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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 12-03-2007-4rORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: December 3, 2007 Action Agenda Item No. ~- - r SUBJECT: To Accept Annual Report and Recommendations on Child Care from the Social Services Board DEPARTMENT: Social Services PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): Report INFORMATION CONTACT: Nancy Coston, 245-2800 Denise Shaffer, 968-2000 Joe Robbins 245-2800 PURPOSE: To accept the annual report from the Social Services Board on the progress being made in providing child subsidy for families in Orange County and to accept the recommendations of the Social Services Board. BACKGROUND: The Child Care Task Force, created by the Board of County Commissioners, completed its work and made its final report to the Board in November 2006. The Social Services Board was charged by the Board of Commissioners with reporting annually on the progress in providing subsidies and in meeting the recommendations of the Task Force. The Social Services Board is submitting its first annual report for acceptance by the Board of Commissioners. This report was previously provided to the Board of County Commissioners and discussed with the Social Services Board at an October 2007 joint meeting. Some. of the findings in the report include: subsidy dollars increased last year with both local and state contributions; more children are now being served; and the waiting time for employed parents was reduced from 15 months to 3 months. The Task Force report recommended that benchmarks be established in several areas and the Social Services Board recommends that the following benchmarks be used for measuring progress: 1. The maximum length of time for working families to wait for subsidy is four months and the Board of County Commissioners will be notified when the wait times exceed this amount. 2. The total amount of subsidy funds available through Social Services to serve families will increase annually. The total of amount of subsidy expenditures in Fiscal Year 2006-2007 was $4,303,412. 3. The average number of children receiving subsidy through Social Services will increase from the average of 708 for 2006-2007. 4. The number of funding sources will increase from the baseline of seven in 2006-2007. Another recommendation of the task force was that agencies providing subsidy continue to study issues including access to services. The Social Services Board studied access issues and has determined that there are advantages to combining the two main subsidies programs for administrative purposes. In 2001-2002, all counties were required to consolidate their two main subsidy programs (Social Services and Smart Start) unless a county submitted a request to operate a dual child care subsidy system. Since both Child Care Services Association and Social Services were providing subsidy in 2001, a request to operate a dual system was approved in 2001. Since the time of the application for the dual subsidy system, some changes have occurred in the subsidy program. First, the amount of funds available through Smart Start for subsidy has not grown whereas the state and federal funding available through Social Services (DSS) for subsidy has grown 69% from $2,691,324 to $4,570,922. There has also been increasing support from the Board of County Commissioners to help with serving employed parents on the waiting list including the continued support for the sponsorship program and the "payback" funds for County employees. The current total costs for DSS to administer this program is about $375,000 for four social workers, one supervisor and administrative support provided through the agency's central services. During this same time period, Smart Start subsidy has decreased from $1,470,527 to $1,441,000. The total administrative cost for all staff administering those funds is $263,843. The Department of Social Services estimates that with an additional three positions, it could administer both the Smart Start subsidy as well as the growing DSS subsidy program in 2008- 2009. The costs for adding these positions are estimated to be around $160,000. If Smart Start funds in this amount were made available to DSS, then DSS could provide the same level of service at no extra cost to the County and approximately $100,000 in Smart Start administrative funds could be available to redirect into the subsidy program to serve children on the waiting list. The Social Services Board recommends that DSS explore the possibilities of combining the Smart Start subsidy program with the existing subsidy program at DSS. The goal of consolidation would be to: • Create one entity for families accessing public subsidies. • Develop one waiting list that clearly defines the number of Orange County residents needing and waiting for subsidy. • Reduce administrative costs so that more County and State funds can be directed to subsidy payments and thereby reducing wait time for families. • Reduce the administrative time needed by providers to complete contracts and billing information. • Provide comprehensive data to the Board of County Commissioners about the services and needs of families in Orange County. The provision of Smart Start services is governed by a local board, the Orange County Partnership for Young Children. The Partnership has released requests for proposals for the next three year cycle which will be effective July 2008. The Department would need to submit a proposal during that timeframe in order to manage the Smart Start subsidy program. Since this action advances the goals of the Child Care Task Force, the Social Services Board requests that the DSS Director be authorized to submit any applications or bids necessary to compete in this process. By combining administrative functions, funds now used for administration could be provided for subsidy which will meet the Task Force goals of providing subsidy to more families and reducing the wait time for subsidy. The Director should work with all funding sources to assure that any savings realized by this change are reinvested in direct subsidy payments for children. FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact in accepting the report from the Social Services Board. If the Department of Social Services is authorized to submit a bid to administer Smart Start subsidy funds, any costs for the additional positions will be paid with Smart Start funds. