Safety

Goal

Minimize, if not eliminate, the risk that a child known to one or more entities in our system will be harmed.

Strategies

Early Action: Ensure that immediate attention is given to the most vulnerable children once they come into contact with the County.

Electronic Information-Sharing: Ensure that legally permissible information that is relevant to child safety is shared electronically by those who need it.

Work To Date

• Developed recommendations for improving safety and risk assessments, and now partnering with the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to implement them (See report on Structured Decision Making and Predictive Analytics)
• Worked with DCFS, the Department of Health Services (DHS), the Department of Mental Health (DMH), the Department of Public Health (DPH), and the Los Angeles County Health Agency to develop a set of recommendations to improve child safety in response to the tragic death of Anthony A. in June 2018, and are implementing them (see OCP Coordinated Response to Anthony A Motion 08-10-18)
• Creating pilot programs for connecting vulnerable families identified by departments with community-based resources (see Implementation of the Community Prevention Linkage Program 09-25-2018)
• Identified best uses for Public Health Nurses within child welfare and working with DPH to implement them (see Final Report on Child Welfare PHNs)
• Launched an electronic data-sharing mechanism called the Emergency Referral Investigation Service (ERIS) across eight County departments to better inform investigations of child abuse and neglect
• Working to connect DCFS and others to the Los Angeles Network for Enhanced Services (LANES) system to improve access to health records for youth under their care