It's our money: The child welfare machine
About 20,000 children fall under the care of DHS and when a death like Danieal Kelly's occurs, questions arise about the capacity of the city's largest department. Are the problems of DHS caused by underfunding and understaffing?
DHS is not so much a straightforward city department as a complicated apparatus with money flowing from the federal government through a complex series of levels -- from the federal government to the state to DHS; but 85 percent of the money DHS gets passed through the agency to a network of privately run nonprofit providers. "It's our money," a partnership between the Daily News and WHYY (funded by the William Penn Foundation) reviewed the structure and the funding of DHS to see where the money goes.
Here's what the structure looks like:
Number of employees: 1889
Number of social workers: 820
Number of social work supervisors: 115
Number of social work administrators: 43
Number of social work directors: 9
Each division in DHS awards contracts for various services. These contracts may go directly to a single organization, or to a larger intermediary who then dispenses contract money among agencies. The top ten contracts for the care of individuals by the Children and Youth division (below) make up nearly 70 million
Total number of nonprofit agencies with contracts: 348
Total number of contracts for services for children and youth division (as opposed juvenile justice): 162
The top ten children and youth services contracts (below) make up nearly $70 million
The top ten contractors get about $70 million, or 10 percent of DHS's budget.
Here are some questions that arise:
How sound is the policy of having the welfare of children in the hands of private organizations that are not accountable or subject to public scrutiny?
Should DHS be considered a social services department when in fact its real job is the management of a staggering number of contracts, worth over a half-billion dollars? Does the training of its administrators and social workers equip them to be high level contract managers?
Is there an inherent conflict in funneling so much public money to religious organizations? And does that conflict extend to the management of these organizations and their work, especially if their values don't coincide with the mission of DHS? More importantly, do their religious missions ever compromise their care of children?
Since many of the groups work independently of each other, how badly has the lack of coordination stunted the development of a choherent citywide stragey for youth services?
Doesn't the reliance on non-profits insulate DHS from what is happening in the homes and neighborhoods in the city?
Finally, with a budget of $680 million and 20,000 children who need help, isn't there a more efficient and effective way to make sure more of that money is spent insuring their safety? At this point, if the DHS budget were divided by the number of children it serves, each one would get a check for $34,000 every year.
Ben Waxman reports for "It's Our Money" (http://www.ourmoneyphilly.com/), a partnership between the Daily News and WHYY, funded by the William Penn Foundation. Email: waxmanb@phillynews.com.
DHS is not so much a straightforward city department as a complicated apparatus with money flowing from the federal government through a complex series of levels -- from the federal government to the state to DHS; but 85 percent of the money DHS gets passed through the agency to a network of privately run nonprofit providers. "It's our money," a partnership between the Daily News and WHYY (funded by the William Penn Foundation) reviewed the structure and the funding of DHS to see where the money goes.
Here's what the structure looks like:
Number of employees: 1889
Number of social workers: 820
Number of social work supervisors: 115
Number of social work administrators: 43
Number of social work directors: 9
Each division in DHS awards contracts for various services. These contracts may go directly to a single organization, or to a larger intermediary who then dispenses contract money among agencies. The top ten contracts for the care of individuals by the Children and Youth division (below) make up nearly 70 million Total number of nonprofit agencies with contracts: 348
Total number of contracts for services for children and youth division (as opposed juvenile justice): 162
The top ten children and youth services contracts (below) make up nearly $70 million
The top ten contractors get about $70 million, or 10 percent of DHS's budget.
Here are some questions that arise:
How sound is the policy of having the welfare of children in the hands of private organizations that are not accountable or subject to public scrutiny?
Should DHS be considered a social services department when in fact its real job is the management of a staggering number of contracts, worth over a half-billion dollars? Does the training of its administrators and social workers equip them to be high level contract managers?
Is there an inherent conflict in funneling so much public money to religious organizations? And does that conflict extend to the management of these organizations and their work, especially if their values don't coincide with the mission of DHS? More importantly, do their religious missions ever compromise their care of children?
Since many of the groups work independently of each other, how badly has the lack of coordination stunted the development of a choherent citywide stragey for youth services?
Doesn't the reliance on non-profits insulate DHS from what is happening in the homes and neighborhoods in the city?
Finally, with a budget of $680 million and 20,000 children who need help, isn't there a more efficient and effective way to make sure more of that money is spent insuring their safety? At this point, if the DHS budget were divided by the number of children it serves, each one would get a check for $34,000 every year.
Ben Waxman reports for "It's Our Money" (http://www.ourmoneyphilly.com/), a partnership between the Daily News and WHYY, funded by the William Penn Foundation. Email: waxmanb@phillynews.com.
