Social Science Assignment I - See attachment for specific assignment details!!

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APPENDIX A

Social Services Administration Organizational Units

Executive Director

The Executive Director of the Social Services Administration (SSA) is responsible for the overall administration of the Administration with support from two Deputy Directors (Programs and Operations). A number of specific child welfare programs and initiatives are managed within the Administration. In addition, there are five other offices or units within the Administration that provide an infrastructure to support the overall child welfare mission. The Executive Director’s scope of responsibility includes oversight for the provision of a range of administrative supports to 24 Local Departments of Social Services (LDSS) in the areas of policy development, training, foster and adoptive home recruitment and approval, consultation and technical assistance, budgeting, data analysis, quality assurance, and also some direct client services to children and families.

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The Executive Director sets the vision for the Administration in establishing an infrastructure to support service delivery and the capacity for ongoing sustainability of these systemic improvements across all 24 local departments. Coordination with the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources, Deputy Secretaries, and Office of the Attorney General, other Administration Directors, and County Directors takes place on a regular basis. The Director represents the Administration with other state and federal agencies, advisory groups, legislators, Governor’s Office personnel, and advocacy groups. The Executive Office includes the Budget and Central Services Unit, which is responsible for the management of SSA’s budget development and monitoring. The Budget and Central Services Unit also is responsible for the development of regulations, legislative updates, and personnel issues.

Deputy Executive Director for Programs

The Deputy Executive Director for Programs is responsible for the Offices of Child Welfare Practice and Policy, Resource Development, Placement and Support Services, and Child Welfare Organizational Development and Training. Each office includes programs and services under their area of expertise:

Office of Child Welfare Practice and Policy, o Child Protective Services (CPS) is a mandated program for the protection of

all children in the State alleged to be abused and neglected. Child Protective Services screens and responds to allegations of child abuse and neglect via investigative or alternative response, performs assessments of child safety, assesses the imminent risk of harm to the children and evaluates conditions that support or refute the alleged abuse or neglect and need for emergency intervention. It also provides services designed to stabilize a family in crisis and to preserve the family by reducing threats to safety and risk factors. This program provides an array of prevention, intervention and treatment services including:  Operating a local jurisdiction based telephone hotline for receiving child

abuse/neglect (CAN) reports;  Conducting CAN Response (investigative and alternative responses),

family assessment and preventive services screenings;  Providing substance exposed newborn crisis assessment and services;  Providing background screening checks on current or prospective

employees and volunteers for children/youth serving agencies;  Preventive and increased protective capacity of families; and  Family-centered services.

o In-Home Family Services are family preservation programs available within

the local departments of social services. These programs are specifically

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identified for families in crisis whose children are at risk of out-of-home placement. Family preservation actively seeks to obtain or directly provide the critical services needed to enable the family to remain together in a safe and stable environment. Maryland provides three programs under In-Home Services continuum: Services to Families with Children-Intake (SFC-I), Consolidated In-Home Services (CIHS) and Inter Agency Family Preservation Services (IFPS). SFC-I provides assessment for situations that do not meet the criteria for a CPS response. Many of these cases stem from a family’s self request for service. CIHS are cases referred from CPS, both IR and AR, or SFC- where additional work is needed to bolster a families protective capacities to improve safety and reduce risk. IAFP is similar except that referrals can come from other child serving agency and the child must be at high risk for out-of- home placement.

 Out-of-Home Services/Permanency o Foster Care Services:

 Short-term care and supportive services for children that have been physically or sexually abused, neglected, abandoned, or at high risk of serious harm.

 Services to treat the needs of the child and help the family with the skills and resources needed to care for the child. Children are placed in the least restrictive placement to meet their needs, with a strong preference for relatives as the placement of choice. Attempts are made to keep the child in close proximity to their family; however, the child’s placement is based on the treatment needs of the child and the availability of placement resources.

 Time-limited reunification services using concurrent permanency planning to reunite with the birth family or to pursue a permanent home for the child within 12 months of the placement. Permanency planning options that are considered in order of priority:

 Reunification with parent(s)  Permanent Placement with Relatives (includes guardianship or

custody)  Adoption (relative or non-relative)  APPLA (Another Planned Permanency Living Arrangement) o Voluntary placement services because of the child’s need for short

term placement to receive treatment services for mental illness or developmental disability

o Adoption Services develops permanent families for children who cannot live with or be safely reunited with their birth parents or extended birth families. The Maryland Adoption Program is committed to finding “Forever Families” for children in the care and custody of the State. Adoption services include study and evaluation of children and their needs; adoptive family recruitment, training and approval; child placement; and post-adoption subsidy support.

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o Ready by 21provide independent living preparation services to older youth, ages 14-21 years of age in any type of Out-of-Home placement (such as kinship care, family foster care or residential / group care) to assist the youth in preparation for self sufficiency in adulthood.

o Guardianship Assistance Program serves as another permanency option for children who best needs are not served via reunification or adoption. The goal of this program is to encourage caregivers to become legal guardians of children who have been placed in their home by the Local Department of Social Services by removing financial barriers.

