Governor Baker, Department of Children and Families Announce New Policies

Governor Charlie Baker stood with administrators and front-line workers from the Department of Children and Families to announce major changes to DCF policies and practices focused on ensuring the safety of children in the Commonwealth’s child welfare system.

The new Intake Policy substantially updates and clarifies protocols for DCF’s screening and investigation of reports of abuse or neglect. The changes also include a first ever Supervision Policy designed to support DCF front-line workers in decision-making and to identify circumstances where cases need to be elevated for collaborative higher-level review. Preparation for training on the two policies will begin immediately with full, statewide implementation commencing on Feb. 1 2016.

“The new intake and supervisor policies that DCF is announcing today represent the first step in a much needed systemic reform of DCF policies and practices,” said Gov. Baker. “These new policies provide the framework for DCF to be responsive and accountable in its mission to protect every child we serve in every way we can.”

“With these policies, we are giving our workers a standardized playbook for case-practice, decision making, and oversight,” said Marylou Sudders, Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. “Intake will be faster and more consistent, and there will be collaboration on cases with supervisors and managers so cases do not fall through the cracks.”

“Having clear and consistent guidelines around clinical practice will allow the agency to tighten its focus around keeping children safe,” said Linda Spears, Commissioner of DCF. “The introduction of the supervisor policy is extremely timely in that it ensures workers will have the support they need for the implementation of the revised intake policy also announced today.”

“For years, front-line child protection workers have called for safer caseloads, clear policies and consistent oversight practices that are so vital to the work we do,” said social work supervisor Peter MacKinnon, DCF Chapter President of SEIU Local 509. “While addressing the caseload crisis remains a top priority, these reforms mark an important first step in our shared effort to bring a commonsense, safety-focused approach to the Department of Children & Families.”

The Protective Intake Policy creates a comprehensive set of procedures to guide the department’s review and investigation of reports of abuse or neglect. It has been 30 years since the intake policy was initially written. Details of the new policy include:

Screening

· Requires non-emergency reports of abuse and neglect to be reviewed and screened in or out in one business day—reduced from three days previously. Emergency reports continue to require an immediate screening decision and an investigatory response within 2 hours

· Introduces screening teams comprised of social workers, supervisors, and managers in all 29 area offices charged with reviewing new reports of abuse or neglect in open cases, reports of three or more separate incidents in the past 12 months, and other reports indicating reasons for elevated concern

· Mandates review of all information about the child and caregiver’s prior DCF involvement and review of any comparable information available from child welfare agencies in other states, including cases in which a parent has previously lost custody of a child

· Requires CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information), SORI (Sexual Offender Record Information), and national criminal history database checks of parents/caregivers and all household members over 15 years old

· Requires requests from law enforcement for information on 911 calls and police responses to the residence of any child or family involved in a report of abuse or neglect

Investigative Response

· Creates a single child protection response to all screened in reports that eliminates the practice of tiered or “differential response” at screening. All reports that are screened in will now be assigned for a response by an Investigation Trained Response Worker. The revised policy places decision-making regarding the appropriate level of department intervention after the response – the point at which the Department has interviewed the child and caregiver involved and substantially investigated the report of abuse or neglect

· As with the current policy, requires Response Workers to interview parents, caregivers and other children in the home as well as the person allegedly responsible for the abuse or neglect

· Enables Response Workers, for the first time, to search online sources for information relevant to assessing child safety

· Includes an assessment of parental capacity by evaluating whether the parent understands how to keep the child safe, uses appropriate discipline methods and provides for the family’s basic needs, among other criteria

· Mandates use of the Department’s Risk Assessment Tool to assess potential future risks to the child’s safety.

The Supervisor Policy is the first in DCF’s history. It strengthens the Department’s efforts to support social workers in their efforts to keep children safe by defining the required elements of supervision and, identifying practice areas that require special attention such as understanding parental history or present risk factors such as substance use, mental health challenges or domestic violence. Highlights include:

· Each social worker will receive one hour per week of individual supervision and one hour per month of group supervision. Every case must be discussed at least once a month, which promotes more collaborative case management. These requirements are in addition to urgent and as needed guidance on case activities

· The policy clarifies circumstances that require supervisors to seek assistance from Department managers, attorneys or clinical specialists for collaborative review of complex cases. Examples of such circumstances include conflicting views between social workers and supervisors; situations in which there is conflicting information from department staff, service providers, and other professionals involved with family; and cases involving infants born to parents with children currently in Department custody or to parents whose paternal rights have been previously terminated

The need for an updated Intake Policy and a Supervisor Policy were part of an overall call for systemic reform at DCF first announced Sept. 28.

The Department continues to recruit social workers, supervisors, and other key staff to help support on-going reform. The reforms also include reestablishing the Central Massachusetts Regional Office of DCF around Jan. 1, 2016, reducing backlogs for foster home applicants, and other policy updates which will be complete by March of 2016.