On January 16, 2024, UPE met with the County regarding the new Preparing a Youth for Entering Extended Foster Care (EFC) Program and Case Management Responsibilities of Permanency and EFC Social Workers Policy and Procedure.
The new policy and procedure—previously titled Extended Foster Care Overview, was described as “more details,” as the new policy is six (6) pages longer. Although the policy has no changes that will impact members in a significant way, we did have some suggestions and questions.
In previous policies and procedures that have been revamped as of late, the supervisor’s responsibilities have been included. UPE noted that in this policy, those were conveniently left out. The County stated that they have no plans to include them. We also wanted to know that when contacting DHA, could there be an email inbox or a “back door” phone number for County use only, to which the County responded, “That’s DHA.” We asked if they could take it back to DHA, and the County decided to remove that part of the procedure altogether as it has nothing to do with this policy but will be included in the revamping of a policy later down the road.
UPE requested that certain forms be uploaded to CWS/CMS in an attempt to prevent them from potentially being misplaced. The County stated this should go through the Program Specific Workgroup (PSW); we reminded them there is no PSW for this particular program. They ultimately agreed to take it back.
Thank you to the advocates for their participation,
Sarah Singleton, Deanna Green and Kyla Ramirez-Mata