an overview georgia program improvement plan - Department of ...

Within 60 days of receiving the Qualitative Case Review
Report, a written report will be provided, if appropriate, on
future training needs and policy changes.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
4 th Quarter Federal Response: The State indicates a plan to remove this from the PIP. Why?
5 th Quarter Report: This step has not been removed. The State's first QCR report has been forwarded to the ACF Regional Office
and is documented as a part of the 5 th Quarter Progress Report.
6 th Quarter Report: The Evaluation and Reporting Section continues to perform Qualitative Reviews. From January-March 2003,
sixteen county departments and a total of 37 cases were reviewed. A total of 62 cases have been reviewed by Evaluation and
Reporting since the process began.
6 th Quarter DOCUMENTATION: Social Services Quarterly Report Qualitative Case Reviews January 2004 - March 2004
6 th Quarter Federal Response: I15: State has agreed to, and requested a number of changes from quarter to quarter.
6 th Quarterly Reporting is inconsistent with the benchmark.
7 th Quarter Report: The Social Services Quarterly Reports to date were reviewed/compared and implication for additional training is
evident. It was noted that areas in Child and Family Well-Being and Permanency saw a decline in compliance. As the QCR process
continues, unchanged and declining areas will be targeted for training (and policy changes if applicable).
There has been a steady increase in the number of children entering the foster care system, which also increases the case manager to
client ratio. This may have a negative impact on the needs and services indicator. Additionally, the State has an abundance of new
case managers and supervisors. The Division is working with all nine urban counties of the State to identify solution focused plans to
help decrease the number of children who may needlessly be coming into the foster care system rather than receiving in-home
services. It is anticipated that the plans will help the Division to know what works and what doesn’t work before moving into any
statewide implementation of change.
The Division’s restructure created Regional Specialists positions (former State Office employees) to assist in local case consultation
and training. Results of the QCRs will be shared with the Regional Specialist to reinforce policy, new worker training and other state
training initiatives. A vendor has been contracted to review, assess and evaluate all of the States’ child welfare policy. The first draft
of that evaluation has been disseminated and is under review by the newly formed Program Planning and Policy Development Unit of
Safe Futures – A Plan for Program Improvement
Georgia Department of Human Resources
November, 2004 Quarter 8 - Work Plan I Page 15