Review of the Child Protective Services Investigation Process Essay

In the beginning of 2004, the tragic death of a young boy in San Antonio, TX raised concerns about Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (TDPRS) procedures relating to the investigation of the s devoter valueive go ( round) process, including responding to telephone reports and assessing the seek of contumely accurately. TDPRS is surely under investigation ordered by the Governor, Rick Perry. The Governor stated, at that place is enough evidence from various parts of the state to suggest that or so of our most vulnerable babyren ar not receiving the protection they need from black situations. The evidence leads me to believe we begin a systemic breakdown in the golosh net that moldiness protect guyd children (www.governor.state.tx.us July 1, 2004).This paper examines current procedures in the investigation process and caters recommendations for improvement related to several of the exposit and feature of the trading operations process. Reinventing g overnment initiatives draw heavily on bestow chain management, total quality management, business process reengineering, and just-in- succession delivery concepts that make it under the Operations Management umbrella.(Chase, 2003). Because this review is narrowly focused on the cycle per second investigation process, there argon several essential elements of child welfare wait ons that are not addressed in this paper, including sub care and permanency services.OVERVIEW OF FUNCTIONAL AREASThe over entirely goal of bicycle is to protect the unprotected children from abuse and neglect. This report focuses on specific round functions and crosscutting themes. These functions are those that comprise the child protection response to allegations of abuse and neglect. Operational definitions depict in this report include* Screening and Intake the process by which round elates a referral and a report concerning allegations of child abuse or neglect, and decides whether or not to r espond to the referral and report.* Investigation the process by which wheel determines whether child malhandling has occurred or if a child is at stake of contumely, and the stopping points and actions that are needed to ensure the childs safety.* Other CPS Response and Alternative Response a response to an allegation of abuse or neglect that assesses the needs of the child or family with or without requiring a determination that mal interference has occurred or that the child is at risk of maltreatment for the purpose of providing the family with services.For each function, there are several different features. The perishflow of these functions is described in Table 1.SCREENING AND INTAKEReceiving community referrals, which includes those from mandated maestro reporters and the population at large, is the gate behavior to CPS. Features of the intake procedures include the avail business leader to receive reports, methods for documenting reports, and timeframes for accepti ng and forwarding a report. Intake is available 24-hours a daytime 7 days a week, and centralized in Austin, TX. Referred reports are broadly speaking categorized into two groups.In the first group, CPS wooingworkers are dispatched spryly for children believed to be in imminent risk of harm. In the second group, investigations are usually initiated within 10 days. The policies indicate that a decision communications protocol for forwarding cases for investigation. The hotline workers conduct quality assurance (QA) reviews on each case and decision to forward a case to investigation is make with executive computer programme approval. In case of sexual abuse and serious abuse, the case must be notified to law enforcement.INVESTIGATIONThe investigation function addresses the process of find whether a child has been maltreated or is likely to be maltreated, and if services are needed to ensure the child will not be harmed in the future. TDPRS implemented the use of risk and safe ty assessment (IRA) as tools to guide decision-making as to when and how to intervene to keep children safe in the immediate future and to reduce long-term risk. The result of IRA was included at case closure, during case planning at any major decision point, or whenever circumstances suggest a childs safety is at risk. Investigators usually check if the childs family has had a preceding validated report of abuse or neglect. Investigators then visit and oppugn the family, including initiating face-to-face contact with the children, and begin collecting information about the supposed maltreatment incident.If an investigator, during the initial investigation, believes that a child has been maltreated and needs the accost to protect the childs safety, the investigator must initiate judicial oversight of the case, which can be time-consuming and complicated. While the investigator is chase the procedures involved in investigating the alleged maltreatment, he or she is withal deve loping a tentative plan to address those conditions in the inhabitation that CPS believes contributed to the maltreatment of the child. This plan ultimately becomes the case plan that outlines treatment services for the child and the family. The plan described what actions are required of all the parties involved to correct the condition that caused the maltreatment.OTHER CPS RESPONSE AND pick RESPONSEThe overall goals of alternative response are to provide a response option to those families whose situations did not meet the mandate or criteria for CPS involvement, to serve low-risk or low-severity situations, or to improve family situations. This is to emphasize partnering the families with the community and creating a network for the family, protect children and assist parents to recognize and remedy conditions harmful to their children, provide interruptive services before the need of CPS involvement is required, and prevent the family from potentially being re-referred. The causes of child abuse and neglect are complex, and a case plan can involve referrals to an array of individuals, including caseworkers from other units in the chest, private service providers such as mental heartyness and advise master keys, other public agencies such as housing and transportation services. menses WORKFLOWDocumenting business process flows visually not only helps in ISO and QS initiatives, but it is the first step toward continuous improvement. (Gould, L. 2000) A good way to start analyzing a process is with a diagram showing the underlying elements of a process (Chase, 2003) Table 1 describes the overview of current work flow from the time the report of maltreatment was reported to CPS until the completion of the investigation.Table 1UNDERLYING PROBLEMSBecause child protection is a critical service and because of the serious-mindedness consequences of errors, CPS must seek to insure the quality, seasonableness, and accuracy of the process two through detai led specifications (laws, regulations, and indemnity) and thorough supervisory oversight. However, the process must be reposed with systems that give workers and supervisors