West Virginia Bureau for Social Services Story Archives

DoHS Announces 47 Percent Vacancy Reduction In CPS

Child Protective Services, or CPS, vacancies have fallen 47 percent in West Virginia in the past year.

The West Virginia Department of Human Services (DoHS), formerly part of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), announced there are fewer vacancies in the Child Protective Services (CPS) and Youth Services (YS) workforce within its Bureau for Social Services (BSS).

As of Nov. 30, 2023, there were 79 vacant CPS worker positions out of 458, marking a more than 47 percent vacancy reduction from the previous year, which saw 150 vacant positions, out of 455 in 2022.

Gov. Jim Justice praised the reductions in vacancies and congratulated Cabinet Secretary Cynthia Persily and Commissioner of the Bureau for Social Services Jeff Pack for their work on the department’s understaffing.

“These folks really need us and they need us really badly,” Justice said. “So congratulations, Cynthia, and congratulations, Jeff, and keep doing the good work for all of us.”

The Department of Human Services said it increased its workforce to better respond to an increasing number of child welfare abuse and neglect referrals. The Bureau for Social Service’s Central Intake reported 40,000 referrals in 2023.

“We had unbelievable vacancies of child protective services workers that we needed, we really needed really bad,” Justice said. “We have gone down from 458 positions that were unfilled, down to 79.”

Lawmakers Hear Updates On DHHR Reorganization

The three appointed secretaries of the new bureaus of the DHHR provided lawmakers with updates on restructuring within the department. Legislation passed in 2023 required the department to be reorganized and split into three agencies after concerns of inefficiencies in the system.

Members of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability voiced concerns about the restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Resources on Tuesday.

The three appointed secretaries of the new bureaus of the DHHR provided lawmakers with updates on restructuring the department. Legislation passed in 2023 required the department to be split and reorganized after concerns of inefficiencies in the massive agency.

The new secretaries are Dr. Sherri Young, incoming secretary of the Department of Health, Dr. Cynthia Persily, incoming secretary of the Department of Human Services and Michael Caruso, incoming secretary of the Department of Health Facilities.

Young said and her fellow secretaries are identifying critical vacancies in their departments and consolidating some empty positions.

“We have met with our respective new departments, within our bureaus and offices so that we can better understand what needs they have as far as critical vacancies and what positions need to be filled, and how we could be more administratively responsible with the positions that haven’t been filled for quite some time,” she said.

Young also reported a decrease in vacancies in the Bureau for Social Services, the Bureau for Child Support Enforcement, the Bureau for Medical Services and the Bureau for Behavioral Health.

However, the Department of Health Facilities, the Bureau for Public Health and the Bureau for Family Assistance increased in vacancies.

Caruso explained the problem in his presentation.

“Basically, we don’t pay our people enough on an hourly rate,” Caruso said. “All right, and neither does the rest of the systems. The fact is that most of our employees have just jumped to the contracted services.”

Caruso also reported that he brought in Baker Tilly US, LLP, an advisory, tax and assurance firm, to do a benchmark study on all facilities and perform a complete financial review.

“Those studies were completed last week, those studies will be integrated, and we will educate our leadership team as well as our CEOs over the next week and a half,” Caruso said.

Health Management Information Systems, or HMIS, are software used to manage and analyze healthcare data. Caruso said he is looking to improve the Department of Health Facilities’ HMIS.

“We are looking internally to improve that process and improve that program, as well as potentially looking at other outside vendors to cover our emergency or electronic medical records,” Caruso told lawmakers.

Persily reported a reduced vacancy rate in the Department of Human Services and accredited that to pay raises and access to behavioral health services for Child Protective Services workers.

“So the work that you did in the last session, to increase salaries, to provide regional salary differentials, it’s worked. We have reduced significantly the vacancies in that particular job classification,” Persily said. “I believe that in January last year, when you heard about this, the rate was about 30 percent. And our rate at the end of July was 17 percent.”

Lawmakers questioned the secretaries on their proposed structuring of the departments, voicing concerns about the level of bureaucracy operating in the agency.

Del. Amy Summers, R-Taylor, asked the secretaries to be proactive instead of reactive in their planning.

“My only concern is I don’t want to duplicate what we’ve been doing when we have this great opportunity to create something new,” Summers said.

Persily said she and the other secretaries will have a model in place by January 1, 2024, the deadline for the department to split, but advocated for flexibility.

