DCFAS/CPS: Engagement Social Worker Standards

On September 26, 2024, your UPE team met with the County to review and discuss the new Engagement Social Worker (ESW) standards.

Included in the standards were dress guidelines taken from the Sacramento County Employee Handbook, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics (COE), adherence of the ESWs to the Sacramento County Welcome Home (SCWH) program statement plan of operations and requirements for Community Care Licensing (CCL); to name a few. They also separated the policy as “For Youth Coming into Care” and “Youth in Need of Out of Home Placements.” Aside from performing an intake, are the youth all not in need of the same things?

 Your UPE team immediately reminded the department that there are no dress guidelines for the 008-bargaining unit, as set forth by the contract. Also, Social Workers are not required to be a part of the NASW. Knowing that no ESW has, we asked the department how they can require ESWs to adhere to an SCWH program statement for CCL that none of them have even seen. They replied that they are working on a handbook for ESWs; the program statement to CCL was six hundred (600) pages. From there, we had a slew of questions and concerns.

One of the main concerns was the searches; we requested the department to be specific about what can be searched, i.e., belongings and rooms, not the youth’s person. We also requested that they specify the time in which you must complete intake documents. Transporting the youth should only be done in special circumstances, for example, if the youth requests that an ESW go along or an FSW is unavailable. UPE also wanted to know why information about the youth is not being put into the green tab in CMS/CWS instead of being saved in a file on the internal P drive. We let them know that you all are not cooks and maids! If the department wants the youth to have full-on meals, they need to obtain a meal delivery service.

Other duties that we felt belonged to the case-carrying Social Worker were listed, such as initiating school enrollment, initiating and maintaining contact with community partners, assisting with ILPs, obtaining CDL, Social Security Cards budgeting, etc.

Management stated they would consider all the items we requested they change and/or eliminate. A date for the next meeting has not yet been set.

Thank you, Sarah Singleton and Michael Gilbert for your advocacy!

TOGETHER WE ARE STRONG