Senate
task force recommends more DCYF involvement in network contracts
 |
| Cathie Cool Rumsey, working to finish what she started |
STATE HOUSE – A Senate task force considering the
matter has recommended that the Department of Children, Youth and Families
should have greater oversight and involvement in its contract with Family Care
Networks, should transition toward more community-based services, including
foster care, and should set specific goals, subject to continued legislative
oversight.
Co-chaired by Sen. Louis P. DiPalma (D-Dist.12,
Middletown, Little Compton, Newport, Tiverton) and former senator Catherine
Cool Rumsey (D-Dist. 34, Exeter, Charlestown, Hopkinton, Richmond, West
Greenwich), the Senate Task Force on the Department of Children, Youth and
Families and the Family Care Network spent several months exploring the
continued challenges facing DCYF and the nonprofit networks that provide
services to children in state care.
Currently, DCYF and its networks are
working together to successfully resolve contract negotiations, and the goal of
the Senate task force was to ensure that oversight and public accountability
are maintained as discussions move forward. The current contract expires June
30.
If implemented, the recommendations, many of
which complement and emphasize the testimony provided by the Governor’s
Resource Team, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and providers and community
advocates, would:
- improve accountability and transparency,
- improve the efficiency with which limited resources are expended,
- improve assessment of the effectiveness of the department’s services,
- keep caseloads at manageable levels for social workers,
- reduce out-of-state placements,
- encourage keeping siblings in foster care together and
- provide for a system of care that protects the safety and well-being of families in the most efficient, cost-effective way.
“We recognize that the job both DCYF and the
networks are being asked to do, particularly given the limited funding
available, is very difficult. Our recommendations are aimed at improving
oversight so no effort is being doubled or wasted, so the limited resources
that are available do the most good for the children who need DCYF’s help,”
said Senator DiPalma.
Said former senator Cool Rumsey, “Of course
there’s no panacea, but it is imperative that everyone involved in making
policy decisions about state care for children work together very carefully to
continually make adjustments that are necessary to properly serve children and
families. We need to look at the results, recognize when changes need to be
made, and have the flexibility to make them as swiftly as possible, because
whenever we’re talking about ‘caseloads’ and ‘populations,’ we’re really
talking about kids and parents: real people whose lives are affected.”
Among the 20 recommendations made in the report,
the task force suggested that DCYF assign a manager of the contracts and work
to increase accountability, develop standards and metrics for monitoring the
implementation of the contracts, and carefully watch cash flowing through them.
Part of the issue currently facing DCYF is that funding for the contract is on
track to run out in April, three months before the end of the contract. It also
recommends that DCYF consider itself the primary case manager of the families
served through the contracts to eliminate confusion and duplication of work.
Some of the other recommendations involve a shift
toward more community-based solutions, including increasing investments in
preventative services and family supports that reduce DCYF caseloads, improve
outcomes, and reduce the need for more intensive services, and increasing
reimbursement rates for foster parents.
In particular, it should develop and
implement a continuous recruitment plan for foster parents, and eliminate a
policy of reducing the reimbursement rates for siblings fostered by the same
family, because it works against the goal of keeping siblings together.
The task force recommends continued government
oversight, with several recommendations that DCYF report to the Senate or other
government entities on the progress of various elements of the contracts.
It
also recommends that the newly inaugurated governor convene the Children’s Cabinet
that the General Assembly approved through legislation, and that the governor
ultimately make the decision on whether the contracts should be continued,
renewed with changes or not renewed upon its end in June.
The report notes DCYF’s staff’s “dedication and
commitment to the families and youth they serve,” and recognizes the “many
positive outcomes occurring daily as a result of their work.”
The report
is available on the General Assembly homepage, under the “reports” link.