5A53
PAY RANGE: N27**
(Court and Related Services)
(Prevention) (Provider Services)
(Policy and Planning) (Quality Assurance)
(Specialized Behavioral Health Services)
(Staff Development–Internal/External)
GENERAL DEFINITION
This is management level social work directing, through multiple subordinate levels, a staff section of the City's Department of Human Services (DHS). The class includes seven specialties, each of which involves managing multi-discipline staff, three with department-wide responsibilities: Provider Services, Specialized Behavioral Health Services, and Staff Development–Internal/External and four within the Children and Youth Division (CYD): Policy and Planning and Quality Assurance.
· Prevention intervenes in the lives of potential DHS clients and offers guidance and activities designed to lessen the likelihood of their becoming DHS cases. The programs are provider focused, not client focused, in that the Prevention Division supports various programs initiated and directly administered by outside provider organizations.
· Provider Services is responsible for assessing child needs, making appropriate referrals to provider agencies, and evaluating those agencies for compliance with contractual standards and quality of the services to children and youth. Provider Services also monitors provider performance, handles internal and external complaints and implements sanctions for poor performance.
· Policy and Planning interprets state and federal guidelines and mandates applicable to CYD, coordinates closely with the DHS Policy and Planning function, oversees CYD planning to ensure that divisional activities will be fully compliant and establishes CYD policies that reflect state and federal mandates and will accomplish divisional plans.
· Quality Assurance gathers detailed operational CYD data in order to depict the Division’s impact and outcomes, assess the extent to which actual practice is consistent with CYD’s plans and policies, and serves as the primary CYD internal operational audit function.
· Specialized Behavioral Health Services is responsible for coordinating DHS services and programs with those of other city and state agencies and private organizations that provide services to children and youth with special behavioral health needs.
· Court and Related Services is responsible for the department’s liaison with the family court and initiatives designed to achieve independence/re-unification of foster children and foster parents, and/or youth self-determination
· Staff Development–Internal/External is responsible overseeing and coordinating internal staff development programs for all DHS professional and support staff and foster parents or for developing and coordinating staff development programs for DHS provider agency staff.
Work in all assignments includes planning, developing, administering, evaluating and coordinating the implementation of the goals and objectives for the section. Employees in this class are senior DHS managers and have input in establishing the agency's comprehensive social service program's overall goals and objectives and have primary responsibility for planning and evaluating DHS programs within their area of emphasis. Work is performed under the direction of the Deputy Commissioner and incumbents have frequent contact with the DHS Commissioner and other Deputy Commissioners
ALLOCATING FACTORS: (The following conditions must be met for a position to be
allocated to this class.)
1. Employees in this class must direct, through multiple subordinate levels, one of the following major staff sections of the City's Department of Human Services: Specialized Behavioral Health Services, Court and Related Services, Provider Services, and Staff Development, or in the Children and Youth Division: Policy and Planning and Quality Assurance.
2. One position will be allocated to the Provider Services, Policy Planning, Quality Assurance, Specialized Behavioral Health Services and Court Related Services specialties.
3. Two positions will be allocated to the Staff Development specialty; one position will be responsible for Internal Staff Development and one for External Staff Development.
4. No more than two positions will be allocated to the Prevention specialty.
TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF WORK (ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY)
ALL INCUMBENTS
Directs through subordinates a supportive function of Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services or the department’s Children and Youth Division that enables the Department to better provide services to its clients as mandated by federal, state and local regulations. Incumbents manage functions that include administrators, supervisors, degreed social workers and administrative staff. Staff size within these functions ranges from 10 to 60 employees.
· Review and evaluate through subordinate administrators and supervisors the activities of a technical staff of social service and professional personnel engaged in planning, policy development, data collection and interpretation pertaining to a critical DHS initiative supporting the provision of a variety of continuous, protective and/or centralized social services for children and youth; helps enable the Department to successfully meet federal standards mandated by the Adoptions and Safe Families Act as well as state and local standards.
