- Read the draft report
First Independent Review
The Department of Human Services has made significant headway in rethinking how it protects children in Philadelphia but has far to go before its reforms find their way to the streets, a panel of experts reported Thursday in the first outside review of the agency since a shake-up in 2006.
Recommended changes
The remedy: A new dedication to children—and oversight.
Children have died needlessly because of "significant system failures" that plague the city Department of Human Services, a panel of experts said in a wrenching report made public today.
To fix the systemic problems, the panel recommended a series of reforms, ranging from a rethinking of its core mission to the development of a new DHS document. Among other steps, it said the agency must:
INQUIRER INVESTIGATION
Three years after a string of blunders by DHS was widely blamed for failing to prevent the torture-murder of toddler Porchia Bennett, an Inquirer investigation has found that young children are still regularly abused to death after coming to the attention of DHS.