Summary
Our 2007 audit and this follow up examine administrative systems the department has to support child intervention services, such as agency accreditation and case file review. We did not evaluate the work done by caseworkers or the department’s external reporting system. The original recommendations are centered on the monitoring systems that provide assurance that child intervention standards are adhered to consistently. These administrative systems are important since they provide oversight, identify trends and provide feedback to frontline caseworkers.
In 2007 we made five recommendations to the then Department of Children Services and Child and Family Services Authorities to improve administrative systems that support child intervention services.
In 2010 we found the department had implemented one of the recommendations. In this audit we conducted further follow-up work and found the four remaining recommendations have been implemented. The Department of Human Services:
- has implemented a new process to approve accrediting bodies and will be directly contracting with, and receiving written results reports from, them
- reviews targeted case files of strategic interest to it and sends the results to caseworkers and their immediate supervisors, to provide them with feedback. It has improved how it shares information about contracted agencies.
- has trained staff on the new provincial casework practice standards
- enters licensing, contract and other information needed to monitor and evaluate agencies’ adherence to contract provisions and their facilities in its new electronic information system