Department of Children and Families Keypoints

Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee

Keypoints
Findings & Recommendations
November 30, 1999

Keypoints: Department of Children and Families

Goals of a consolidated children's agency -- leadership and advocacy for children's issues and integrated service delivery -- have not been fulfilled.
No overarching policy guides state government efforts to promote well-being of children and their families.
No formal structure exists to examine the "big picture" or coordinate services and resources of the many state agencies responsible for children.
Major barriers to integrated services are categorical funding, lack of a coordinating mechanism, and "turf wars" among programs and agencies; most effective incentive for interagency coordination is financial.
Noncategorical, flexible funding is more important to integration than organizational structure.
Children and families are best served by integrated, individualized care delivered through community-based systems.
Coordinating resources and services to achieve an integrated care system must be the priority of a single entity without responsibilities for providing direct services.
All three branches of government, not just DCF, have responsibility for prevention; coordinating prevention efforts needs to be one entity's focus.
Leadership and management for child protective services, children's behavioral health, and juvenile justice must be strengthened; each mandate must be an agency's priority to ensure it receives sufficient attention and resources.
Despite continuous efforts to "fix" DCF, it is plagued by systemic management deficiencies.
DCF's child protective services mandate dominates agency policy and resources; it must be a priority due to dramatic increases in the number and severity of child abuse and neglect cases as well as a federal court consent decree.
Children's behavioral health and juvenile justice mandates have been seriously neglected by DCF and the legislature and only receive attention in response to a crisis.
Separate state agencies can focus on each mandate to ensure leadership and parity; service delivery can be integrated through a statewide coordinating structure and "pooled" resources.

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