“We are not going to be wedded to a model if it doesn’t work, and we will constantly be improving that model as we move along. And so any changes would be for efficiency, and for functionality,” Persily said. “But what I will say is that you will, you will see some consistencies across the three departments, you will see that we there are some things that each department needs.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

The Special Legislative Session Ends And EV Charger Infrastructure, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, members of both parties voice concern over the lack of consideration and debate on proposed bills during the legislation’s special session this week, and a discussion about how efforts to build out a charging network for electric vehicles is progressing.

On this West Virginia Morning, Randy Yohe spoke to members of both parties that voiced concern over the lack of consideration and debate on dozens of proposed bills during the legislation’s special session this week. The session ended Tuesday around 9:30 p.m.

Curtis Tate spoke with Robert Fernatt, president of the West Virginia Electric Auto Association, about how efforts to build out a charging network for electric vehicles is progressing.

Also, a look at improvements in staffing shortages in the state’s social services as well as updates to West Virginia University’s restructuring efforts.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Commissioner Reports Reduced CPS Vacancies

During the interim legislative session, Commissioner of the Bureau for Social Services Jeffrey Pack provided updates on hiring and retention initiatives in the department.

The West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Committee on Health heard updates about staffing shortages in social services.

During the interim legislative session, Commissioner of the Bureau for Social Services Jeffrey Pack provided updates on hiring and retention initiatives in the department.

To encourage more people to apply, the agency is paying higher rates for Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties, due to their location at a competitive border of the state.

“We have also implemented a number of workforce initiatives that have really borne some amazing fruit,” Pack said. “We implemented a pay differential or expanded a pay differential for the eastern panhandle, which has done a great deal to address our workforce shortages there.”

He said the bureau’s vacancy rate has been reduced from 31 percent in January to 19 percent as of June 2023.

Pack credits this reduction with pay increases for those who work multiple years of service in the department.

“We also did retention incentives for folks who were hired after June 19 of last year, and those are 10 percent increases at two years, 10 percent at four years, 5 percent at both six and eight years of service,” Pack said. “This has made remarkable progress in our workforce.”

Another retention tool the department is using is trauma response for Child Protective Service (CPS) workers.

“So as you can imagine, folks who work in CPS are oftentimes the victim of seeing unthinkable things. And we’ve done a number of things to try to alleviate that,” Pack said. “One the department has provided coverage for mental health services. So if folks need to go out and see a mental health provider, they can do that at no cost to themselves. We worked with Marshall University Center for Excellence in Recovery to develop and implement practices to address trauma.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

State Officials Work To Uplift The Foster Care System This Month

Gov. Jim Justice declared that May is Foster Care Month, an initiative to strengthen and uplift the children in the system and their case workers.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jim Justice declared that May is Foster Care Month.

“I have proclaimed the month of May as Foster Care Month in West Virginia,” Justice said. “Everyone knows the battle we have with our foster children and everything from the standpoint of trying to do more and more and more of the right stuff for them.”

He said the purpose is to strengthen and uplift the children in the system and their case workers.

Interim Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources, Dr. Jeff Coben said the Bureau for Social Services is working to become fully staffed, noting a new internship program that has 50 participants signed up for this summer.

“West Virginia DHHR and the Bureau for Social Services is committed to ensuring that all West Virginia children in and out of home care and their families receive adequate support and appropriate services to best meet their needs,” Coben said. “We really rely on the entire community, our families, volunteers, and other members of the community who helped children and youth in foster care, find permanent homes and connections.”

There are currently 6,262 children in West Virginia state custody. According to Justice, more than 55 percent of children in foster care are placed in a relative’s home.

According to the Child Welfare Dashboard, last updated on April 16th, 37 percent of foster children are placed in a certified kinship or relative home and 19 percent are placed in kinship or relatives homes.

Also, according to the dashboard, 26 percent of children are placed in private agency foster homes and 11 percent in group residential care.

These statistics are separate from the percentage of out-of-state child placements. There are currently 416 West Virginia children in out-of-state placements with 19 percent being placed in a certified kinship or relative’s home out of state and 7 percent placed with a kinship relative.

Fifty-eight percent of out-of-state placements were sent to group residential care facilities and 14 percent went to psychiatric residential treatment facilities.

West Virginia sends 25.2 percent of out-of-state placements to Virginia with Pennsylvania and Ohio following close behind at 22.1 percent and 11.5 percent of out-of-state placements relocating to those states.

Nearly 69 percent of all out-of-state placements are between the ages of 13 and 17, and 59 percent are male.

The department is 76 percent staffed with Child Welfare Positions with the most vacancies remaining for social service workers, with 39 vacant positions, and child protective service workers, with 130 vacant positions.