sufficient flexibility to hope sound professional judgment. Increases in the heel of maltreatment cases, the changing nature of family problems, and long-standing systemic weaknesses have placed the CPS system in a state of crisis and undermined its ability to fully carry out the responsibilities for abused and neglected children.First, child maltreatment reports have risen steadily across the state. The caseloads of CPS have giving correspondingly, and CPS cannot keep pace with this workload. Second, these caseloads are increasingly composed of families whose problems have grown much troubling and complicated, with substance abuse a vernacular and pervasive condition. Finally, systemic weaknesses, such as difficulty maintaining professional and hot workforce, in agreeablely implementing policies and pro cedures, and poor working relationships with outside resources has created a long-standing problems. The combined answer of difficult caseloads and systemic weaknesses may endanger the lives of children glide slope to the attention of CPS.In CPS, the staff sometimes deal with life-and-death issues, the knowledge of and consistent coating of appropriate policies and procedures are critical. However, CPS staff is unable to consistently apply existing policies such as inadequate safety assessment. This is because policies change frequently, no procedures manual exists, and information is inconsistently distributed to all staff.By necessity, CPS should work efficiently and effectively with outside resources to protect children. However, the outside resources, like CPS, excessively face problems associated with the large volume of increasingly complex cases, budget cuts, and Medicaid reform. supernumerary time spent to transfer or refer cases diverts the investigator from acting in vestigative activities on other open cases and create congestion in workflow.COMPARE AND CONTRAST WITH OTHER PRACTICEIn 1994, Missouri demonstrable a new strategy to handle the overwhelming number of reports coming into its CPS system. Missouri recognized that state government, acting alone, had neither the resources nor the topical anesthetic community, neighborhood, or family base to effectively alter the cycle of abuse and neglect. The agency and local CPS offices have turned to the broader community of churches, schools, mental health providers, and others to expand their pee-pee.By developing partnerships with these community groups, CPS is able to rapidly increase the number of people available to serve children and their families, without increasing CPS staffing levels. The model in this state is also based on the put in that not all CPS cases require the same traditional approach. Instead, the models combine a flexible response, whereby CPS cases can be grouped gibe t o the nature of the allegation, recognizing that different types of allegations required different responses.RECOMMENDATIONSBuild companionship federationDifferent types of maltreatment require dramatically different prevention and treatment strategies. It is critical for CPS to form partnerships between CPS and community service providers. This will allow the cases to be referred and transferred more smoothly and in a timely manner. However, ultimate success will depend on the CPS staffs ability to overcome certain challenges, such as developing willingness within the community to become more active in protecting children from maltreatment and to adapt to new roles and responsibilities.Refine the Key executing RequirementKey Performance RequirementsHow to Achieve These RequirementsReport Receipt(Intake)* Community awareness of when and how to report* Minimal wait to reach the intake workers* powerful use of the CAPS (agency computer system)* Enhanced phone system that provide realistic time information, manage call distribution to available workers, and support estimation of staffing requirementsScreening* Immediate response to high risk situations* Reasonable timeliness of decisions on other situations* Sound screening decisions* Screening guidelines that provide consistent direction* Immediate access to relevant information system* real time consultation from experienced supervisorsAssessment(Investigation)* Sufficient thoroughness reasonable and prudent efforts made to obtain relevant information* Timeliness of decisions* Decisions consistent with information and with policy* Assessment guidelines that provide consistent direction* Assessment timeliness requirements that balance thorough information gathering with responsiveness* Reasonable caseloads and adequate number of staff* Accessible consultation from experienced supervisorsManagement Reporting* discipline that enables management to make sound judgments regarding overall performance and other matters, such as staffing requirements* Information that enables supervisors to manage caseloads and monitor quality and timeliness* use of goods and services of the information to identify targeted improvements where needed* Real-time information about on-going cases* Reports on both the detailed (by worker) and summary (by unit) level on caseloads and case stance (pending, deadlines, overdue, etcetera)* Reports of quality assurance findings* Designation of specific performance measures that will be tracked and monitored with comparisons across local offices* Management reports on overall program performance including workload, timeliness, quality assurance results, investigation outcomes, list of outside resources, etc.CONCLUSIONTDPRS is facing increased reports of child abuse and neglect, as well as a disturbing increase in the number of families with implike and multiple problems. The burden to improve the slipway CPS responds to children at risk of abuse and neglect falls on state and local governments. When a process is operating at capacity, the only way to take on more work without increasing the waiting time is add more capacity (Chase, 2003) CPS management must recognize that the traditional approaches to child protection cannot keep pace with the demand for services.CPS needs to reach out to communities to establish partnerships among service providers, as well as our citizens. Furthermore, the CPS management team must look at the entire workflow of the operations process and recognize long-standing systemic problems. It is critical to seek ways to correct deficiencies and to build and maintain the personnel that will support the operations management strategies.REFERENCESChase, R. (2003). Product design and process selection. Operations Management for militant Advantage, Tenth Edition. The McGraw-Hill Companies.Chase, R. (2003). Operations strategy and management change. Operations Management for warlike Advantage, Tenth Edition. The McGraw- Hill Companies.www. tdprs.state.tx.uswww.governor.state.tx.usGould, L. (2004) Designing a better business. Gardner Publications, Inc. Retrieved from www.autofieldguid.com on 8/23/04McDonald W. (2001). National study of child protective services systems and reform efforts books review. Retrieved from www.aspe.hhs.gov.hsp/protective01/on 8/22/04.http//www.gao.gov/archive/1997/he97115.pdf