· Coordinate a Department or Division-wide initiative and enhance its profile in a manner consistent with DHS mission and vision.
· Ensure that section staff effectively utilizes current and evolving departmental data systems and automated reporting systems to their maximum capability; directs data planning efforts; may direct data system improvement as necessary in conjunction with information system specialists.
· Evaluate programmatic needs and support the development of social service priorities that maximize client and employee service and ensure compliance with appropriate federal, state and local standards; report on program progress to Deputy Commissioner, Commissioner and other parties as necessary through formal reports and informal briefings.
· Analyze administrative, operational and managerial problems affecting provision of these services; initiate organizational and/or operational changes within section as necessary.
· Oversee efforts to ensure DHS services are in full compliance with designated federal mandates stipulated by the Adoption and Safe Families Act; may facilitate Federal Children and Family Services mandated case reviews; oversee necessary improvement in DHS to correct any resulting sanctions for noncompliance to maintain federal funding.
· Effectively and efficiently manage fiscal, staff and program resources through budgets and reports and develop justifications for personnel or supply requirements within departmental guidelines; establish staff performance goals and objectives.
· Represent DHS by directing or participating in divisional, departmental, interdepartmental and outside public and private services agency committees, conferences and meetings to develop more effective programs for children and youth; evaluate service providers and program achievement; attend a variety of meetings for the formulation and coordination of overall program objectives; confer with appropriate federal and state and local officials.
· Perform related work as required.
· Oversees multiple major programs within Prevention including delinquency prevention, Community Family Centers, Truancy Prevention, Parenting Collaborative, School-linked Behavioral Health Initiative, Home Visitation and After School and Youth Development; oversees the administration of the four service centers within Community Based Prevention Services: Education Support Center, Youth Support Services Center, Family Support Services Center, and Community, Information and Referral Support Services Center
· Directs the development of a coordinated and integrated service system for children and families at risk of abuse, neglect and delinquency that provides a variety of community-based prevention and intervention services; establishes policies, goals and objectives to increase the number, quality and range of services available to children and their families, including preventive and highly intensive services that will improve long term outcomes; improves access and quality of services for children with behavioral disorders through development of guidelines, technical assistance to providers and service monitoring; insures that existing or proposed programs and policies are consistent with State regulations and contractual funding requirements, court directed mandates and national standards of children’s prevention .
· Directs staff engaged in the monitoring of agencies that provide services, both in terms of budget and program requirements; supervises staff performing contract monitoring, on-site reviews and provision of technical assistance; evaluates proposals from providers concerning new or increased services; recommends approval of proposals for implementation of new services including budget information and payment level to potential providers.
· Coordinates and confers on the planning and implementation of appropriate types and levels of service with other agencies including the school district, courts and city, state and community; directs collaborative efforts and projects to insure that there is an adequate interagency process for children who require prevention services; provides ongoing support and consultation for the Division of Social Services concerning program needs, service accessibility and adequacy.
· Directs the development and implementation of grant-funded programs and initiatives; meets with and provides assistance to families, family organizations, attorney advocates and potential providers; presents and explains departmental policies concerning DHS Prevention services.
Enhance, through subordinates, the case care coordination of needs of children and their families who are served by DHS; monitors compliance and quality of contracted provider community and supports improvement efforts; investigates higher level complaints pertaining to provider performance and develop plans of correction and makes recommendations concerning the continuation of services; establishes policies, goals and objectives to increase the number, quality and range of services available to children and their families.
· Through subordinate staff, provides referral services to identify appropriate in-home services and residential placements for children.
· Through subordinate staff, assesses a child's current functioning in order to recommend the most appropriate child welfare placement.
· Through subordinate staff, conducts ongoing program monitoring and annual evaluations; tracks provider performance and identifies necessary corrective action steps; conducts follow-up visits to ensure that corrective action has been taken, and conducts field investigations when warranted for all programs across the Department of Human Services.
