Board Orders Children’s Agency to Draft Problem-Solving Plan

The agency that protects abused and neglected children in Los Angeles County should hire a chief operating officer and draft a strategic plan to solve problems ranging from low employee morale to a lack of public trust, the county Board of Supervisors ordered Tuesday.

The lawmakers’ action follows the release last month of a management audit that found the county Department of Children and Family Services to be unfocused and troubled by internal dissension.

A nationwide search will be conducted to find a No. 2 administrator to run the department day to day, while Director Peter Digre remains in charge of planning and relations with constituents and state and federal officials. The county also will seek a consultant to help draw up a strategic plan for the agency, which employs 5,500 people and oversees the welfare of more than 70,000 children.

Tuesday’s actions are not likely to curtail scrutiny of one of the nation’s largest child welfare agencies, however.

The board’s vote came as the independent inspector general who monitors children’s services issued a memo stating that social workers must be permitted to spend more time working with children and families, rather than tending to other duties.

Adequate contact among social workers, children and families is “the greatest single factor in protecting the health and safety of dependent children,” wrote Victor Greenberg, the inspector general.

Social workers have long complained that they have so many cases and are so overburdened filing reports and submitting petitions to Juvenile Court that they have scant time to see children. Greenberg recommended that the strategic planners hired by the county find ways to give social workers more time to perform that critical task.

The consulting firm that urged changes for the department, Price Waterhouse Coopers, meanwhile, is not done with its work. In the ongoing second phase of its investigation, the consultant will compare Los Angeles to other counties using measures such as the number of children adopted from foster care and the number of families who repeat abusive and neglectful behavior, even after contact with the agency.

The agency’s 3,000 social workers also will have an opportunity to rate the department and its management--a review that many who work with the agency expect to be harsh.

Digre, the director of the children’s agency, has been a magnet for increasing criticism during his seven years in Los Angeles. Some critics had hoped that the first phase of the audit would be harsher, perhaps leading to the director’s dismissal.

But the majority of supervisors seem content, at least for the time being, to work with Digre, who has drawn praise for his ability to raise funds and set policy.

The supervisors approved the reform measures with little comment Tuesday. Digre remained, literally, behind the scenes, sitting out the brief discussion in a waiting room behind the boardroom.