Data will help DSS guide families

Richmond County Daily Journal - 8/16/2017

Aug. 15--ROCKINGHAM -- Consolidating information on children in need of care "has been a long time coming," county DSS director Robby Hall said Monday. "County managers have said for the longest time that (such coordination) would improve our system."

Such coordination began last week Monday, as Richmond County'sDivision of Social Services became one of five testing a statewide data-collection system for NC FAST, which helps families who need assistance with Medicaid insurance, child care, training for employment and refugee programs.

The test coordinates only data on foster children and others in need of care, but using the NC FAST system also will allow caseworkers to look at whole families, the services they need and the welfare of children within them, Hall said.

"This system allows for us and the state to really look at data for the first time ... and identify areas of need," he said.

According to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, the system being developed will keep foster and other vulnerable children safer by centralizing information in a statewide repository, reducing paperwork and streamlining the flow of information between county social services departments.

The state cares for more than 11,000 foster children. More than 125,000 children each year receive Child Protective Services assessments to determine abuse and/or neglect. When such children move across county lines, it has been difficult to track them in order to provide timely, consistent services.

"(The system) will be a powerful tool to (insure) better outcomes for children and their families," Michael Becketts, DHHS assistant secretary for human services, said of the roll-out last week. "The new technology is part of a larger effort ... to improve child-welfare services."

NC FAST began 2013, to handle distribution of food stamps.

In the past, Hall said, the N.C. DHHS -- under which county divisions of social services fall -- paid only part of the cost for data systems. Thus, North Carolina's 100 counties bought and paid for individual systems that often couldn't share information.

Richmond, Franklin, Guilford, Rockingham and Sampson counties are in the pilot program for a statewide data-collection system. By the end of 2018, all of North Carolina's 100 counties are to be online.

"We're not the only state that does not have a statewide system," Hall said. But for the past several years, he said, the state has focused more of its own money on improving county services.

"There is still not a universal system for across state lines (either)," Hall said. "Every state is unique in and of itself."

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU

------

10:31 pm

Updated: 11:24 pm. |

Kindergarten countdown

8:52 pm

Updated: 11:27 pm. |

Richmond Senior marching band preps for upcoming year

7:07 pm |

Nashville stars Vassar and Pickler part of this year's DeWitt Series

comments powered by Disqus