Recommended Budget Volume One.book - Chief Executive Office ...

Mission Statement
The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), with
public, private, and community partners, provides quality child
welfare services and support so children grow up safe, healthy,
educated, and with permanent families.
2011-12 Budget Message
The 2011-12 Recommended Budget for Administration reflects
a $15.5 million decrease in gross appropriation and a
$6.5 million decrease in net County cost (NCC). The decrease in
NCC is primarily due to:
■ The elimination of the Retirement Debt Services payment;
■ The elimination of one-time funding associated with the
transfer of the Department’s Information Technology (IT)
function to the Internal Services Department;
■ The elimination of one-time carryover Productivity
■
Investment Fund (PIF) grant funding for the Electronic System
for Suspected Child Abuse Reports System (E-SCARS);
The elimination of one-time funding for the Service
Integration Project at two multi-agency integration sites; and
■ A reduction in non-essential services and supplies required to
address the County’s projected structural deficit.
These decreases are partially offset by NCC increases due to:
■ Funding for critically needed child safety and administrative
support positions;
■ Unavoidable operating cost increases; and
■ An increase in employee benefits.
The Recommended Budget also reflects reductions in State
funding for various programs including:
■ Independent Living Program;
■ Child Care Program; and
■ Specialized Care Incentives and Assistance Program.
The Recommended Budget reflects additional positions as
follows: 1) 1.0 position for the First District Education Pilot
Project, fully offset by a federal Investing in Innovation (i3)
grant from Children Youth and Family Collaborative;
2) 2.0 positions for California Partnership to Reduce Long-Term
Foster Care, fully offset by a California Partner for Permanency
Grant; 3) 3.0 part-time positions for Diligent Recruitment
Program, fully offset by a federal grant from the Federal
Children’s Bureau Discretionary Grant and Cooperative
Agreement Award entitled “Diligent Recruitment of Families
for Children in the Foster Care System”; and 4) 26.0 positions
for critically needed administrative support and program
services, fully offset by Title IV-E Waiver revenue and
Provisional Financing Uses reinvestment funds.
CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES
Budget Summaries
Critical/Strategic Planning Initiatives
The Recommended Budget will allow the Department to
continue collaborative initiatives with the Chief Executive
Office, other County departments and community partners to
increase child safety, decrease timelines to permanence,
reduce reliance on the use of out-of-home care, improve
self-sufficiency of youth when they reach adulthood, improve
child and family well-being, and increase organizational
excellence.
Initiatives aimed at improving child safety include:
■ Strengthening of the child protective emergency response
system to increase the quality of investigations while
redesigning and streamlining processes to help social workers
focus on ensuring child safety and conducting investigations
quickly and thoroughly. Revising the way policy changes are
communicated to be more accessible, and improving training
for new hires with an emphasis on field experiences and for
social workers while in service using e-Learning tools, as well
as Core Practice Model elements for emergency response;
■ Improvement of quality assurance at the Child Protection
Hotline and the quality of service delivery and resource
availability at the Emergency Response Command Post after
hours and on weekends;
■ Implementation of a new SB 39 unit that will collaborate with
the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), County
Counsel, District Attorney’s Office, Sheriff’s Department and
local law enforcement agencies to release legally mandated
information on child abuse fatalities as required by federal and
State law;
■ Continuation of the Multi-Agency Response Team, which is a
joint effort with the Sherriff’s Department and other local law
enforcement agencies, to rescue children from homes where
drugs, gangs and weapons pose a threat to their safety; and
■ Establishment of an Out-of-Home Care Investigation Section
to strengthen the investigations of abuse and neglect
allegations against County-contracted foster care providers.
Initiatives aimed at decreasing timelines to permanence
include:
■ Participation in the California Partnership to Reduce
Long-Term Foster Care grant which is a four county five-year
project, overseen by the CDSS, which will develop and
implement model practices to prevent and reduce the
number of African-American and Native American children
languishing in foster care at disproportionate rates to the
youth population in the County;
FY 2011-12 Recommended Budget Volume One 14.2 County of Los Angeles