Human Services Dept. gets 3d provisional license

Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare has granted a third consecutive provisional license to the city's Department of Human Services, saying that much progress had been made but that more needed to be done.

The move technically inched the troubled agency closer to a takeover by Harrisburg, which could happen if a fourth provisional, six-month license is granted next year.

But the key players said yesterday that was just about inconceivable.

"Within a year," predicted state Public Welfare Secretary Estelle B. Richman, the city agency will rival "any of the systems in the country that are considered the best."

She heaped praise on the Nutter administration and the agency's new director, Anne Marie Ambrose, who was an official in Richman's department until moving to the city three weeks ago.

An Inquirer series in 2006 described the deaths of children whose families were well-known to DHS.

Ambrose, who was part of the state team that recommended the agency's first two provisional licenses, said last night that she was "proud of DHS staff" and "clear we are on the right road."

Told of Richman's expectation that the agency could soon become among the best in the country, Ambrose said that "it might take a few more years than that," adding, "I'll shoot for that."

In a letter to Ambrose formally announcing the licensing decision Wednesday, Richman outlined five broad areas requiring improvement, including family service planning, staff training, safety, and "alignment of prevention services." All have some relation to the No. 1 goal: more consistent supervision and oversight of active cases.

The provisional license is good through Jan. 16, when DHS must pass its fourth review to avoid stringent action by the state.

Donald F. Schwarz, the deputy mayor who oversees DHS, said he was "disappointed" by the provisional license, and "quite heartened that the agency has made considerable progress that the state highlighted," especially since he believed the state had raised the bar midstream.

"Six months from now I want a full license," Schwarz said, adding that "the concerns that the state raises we're already working to address, so I have every expectation that we will get a license."

A full license is "not a done deal yet," cautioned Carol W. Spigner, an associate professor of social work at the University of Pennsylvania who chaired the review panel that originally recommended changes and now heads a community oversight board. "We haven't seen the results for kids, but that takes time."

In other developments, Ambrose said yesterday that DHS was considering opening neighborhood centers to further protect children under its care.

The pilot center, she said, would be based on Allegheny County's model, in which its Human Services Department and juvenile court system collaborate.

Ambrose announced the proposal at a hearing in Philadelphia conducted by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

At the hearing, young people who were in foster care spoke in support of two Senate bills 1245 and 1246, which would extend services to those growing too old to be in the system.

John LeVan, 46, is the foster/adoption home finder for Chester County's Department of Children, Youth and Families. He has a personal connection to foster care that motivates him: LeVan told the senators that he was 18 months old when his mother was sent to jail in Berks County and he was placed in a children's home.

Between 1963 and 1979, LeVan said, "I had 17 sets of parents that I can remember."

It took him years, and the help of two good friends, to straighten out his life.

"And as I sit here," he said, "I wonder how, in 30 years, we have not moved closer than we have to solving these issues."