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Monday, June 20, 2011

DHS making strides, but work remains
DHS Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose has made some improvements in the agency. (Staff File Photo)

After decades of disarray that put vulnerable children in harm’s way, the city Department of Human Services is finally making significant strides in improving how it protects young clients.

The horrendous death of Danieal Kelly in 2006 exposed fatal flaws in the dysfunctional agency. The 14-year-old starved while her family was under the agency's supervision.

An Inquirer series of articles uncovered countless broken policies and practices and a neglected core mission to keep children safe. The newspaper found that as many as 25 youngsters had died in the previous three years after they or family members became clients of the agency.

A scathing grand-jury report in 2008 blamed DHS for failing to protect Danieal from abuse. The girl weighed only 42 pounds when her emaciated body was found.

Since then, the troubled agency has made sweeping changes to prevent the abuse and scandals that are worth applauding. But much work remains to be done.

Fortunately, that is happening under the watchful eye of a diligent group of volunteers serving as a community oversight board. At the board’s direction, DHS has implemented at least 19 of 37 recommendations made by the blue-ribbon panel to reform the agency.

“We think there is significant change,” said Carol E. Tracy, of the Women’s Law Project. She has served on the board since then-Mayor John Street convened a panel of national child welfare experts to scrutinize DHS and find ways to fix it.

Mayor Nutter picked up where Street left off by making the child welfare agency a priority and giving the board expanded authority to monitor DHS’ progress in making needed changes.

The state has also pushed for Philadelphia to make many of the changes, including better oversight of DHS social workers as well as the private providers who must be held accountable for regularly visiting children and families under their supervision.

Experts say it typically takes up to seven years to turn around a child-welfare agency, especially one with such an abysmal record of mismanagement and failure to adequately protect children.

So it is encouraging that DHS has met or exceeded many of the time lines for reform under Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose. Other changes are in progress.

The agency has introduced a ChildStat tracking system to chart how individual cases are handled and pinpoint where improvements can be made. Police departments use a similar system as a crime-fighting tool.

There is also now in place a child-fatality review team, headed by the coroner, which makes more sense. It investigates not just deaths but near-death cases, which could help identify at risk-children before a tragedy.

The next step must be for DHS to swiftly implement the remaining oversight-board recommendations. They include setting up a local DHS office in an at-risk neighborhood to foster a better community relationship.

Important reforms have been made within DHS, with more to come. That means better protection for vulnerable children.
Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 3:00 AM  Permalink | 1 comment
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:18 PM, 06/21/2011
    "It takes 7 years to turn around a dysfunctional agency". Interesting statistic. That could suggest that it took 7 years to create the dysfunction. That also suggests that all the blame for the dysfunction rests with the Street administration and his leaders/leadership since, after all, line staff can't unilaterally create this dysfunctional environment. 100% of the fatalities reviewed by this oversight board occurred under Street's leadership (DHS commissioners: Martinez (now at Vanguard) and Ransom (may she rest in peace). The shift in focus away from child protection occurred mostly due to Street's shift in focus away from child protection to moving money into communities (think Mrs. Street and her agency Safe and Sound) and away from the core mission. ... Let's fast forward: it is now 2011 and Nutter has been in place for 3 years now, 5 years since Danieal. Progress at DHS: 50% of the recommended changes have been implemented. Emphasis is on "only 50%" and "implemented". 50% is horrible performance after 5 years of implementing changes. Shame on the board and the Inquirer for accepting this level of abysmal performance. ... I don't fully agree with bill.atkins above. I wouldn't call it a pig of an agency since DHS does frequently do some really good work as well. However, it is the parents/caregivers who killed this poor young girl and the other 25 children. DHS did not. ... last comment: it is facile to totally blame Street, though this should be a BIG part of his legacy, because one agency, MultiEthnic, was highly successful at hiding their malfeasance (that agency's leadership and staff got up to 17 years in federal prison for the fraud and still face Phila charges) or because one DHS worker was successful in hiding poor performance (pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment).
    — nebulus


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