Private agencies, public role

Bernadette M. Bianchi

is executive director of the Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth and Family Services

No one should ever make excuses for the deaths of children in the child-welfare system. Whether it is due to bad public policy or inadequate interventions, the death of even one child calls for accountability and concrete remedies.

In Pennsylvania, child-welfare services are supervised by the state, administered by the counties, and delivered, in large part, by private agencies. Recent news coverage of the failures of the child-welfare system highlight its complexity, the families and children served, and the need for all parts of the system to work together to identify failures and implement solutions.

Private agencies provided for at-risk children for more than a century before the public sector mandated such intervention. Some agencies grew from deep-seated faith-based traditions, others from a community-driven mission. Individuals working in these agencies know the neighborhoods, work to connect families to informal community supports, locate beds and appliances or arrange for transportation to medical visits, and are motivated by a true commitment to making a difference.

Pennsylvania is fortunate to have a broad array of services available through private providers. Last year, agencies serving Philadelphia children raised more than $30 million in private money to subsidize this work because public funds did not cover the actual costs of the services. They never do.

Demands on the social-services system, and on social workers, are growing more challenging. This is a direct result of the increasing complexity of the needs of children and families - single parents who have a child with autism and are struggling to make ends meet; moms and dads struggling with mental-health or substance-abuse issues; children raising children; grandmothers raising grandchildren; increased rates of teen truancy and of high school dropouts; and escalating youth violence. Poverty and other economic pressures threaten stable family life.

According to news reports, more than 20 children whose families were involved with the Philadelphia Department of Human Services died of abuse and/or neglect between 2003 and 2005. The loss of each child is an unspeakable tragedy. Child-welfare professionals intervene to manage unpredictable behavior when life is most depressing and stressful. We live with the humbling and harsh realities that challenge the safety of children and the ability of their families to provide for them. We are constantly confronted with the heart-wrenching results. Sometimes you can do everything right yet have something tragically go wrong.

When it does, we are powerless to defend or even offer rational explanations for the actions taken. Bound by confidentiality laws, regulations and contract restrictions to protect the identity of the children in our care, it is virtually impossible to cooperate with media workers who want to shed light on the problems - or even to publicly disclose our successes. Providers can't talk about the families who move so frequently it takes weeks to locate them, or ask for support from neighbors to act as round-the-clock eyes and ears, or share family histories and treatment plans. Public scrutiny is all too often focused on the painful failures; most successful outcomes go unnoticed.

Private agencies under contract with the Department of Human Services provide Services to Children in their Own Homes (SCOH). The goal of SCOH is to avoid the trauma of removing children from their families and placing them into foster homes or institutions. In Philadelphia, private providers delivered in-home services to more than 7,500 children living in 2,800 families. For 15 years, the Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth and Family Services has convened a regular meeting of SCOH supervisors, representing more than 30 agencies, to discuss case management, best practices, DHS supervision, communication, and funding. Those concerns and recommendations are shared with DHS to strengthen the safety net for at-risk children.

Private agencies are committed to identifying and eliminating situations in which poor practices add to the pain and turmoil already experienced by a child in the system. Private providers want to know what went wrong, too. We are not avoiding accountability or public scrutiny. We support the public investigations now under way. We are committed to cooperating with the Mayor's Child Welfare Panel and providing responsive and quality programs and services. Not only is this our responsibility, it is our legacy.