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board receive the report, accept the four goals and, authorize the Social Services Director to submit a competitive bid for administering the Smart Start subsidy program. The Board of Social Services Annual Report on Child Care September 2007 Background The Orange County Board of County Commissioners created the Orange County Child Care Task Force in 2006 as a response to the growing demand for child care subsidy and the long wait periods experienced by working families needing subsidy. The Task Force was charged with creating community awareness of and support. for the benefits of early childhood education, increasing private, business and public financial contributions for child care subsidies or scholarships; and improving workplace support for children and families. Members of the Task Force included individuals representing university, business, child care providers, schools, non-profit agencies, and local government interests. When the Task Force was created, there were over 500 children eligible for child care subsidy who were unable to receive it due to a lack of funds. Some families with eligible children had been waiting more than sixteen months. In September 2006, the Task Force made its final report to the Board of Commissioners with broad goals that included: establishing baselines so that progress could be measured objectively; assuring that all local government entities at least maintained their current level of support for subsidy programs; working with economic development and other county staff to encourage support from private businesses and to encourage the inclusion of child care needs in future development projects; identifying ways to improve access to subsidy for families; and, seeking other funding sources that could be matched with county funds. The Social Services Board was charged with reporting annually to the Board of County Commissioners on the progress in these areas. During the 2006-07 budget process, the Board of County Commissioners showed its concern for this issue by providing three distinct funding sources for child care subsidies: $30,000 to "pay back" the costs of employee subsidies used the previous year; $50,000 to allow for matching of any business or other agency that also committed funds; and $100,000 from the Medicaid relief savings to be used to help serve the waiting list. Current Situation The Department of Social Services (DSS) received additional funds from state and federal resources for both Fiscal Year 2006-2007 and Fiscal Year 2007-2008. The total expenditure for subsidy by the agency in 2005-2006 was $3,946,852 compared to expenditures of $4,303,412 in 2006-2007. The expenditures last year included approximately $150,000 in county funds. The allocation for the current year is $4,570,922, which includes $70,000 in county funds. The total number of children served last year was 1138 at an average monthly cost of $497 per child (this is the amount paid by the agency and does not count the funds paid 5 by the families). This compares to a total number of 1025 children served the previous year. The additional state and county funds received last year allowed the agency to serve all children on the agency's waiting list in January of 2007. It then became necessary to begin the waiting list again as all the additional resources had been committed. Currently, 408 children are waiting for DSS subsidy although Child Care Services Association is serving 115 of these children. There are children of working parents who have been waiting for subsidy since February of this year. The confirmation of the new state allocation was xecently received by the agency and staff members will now start serving some of the children on the waiting list. The Department of Social Services has continued to offer the Day Care Sponsorship Program, but has had difficulty securing sponsors, other than child care providers, to use the matching funds allocated by the county. However, the funds were used to sponsor More at Four families last year, and the funds were used to match reallocated funds made available by the state during last fiscal year. Although neither the towns nor the university are contributing funds directly to DSS, the towns have maintained their commitment to Child Care Service Association (CCSA) and the university continues to contribute to CCSA. The Department of Social Services had been working with the Economic Development Commission (EDC) on the recommendations regarding education of employers and development of financial incentives for employers. After a new EDC director is hired, the agencies will again try to work on these issues. DSS has also been reviewing issues related to access to subsidy programs and is continuing to explore ways to improve access including having both public subsidy programs being administered by one agency. Benchmarks for Measurement The Social Services Board has established the following benchmarks for the subsidy program. This data will be used to determine progress and identify the need for additional funding beginning in Fiscal Year 2007-08. 1. The average length of time for working families to wait for subsidy is three months with the maximum time that they wait being four months. When the wait times exceed these amounts, the DSS Board will inform the Board of Commissioners of the need for additional resources. 2. The amount of state and federal subsidy received by DSS in Fiscal Year 2006- 2007 was $4,153,607 and the total subsidy expenditures were $4,303,412. These amounts are the baseline for DSS to determine progress in securing additional funds for subsidy. 3. The average number of children served each month for 2006-2007 was 708 and will be the baseline for services to families. 4. The number of fenders of child care at DSS during 2006-2007 was 7 and will be the baseline for measuring progress in this area. The Social Services Board requests that the Board of County Commissioners consider appropriating county funds for subsidy when the wait time is longer than four months for employed parents and there are no identified funds to serve the children on the waiting list. The Social Services Board believes that longer wait times result in lost employment for families, which jeopardize their ability to support their own families.