 Resource Development, Placement and Support Services

o Resource Development and Retention is responsible for services related to the recruitment and retention of resource families. Program staff provides technical assistance to local departments of social services in development of their local recruitment plans. The Maryland Foster Parent Association also receives technical assistance from this unit. The unit is responsible for monitoring and coordination of the 24 local departments of social services’ resource home development plans.

o Placement and Support Services is responsible for assisting the local departments of social services to facilitate barriers regarding the discharge and placement plans for youth in State care from psychiatric hospitals in Maryland and offer suggestions to the local departments for applicable placements for youths in State care. Placement and Support Services is also responsible for participating in a myriad of committee meetings to represent DHR to maintain rapport with various State agencies, including in-state and out-of-state providers. Program staff gleans updated knowledge of programs and initiatives and assists the local Departments to ensure that the youth in State custody are appropriately positioned at their recommended placements and the placements are in the best interest of the youth. This unit works with stakeholders to identify and develop strategies to improve the array of services available to support children and families in achieving safety, permanence and well-being. The services include education, substance abuse treatment, health care and mental health. This unit is also responsible for monitoring the placement of children in out-of-home care placed in facilities out-of-state. They ensure that all efforts to place children in-state have been exhausted prior to the child being placed out-of-state.

o Oversight of Education and Health Care for Foster Youth is managed within the unit. These responsibilities include oversight of Education and Training Vouchers (ETV), Maryland Tuition Waiver, Education stability, Health Care and the utilization of psychotropic medication. Ongoing work with the Maryland State Board of Education (MSDE) and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) is managed within the unit as well.

o Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC) ensures that foster children placed out-of-state from Maryland and children placed in Maryland from other States receive the same protections guaranteed to the children placed in care within Maryland. The law offers states uniform guidelines and

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procedures to ensure these placements promote the best interests of each child while simultaneously maintaining the obligations, safeguards and protections of the “receiving” and “sending” states for the child until permanency for that child is achieved in the receiving state’s resource home, or until the child returns to the original sending State. Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance (ICAMA) removes barriers to the adoption of children with special needs and facilitates the transfer of adoptive, educational, medical, and post adoption services to pre-adoptive children placed interstate or adopted children moving between states.. In addition, the IV-E eligible Guardianship Assistance Program Medical Assistance (GAPMA) provides a framework for interstate coordination specifically related to permanency established with custody and guardianship awarded to out-of-State IV-E eligible Foster Parents.

 Child Welfare Training and Organizational Development  The Training and Organizational Development Unit oversees all aspects

of training activities in child welfare along with the strategic planning to implement and integrate practice updates and innovation.

 The Child Welfare Training component oversees and coordinates the contractual delivery and development of training activities with the Child Welfare Academy (CWA) at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. The CWA provides statewide training for caseworkers, supervisors, administrators and resource parents. This partnership with the Child Welfare Academy delivers pre-service training for new employees and administers a competency exam at the end of pre-service training. The CWA offers continuing education workshops to reinforce the expertise and policy updates for the tenured staff. The oversight of the Title IV-E Education in Public Child Welfare Program is managed by this unit as well. This contract provides specialized child welfare training for MSW (Master of Social Work) degree candidates to enhance the skills of Maryland’s public child welfare workforce.

 The Organizational Development component uses theories of organizational change to facilitate the overall strategic mission of the Social Services Administration. The unit assesses training needs based on policy development and outcome trends across the continuum of program services. The training assessments inform the delivery method and technical assistance to local departments to enhance the execution of practice activities. The unit serves as lead on implementation of new initiatives.

Deputy Executive Director for Operations

Research, Evaluation, and Quality Assurance  Research and Evaluation is responsible for the collection and analysis of data for

SSA and Local Departments of Social Services. They are responsible for reporting for SSA to StateStat, which collects data from all of Maryland’s Departments on

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outcomes and trends within their organizations and reports to Governor Martin O’Malley. The Research and Evaluation unit also prepares Federal reports such as the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS), Caseworker Visitation, the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD), and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS).

 Quality Assurance is responsible for regular on-site review and data analysis for each the 24 local departments of social services, and develops the reports for these reviews. . The unit oversees the development of local performance improvement plans stemming from the reviews This unit works closely with the Federal government to coordinate improvements to Maryland’s Continuous Quality Assurance process for child welfare.

Systems Development

Systems Development is responsible for assisting with the development, maintenance, training, and support of MD CHESSIE, Maryland’s SACWIS system. This unit works with Central Office and local departments of social services staff to ensure accurate and reliable data is input into MD CHESSIE. The unit works with the MD CHESSIE software contractor on enhancements and troubleshoots any operational problems. This unit is also responsible for assisting public and private providers with trouble shooting issues with their payments that are to be received on behalf of the children in their care. Systems Development also provides support to the SSA Office of Adult Services for its database, the Client Information System (CIS).

Contracts (Purchase of Care)

The Contracts and Monitoring Unit is responsible for the development and monitoring of contracts for all of Maryland's licensed child placement agencies and residential child care agencies. The unit also monitors contracts with Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services (DJS), Department of State Education (MSDE), Department of Developmental Disabilities (DDA) and out-of-state placement agencies. The unit has implemented performance based contracting and will be monitoring the progress of contracts to ensure that they meet basic minimum standards of performance. As the unit moves forward the goal of monitoring contractor performance will shift from a compliance model to an outcome oriented model.