REPORT TO SHASTA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

BOARD MEETING DATE:  January  9, 2018
CATEGORY:  Consent - Health and Human Services-8.

SUBJECT:

Renewal Agreement with Lilliput Children’s Services

Supervisorial District No. :  ALL

DEPARTMENT CONTACT:  Dianna L. Wagner, Branch Director, Children's Services (530) 225-5705

STAFF REPORT APPROVED BY:  Dianna L. Wagner, Branch Director

RECOMMENDATION

Approve and authorize the Chairman to sign a renewal agreement with Lilliput Children’s Services in an amount not to exceed $63,000 per fiscal year to provide resource family retention, training and recruitment events and conferences for the period date of signing through June 30, 2018, with two automatic one-year renewals.

SUMMARY

The proposed agreement will allow Lilliput Children’s Services to provide three annual events benefiting Children’s Services: 

1. A skill-building intensive training conference for Shasta County Resource Families focused on perinatal substance abuse and infant human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) exposure.
2. A training and recruitment event for Shasta County Resource Families to include skill-building and recruitment activities and interacting with Children’s Services staff.
3. A cross-training conference for Shasta County staff and professional providers who engage with Resource Families participating in the perinatal substance exposed and HIV infant program and/or the Specialized Training for Adoptive Parents (STAP) program.

DISCUSSION

To enhance caregiver recruitment with the implementation of Continuum of Care (CCR) initiative, which emphasizes the placement of court dependent children in family-based homes rather than group homes, funding was provided to county welfare departments for the recruitment and retention of new resource family homes. This was necessary to accommodate the number of children that will shift from group care to foster family homes.  Senate Bill 97, Chapter 11, Statutes of 2015 included funding for foster and relative caregiver recruitment, retention, and support.

Lilliput Children’s Services has been a leader in helping child welfare and health professionals develop their skills through training and consultation, with specialization in permanency-focused foster care, foster, adoption and kinship care.  Children’s Services signed a one-year agreement with Lilliput Children’s Services in Fiscal Year 16/17 to provide the above three projects, which Lilliput Children’s Services completed with 87 individuals attending the Resource Family Training Conference, 119 caregivers attending the luncheon, and 149 individuals attending the Cross Professional Training Conference. 

This agreement also authorizes the Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) Director or HHSA Branch Director to increase and/or decrease the line item expenditure in the budget by an amount not to exceed 10 percent if deemed necessary to fulfill the service responsibilities of this agreement, provided that the maximum amount payable under this agreement is not exceeded and it is pre-approved, prior to incurring the expense.

ALTERNATIVES

The Board may choose not to approve the recommendation and direct staff to contract with another vendor.

OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT

County Counsel has approved the agreement as to form.  Risk Management approved the agreement.  The recommendation has been reviewed by the County Administrative Office.

FINANCING

The department’s Fiscal Year 2017-18 Adopted Budget includes sufficient appropriation authority for the activities described in this agreement.  These services are funded through the Child Welfare Services allocation (BU 501), which requires a County share of cost met largely through Realignment. There is no additional General Fund impact with approval of the recommendation.