective services, Medicaid, food and nutrition and child support last year.
The county’s fiscal year 2019-20 child welfare report card, obtained by the Cherokee Scout, shows that repeat maltreatment at home was 4.3 percent, less than half of the national benchmark of 9 percent. Maltreatment in foster care was 0 percent, meaning children were safe in foster homes.
“Prior to now [the county’s repeat maltreatment] was approximately 20 percent,” DSS Director Amanda McGee said. “The data now shows that we’re doing a good job of accessing the issues related to child abuse and neglect, making sure that children are safe, and making sure parents and caregivers have protective capacities, services and support systems they need to prevent future neglect and/or abuse.”
However, the report also shows that the county’s foster care re-entry rate of 20 percent was higher than the national benchmark of 8.3 percent.
“In this case, we had incidents where teenagers came back into foster care within a certain period of time, so we have to look at what caused those placements to disrupt and what we can do in the future to make sure families have ongoing services to remain safe and stable.” McGee said. “One of the biggest challenges is making sure that ongoing services are available for families.”
The report card further notes that the child protective services initiation rate was 95 percent, which means children were seen within a timely manner after DSS officials received an abuse report. Additionally, face-to-face visits with children in foster care was at 100 percent, which is higher than the federal benchmark.
“Our stance is that it’s important that we see each kid in foster care every month because that’s how we know they’re safe,” McGee said.
The report card also notes that 47 percent of kids in Cherokee County DSS court for a reunification case during the reporting period were sent home within 12 months. The federal benchmark is 40 percent. DSS also completed a record number of 12 adoptions during the fiscal year.
“While this is a very good percentage compared to the national benchmark, we would love it to be higher. However, due to the complicating factors affecting a parent’s ability to make progress within 12 months, and a complicated court system, it is difficult,” McGee said.
“Sometimes family case plans are extended because parents need more time to work on their goals. Substance abuse and serious mental health issues are lifelong challenges. Recovery is a process. So 47 percent is a really good number.”
During the federal on-site review, which was conducted in July, officials gave the county a “strength rating” in areas of child safety, permanency and well-being. The reviewer noted that only one safety area was “partially achieved,” which was “due to a lack of documentation about safe sleep in the case record.”
“That on-site review is very comprehensive and hard to pass,” McGee said. “It takes a week for a reviewer to review just one case, and they interview the parents, kids, stakeholders and guardian ad litem. We are very pleased with this report.”
While the child support program received mostly passing marks, the report card shows that the county has trouble collecting child support payments. In fact, the county failed to meet the state’s average collection rate during each month of the fiscal year.
“That’s a really hard area because the courts are not operating normally,” McGee said. “We hope to increase our amount collected because children need support from both parents. Our child support team is working to help parents understand the importance of supporting the needs of their children.”
McGee said the report card reflected an overall “dramatic” improvement compared to previous years and credited the achievement to a “solid and talented agency-wide workforce.”
“We haven’t had turnover in over 12 months,” she said. “I think we’re seeing the benefits of a great workforce, coupled with evidence-based policies and practices solidly in place. When there is high turnover, the workforce
becomes stressed, mistakes are made, people have difficulty following policies, and the workforce gets depressed.
“All of those problems exacerbate the issues and clients don’t get the quality of the services they deserve. Every time a social worker in child welfare leaves, it increases a child’s time in foster care.”
McGee said the department has been working on a strategic plan to continue supporting its workforce in all programs.
“We are focused on inspiring our agency-wide team through support and ongoing training,” she said.
“We have excellent supervisory leadership, our work force is talented and my hope is that every day our members feel inspired to come to work. With those ingredients, we hope to serve our community to the highest standards possible.”