Agenda - 10-05-2004-9a - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: October 5, 2004 Action Age da Item No. ~(~__ SUBJECT: Request to Accept State Child Protective Services Funding for the Establishment of Two New Child Protective Services Social Worker Positions DEPARTMENT: Social Services PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: Nancy Coston, ext 2802 TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 Durham 688-7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To consider accepting state fiands for child protective services and establishing two new permanent full time Child Protective Service Social Worker positions with the funds, BACKGROUND: Orange County joined with 51 other counties to implement child welfare reform, known as the Multiple Response System, effective July 2004. Originally, the State did not believe that the new system would require any additional staff. However, a study of the first ten pilot counties concluded that the changes did require additional staff time and could result in unanticipated county costs. Currently, Orange County has an average caseload of 194.83 cases and the equivalent of 17.5 social workers assigned to these cases. This means that Orange County was meeting the recommended State staffing ratio of 1:12 (one worker to 12 cases), However, after studying the experiences of the counties originally implementing child welfare reform, the recommended staff ratio in counties who are part of the Multiple Response System has been adjusted to 1:10. The staff at Orange County Department of Social Services are now beginning to see the impacts of these new demands, Although the staff are supportive of the new approach, the intensity of services requires a greater commitment of time to the individual cases. During its last session, the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $5 million in additional funding far child protective services. These funds require no county match, but do require that the each county commit to using the funds only for new positions in child protective services. Some of these funds were allocated to counties such as Orange to address the staffing needs associated with the implementation of the new multiple response system. Orange County was determined to need two additional positions to maintain the recommended 1:10 ratio and will receive an annual allocation of $105,514. These funds are in the state continuation budget and are therefore expected to be available each year.