FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn
Marinan, Communications, 612-348-5969
Updated with a link to watch the briefing.
At today’s
Hennepin County Board briefing, members of the Child Well-Being Advisory
Committee presented highlights from the first full year of work to flip child
welfare from a crisis-response system to a child well-being model.
"This is the most robust effort this county has done in human services at this level,” said Commissioner Mike Opat, who is the committee chair. “I think we’ve made great progress, and there’s a lot of work left to do. This group has really helped to refine the path forward.”
Watch the briefing. The Child Well-Being update begins at 59:08.
Key accomplishments
Data-informed decisions
With
the establishment of a dedicated data unit in 2016, Children and Family
Services leadership can track metrics such as response time, re-entry into
out-of-home placement and the number of placements a given child has
experienced.
Child well-being
We
can improve children’s safety by strengthening their families. Hennepin County
workers and our community partners often know families who experience crisis from their contacts in human services, housing assistance and other
touchpoints. We know that reducing stress on families before crisis occurs can
improve people’s ability to be effective parents to their children.
A familiar place for children to land
Sometimes
kids can’t stay at home. Hennepin County increased the number of placements with
family members and other trusted adults. In 2017, 59 percent of days spent in
out-of-home placement were with people children already know, up from 44 percent in
2015.
Staffing
Families
do better when they can form relationships with their social workers. From 2015
to 2017, Hennepin County increased the child protection workforce by almost 70 percent, to 647. Staff retention also has improved as caseloads have begun to
decrease in many areas.
Challenges
Calls still coming in
The
number of child protection reports remain high – last year’s tally of 20,388
reports is nearly double the number logged in 2009.
Harder to go home
The
number of kids in out-of-home placement is up because kids need to stay away
longer. A key reason: The leading removal condition in 2017 was parent’s
addiction to drugs or alcohol. The 400 drug addiction-related cases last year
represents a 158 percent increase from 2011.
Disparities and disproportionality
The
child protection system disproportionately affects families from the Native
American and African American communities. Those same communities also
experience poverty at higher rates than others. The issues that lead to abuse
often correlate to both poverty and racial disparities.
Next steps
Committee
members told the board that they will continue to work to leverage and
coordinate services across the county – and the community – to help families
who are in crisis. The goal is to intervene early to try to reduce the
occurrence of child maltreatment, and to improve long-term outcomes for
families.
The Child Well-Being Advisory Committee: Chair's Report to the Hennepin County Board is available.
Request the documents from the briefing.
Look for more news on the Hennepin County website at hennepin.us/news.
Discover how we're making a difference in our communities at hennepin.us/stories.
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