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.
Return to Year 1999 Studies