· Through subordinate staff increase DHS knowledge of available services through site visits, literature searches and seminar attendance.
· Manage directly and through subordinates the process of understanding and influencing State and Federal regulations pertaining to social service programs affecting children and youth through the use of direct interaction, impact statements and other communications; maintain significant and frequent direct contact with officials of federal and state regulatory agencies, departmental administrators, social service agencies and other governmental officials; often represent CYD and DHS to these officials and departments.
· Develop through subordinates the CYD annual, quarterly and monthly plans that serve as a guide for all CYD programs and operations required of the City and State that are used by CYD to inform program development and execution.
· Direct the preparation of quarterly statistical reports required for state and federal funding and determination of program needs.
· Develop through subordinates policies used to guide the delivery of all CYD programs and operations for CYD and contract agencies and providers.
· Coordinate activities closely with DHS Policy and Planning so that CYD policies and plans completely integrate with and fully support all aspects of DHS operations.
· Manage through subordinates the CYD quality assurance program designed to assure compliance of all CYD programs with federal and state regulations and DHS and CYD policies and procedures.
· Assess the appropriateness of CYD’s current data collection procedures and processes and implement ways to improve these procedures.
· Manage through subordinates the collection of data to assess the effectiveness of CYD programs and procedures; develop new assessment measures as necessary.
· Manage through subordinates the interpretation of data to assess CYD program effectiveness and provide data and conclusions to senior CYD and DHS management through a series of regular and unique reports.
· Direct through a subordinate utilization review of specific social service cases to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of client services provided including appropriate termination of high-end services.
· Based on performance measures and resulting reports, identify problems with the provision of services by the department or provider agencies and recommend changes as necessary; grant waivers to provider agencies based on performance and improvements.
· Direct through a subordinate the coordination of licensing and funding reviews conducted by federal, state and local government agencies and provide interpretation of CYD reports as needed.
· Assist state, federal and city officials in the annual audit of the department, ensure that violations uncovered are corrected and develops procedures to prevent future violations.
· Coordinate the effective and efficient delivery of services provided by DHS and various city, state and private agencies that specialize in the assessment and treatment of behavioral health issues for children and youth, including mental health, substance abuse, mental rehabilitation and early childhood intervention.
· Ensure through subordinates the highest and most effective utilization of city, state and private agency resources that are available for assessing and treating behavioral health concerns among DHS clients; help ensure that services are provided by most effective and cost efficient means available; maintain thorough inventory of available services; eliminate redundancy of services provided; interact with outside agencies to stay current with these available services; serve as a member of various joint-agency committees charged with overseeing and developing behavior health services.
· Create through subordinate administrators, supervisors and outside agencies or contractors tools to aid in the early and regular screening and assessment of the behavioral health needs of DHS clients; validate these tools to ensure they remain effective; oversee process of training case managers and investigators in the effective use of these assessment tools.
· Ensure through subordinate administrators that behavioral health services are provided to DHS clients in a completely fair and unbiased manner based only on individual need.
· Arrange educational opportunities for DHS staff and outside social service professionals to increase their knowledge level of specialized behavioral health concerns and services available.
· Discuss with the family court issues such as child welfare, adoption services, number of children in foster care, applicable laws and regulations, policies that need to be changed, alternative services for children in their homes (SCOH), available resources, referrals to be made, and budgetary issues as the court is a co-signer to the department’s needs budget.
· Conduct, through subordinate supervisors, analysis of services provided to children in foster care including costs associated with services; ensure that the department’s position is explained to the court.
· Direct through subordinate supervisors the implementation and day-to-day operation of the department’s Achieving Independence Center (AIC) and Achieving Re-unification Center (ARC) initiatives designed to provide customized service plans to youth and foster parents.
· Develop and implement strategies for the AIC and ARC initiatives; develop through subordinate supervisors annual budget for the initiatives, alternative funding sources and policy guidelines and procedures; conduct through subordinate supervisors analysis/trends in applicable laws and regulations, services provided and funding for services; ensure that youth and foster parents receive services and exit the system with appropriate skills set.
