Agency Report Item 3: Department of Human Services Child Welfare Staffing

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1 Agency Report Item 3: Department of Human Services Child Welfare Staffing Analyst: Laurie Byerly Request: Acknowledge receipt of a report on Child Welfare staffing. Recommendation: Acknowledge receipt of the report. Analysis: The budget report for SB 5529, the primary budget bill for the Department of Human Services (DHS), included a budge note directing DHS to report on its plan to allocate or reallocate new and vacant Child Welfare positions to target activities that have been understaffed in recent biennia while continuing to protect children to the fullest extent possible. Some areas of concern discussed during the agency s budget hearings include family finding efforts, certification processes, and permanency. In its legislatively adopted budget, DHS received 113 new positions (85.24 FTE) to help improve Child Welfare staffing by bringing it up to 75 percent of the workload model. That package primarily includes positions classified as Social Service Specialist 1 (SS1), along with positions that assist those workers, provide administrative support, policy assistance, and supervision. In addition, since the agency s budget overall is much closer to being fully funded than in recent history, it was anticipated that DHS would be able to fill some positions that previously had been held vacant to meet reduction targets. The new positions are not authorized to be filled until January 1, The agency s report focuses on a draft allocation of 80 new SS1 positions across the state, by service district, and by function. While positions can, and most likely will, perform multiple functions, the positions are shown as spread across work managing in-home ongoing safety plans, providing child protection (assessment) services, certifying foster families, and cultivating adoptions. This initial allocation plan is driven by the DHS workload model and appears to be consistent with the agency s stated outcomes. A DHS committee plans to further refine the plan and finalize it in October 2013, taking into consideration any special or unique factors that may not be accounted for by the workload model. This timeline is consistent with offices being able to recruit and hire for January DHS also reports that, specific to its SS1 positions, the agency currently has 75.5 vacancies that are in various stages of recruitment and indicates their status as vacant is due to turn over, rather than agency management actions. Vacant positions will continue to be monitored by the Legislative Fiscal Office during the required quarterly reporting. The budget note requires an update on this topic to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means during the 2015 legislative session, with an emphasis on how these new positions have helped the agency make progress toward program outcomes. The Legislative Fiscal Office recommends acknowledging receipt of the report. Legislative Fiscal Office Interim Joint Committee on Ways and Means September 2013

2 3 Department of Human Services Analyst: Brickman Request: Report on the allocation and reallocation of new and vacant Child Welfare positions to target activities. Recommendation: Acknowledge receipt of the report. Discussion: In the 2013 Legislative Session, the following budget note accompanied the Department of Human Services (DHS) budget (SB 5529): The Department of Human Services shall report to the Interim Joint Committee on Ways in Means in September 2013 on its plan to allocate or reallocate new and vacant Child Welfare positions to target activities that have been understaffed in recent biennia while continuing to protect children to the fullest extent possible. Focus areas should include implementation of the differential response model, family finding efforts and efforts to ensure that children move from foster care to permanency as quickly as possible. The report should be by DHS Child Welfare district, display both current and augmented positions by role, and describe how the positions will help the agency meet desired outcomes. The Department will also report to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means during the 2015 Legislative Session regarding progress toward program outcomes. Since July 2013, DHS has actively been recruiting for 75.5 Social Services Specialist 1 (SSS1) positions that were vacant due to the regular rate of turnover in the agency. The department is hiring these positions within the districts from which they were vacated and anticipates that the positions will be filled by the end of September In the budget, DHS received 113 new positions to be allocated across all the districts within the state. The DHS allocation committee is currently working on developing the plan for disbursement of these positions and anticipates the plan to be complete by the end of September Once the allocation plan is complete, it will be sent to district managers for review so that positions can be posted in November. The department anticipates these positions will be filled by January Based on workload model concepts developed by McKinsey and Company, the current plan for these 113 positions is to hire across the districts in Oregon 88 SSS1 positions, 20 Office Specialist 2 positions (support staff), 10 supervisors, and 3 Operations and Policy Analysts (for the development of the differential response system). The 88 SSS1 positions will be disbursed to specific jobs (i.e. CPS, permanency, certification, adoption) within each district based on the workload need of that district. The allocation process at DHS is an ongoing fluid process that is reviewed approximately every six months in order to properly align the agency s workforce with its workload needs. Department of Administrative Services 3-i September 18, 2013

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