Grand jury report criticizes Mendocino County Children and Family Services department

Mendocino County children could be in danger because the agency charged with protecting them from abuse is too short staffed and poorly managed to properly do its job, a recently released grand jury report alleges.

The Mendocino County grand jury investigated the Mendocino County’s Children and Family Services department after receiving complaints about its performance.

The department, formerly called Child Protective Services, is charged with investigating and monitoring potential cases of abuse and neglect, removing children from harmful situations and placing them in foster or other care.

“The complaints allege that these services are not provided in a timely manner or not provided at all due to staff shortages and management decisions,” the report states.

As a result, “there are children in harm’s way” the grand jury report states.

County officials said they cannot comment on the report at this time.

“We’re reviewing the grand jury report and will be filing a response,” said Bryan Lowery, head of the county social services department and assistant director of health and human services.

The report largely blames the department’s alleged problems on staffing shortages and a lack of adequately trained and experienced workers. The workers it does have are dedicated, hardworking and caring, the report states.

The grand jury report blames the under-staffing on noncompetitive pay, work overload, poor management and low morale.

The department is unable to attract a sufficient number of experienced workers in part because they can receive better pay in nearby, wealthier counties to the south, such as Marin and Sonoma counties.

But Mendocino County’s wage-scale for most positions is higher than many other small, rural counties, including Lake, Colusa, Glenn and Shasta.

The report alleges staffing shortages have resulted in the department’s rating as one of the lowest-performing child protective services agencies in the state, at least when it comes to initial responses to alleged situations of abuse or neglect.

Statewide, 96.6 percent of referrals were handled in a timely manner in the period of October through December 2014, according to a report compiled by the state Department of Social Services and UC Berkeley. In Mendocino County, it was 90 percent. Sonoma County’s rate was ?98.5 percent and Lake County’s was 81.3 percent.

Mendocino County fared better with the rate at which its social workers visit clients monthly - as is now mandated - once they’re within the system.

About 87 percent of children were visited monthly last year in Mendocino County, compared with the statewide average of ?82 percent. The figure in Sonoma County was almost 80 percent.

The grand jury report also found that the department assigns inexperienced and undereducated staff as emergency responders, increasing the probability that children or staff could be harmed.

In a February letter to the state Department of Social Services, county officials conceded they don’t meet state staffing ?requirements and sought a waiver to the rule that 50 percent of staff providing emergency response and family maintenance services have master’s degrees in social work or its equivalent in education or experience and that all supervisors have such a degree.

“Unfortunately, Mendocino County continues to lack the resources to offer competitive salaries,” the letter states. Officials said they hope to be able to reach compliance levels by 2018.