· Direct through subordinate supervisors Teen Placement Diversion Program (TPDP) for youth who are at risk of incorrigible behaviors and who can remain safe in their homes with relatives; direct and develop initiatives to encourage youth self-determination
INTERNAL STAFF ASSIGNMENT
· Responsible with subordinate staff for assessing and meeting the developmental needs, both mandated and otherwise, of all DHS professional and support staff.
· Communicate professional development opportunities to all DHS staff through the creation of appropriate policies and direct attention; ensure that opportunities are made available to individuals in a fair manner that maximizes benefits to the Department and its employees; review and approve requests for departmental and state training programs/reimbursements.
· Identify through subordinate staff appropriate developmental resources both inside and outside City government including colleges and universities; coordinate all DHS developmental activities with the City’s Office of Human Resources in order to maximize the deployment and effectiveness of professional development opportunities to all DHS employees; may negotiate training contracts.
· Monitor through subordinate staff and line managers the successful completion of professional development opportunities once they are made available to individual staff members.
· Responsible with subordinate staff and line managers for creating individual development plans for all professional and support staff and ensuring professional development opportunities exist to meet these plans.
· Through subordinates develop, implement and maintain the state/divisional training program providing minimum training in child welfare, in accordance with state regulation, for agency staff/foster parents; ensure that all foster parents take advantage of professional development opportunities; track foster parent participation in professional development opportunities.
· Provides internal consulting support to Divisional Deputies across the department to assess divisional needs.
· Monitor and assess the relevance and effectiveness of training programs for internal staff.
· Ensures Department of Human Services practice and policies are aligned with the Safety Practice Model; informs higher level management of policies and practices that could impact future licensure or funding; redirects policy and practices to guarantee compliance with State mandates; advises Department of Human Services leadership of critical legislative issues impacting Philadelphia County child welfare systems
· Directs Safety personnel to ensure compliance with State and departmental goals; develops a learning strategy to incorporate the Safety Practice Model into agency contracting, performance and evaluation processes.
· Develops strategic partnerships to further the goals and objectives of the department.
EXTERNAL STAFF ASSIGNMENT
· Assesses and meets the professional development needs, both mandated and otherwise, of all DHS provider agency staff.
· Develops and implements training programs for DHS provider agency staff to build provider capacity; meets with lead provider agency staff to research and facilitate planning and determine the proper training needs.
· Functions as a liaison between DHS provider agencies and appropriate developmental resources and agencies that provide training to meet the professional development needs of provider agencies.
· Periodically conducts assessments of provider training services to ensure relevance and effectiveness.
· Oversees the establishment of developmental objectives for staff employed by DHS provider agencies and ensures that objectives are met by programs.
· Monitors provider agencies for compliance with DHS policies, procedures and methodologies to ensure proper service delivery; communicates changes in policies and procedures to provider agencies.
· Provides oversight to the technical assistance and continuous quality improvement acitivities for providers and DHS.
· Utilizes performance data to facilitate the development of quality improvement strategies and actions for providers and DHS.
REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES
KNOWLEDGE OF:
· Philosophy and objectives underlying the provision of social services for children and youth
· Federal, State and local government laws and regulations governing funding/provision of services to dependent children and youth
· Social service administration especially as they apply to children and youth programs
· Administrative organization and management and its application in resolving a variety of operational and administrative problems
· Social service program planning and evaluation
· General management
· Community, civic and social organizations and resources available to support social service programs
· Provider services as it relates to the child welfare system (Provider Services)
· Referral services related to the child welfare system (Provider Services)
· Court practices as they relate to child welfare issues (Court and Related Services)
· Social service planning and policy development principles, practices and techniques (Policy and Planning)
· Statistical analysis, budgeting and fiscal analysis (Quality Assurance)
· Case utilization review practices and procedures pertaining to the review of social service cases (Quality Assurance)
· Mental health, drug and alcohol abuse and other behavioral health clinical issues (Specialized Behavioral Health)
· Behavioral health system as it relates to the child welfare system (Specialized Behavioral Health)
· Principles, practices and procedures of adult learning, leadership and organizational development (Staff Development –Internal/ External)
· Evaluation and development of community-based youth programs (Prevention)
· Techniques to build a logical network of community-based programs (Prevention)
SKILL IN:
· Evaluating the effectiveness of administrative and operational programs and implementing changes to provide for more effective and efficient operations.
ABILITY TO:
· Plan, organize, direct and coordinate the activities of a multi-discipline staff overseeing the planning for, utilization and quality assessment of a variety of social services to children and youth.
· Evaluate and establish guidelines for program quality and effectiveness.
· Establish and maintain effective working relationships with clients, associates, public and private officials, civic groups, community groups, the judiciary, and the general public.
· Review and interpret federal, state and local government laws, policies, regulations and procedures governing funding/provision of services to children and youth
· Express ideas, both orally and in writing.
· Prepare and analyze reports pertaining to activities and results of function managed
· Direct the preparation of reports and annual plans
· Oversee identification and evaluation of community-based programs for youth (Prevention)
· Coordinate relationships between DHS and community-based programs for youth (Prevention)
MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE (The following statement represents the minimum training and experience standards which will be used to admit or reject applicants for tests. Applications submitted by candidates for this class will be reviewed based on training and experience requirements as approved on 2/15).
EDUCATION:
Completion of a master's degree program at an accredited college or university with major course work in social work or a closely related area
PREVENTION, PROVIDER SERVICES, POLICY AND PLANNING, QUALITY ASSURANCE, SPECIALIZED BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES SPECIALTIES, AND COURT AND RELATED SERVICES
GENERAL EXPERIENCE:
Four years of social services experience.
AND
SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE:
PREVENTION SPECIALTY
Three years of social services experience in a supervisory capacity, including two years administering through subordinate supervisors, citywide programs designed to support children and youth and lessen their likelihood of being abused, neglected or delinquent, or directing a program of referral or provider services related to a children and youth welfare program.
PROVIDER SERVICES SPECIALTY
Three years of social services experience in a supervisory capacity, including two years administering through subordinate supervisors a program of referral or provider services as related to children and youth welfare program.
POLICY AND PLANNING SPECIALTY
Three years of social services experience in a supervisory capacity, including two years of supervising, or administering through subordinate supervisors, program and policy analysis and system planning in a children and youth social service agency.
Three years of social services experience in a supervisory capacity, including two years of supervising data and program analysis and case utilization review in a children and youth social service agency.
Three years of social services experience in a supervisory capacity, including two years administering through subordinate supervisors a program of behavioral health services as related to children and youth welfare program.
Three years of social services experience in a supervisory capacity, including two years administering through subordinate supervisors a program of support services as related to court, and children and youth welfare initiatives.
GENERAL EXPERIENCE:
Four years of social services experience; or experience in employee professional development programs for a large social services agency
SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE:
Three years of managerial level social service experience for a large children and youth welfare agency, which has included two years with responsibility for planning, development and implementation of a specialized training program and curriculum; or managing employee professional development programs for an organization with at least 500 employees.
NOTE: Graduate level coursework in adult learning/development or training and development can replace the general social work experience on a year for year basis.
Any equivalent combination of acceptable education and experience determined to be acceptable by the Office of Human Resources, which has included a master's degree in one of the designated areas and the specific experience.
PHYSICAL AND MEDICAL REQUIREMENTS
Ability to physically perform the duties and to work in the environmental conditions required of a position in this class.
Class Established:
CSC - 8/89
Ad. Board - 9/89
Spec. Revised:
CSC – 3/12
Ad. Board – 4/12
Spec. Revision:
CSC – 2/15
Ad. Board – 2/15
Latest Spec. Revision:
CSC – 5/17
Ad. Board – 6/17
CP