Outcomes:
Consistent with the focus group research discussed earlier, the primary outcome is safety for each child served by the agency. LCCS refers to this outcome as “Protection.”
Next, LCCS values permanence for each child served by the agency. This is operationally defined as a safe, stable home for each child within one year of the agency’s first contact with the child.
Further, LCCS holds prevention as a guiding value. This includes activities that assure that all instances of abuse and neglect in the county are reported, that immediate intervention protects the children, that services reduce the likelihood of future abuse and neglect, and that factors and conditions that are thought to contribute to abuse and neglect are reduced and eliminated in the community. For example, support of the “Early Start” program for young children and their families is thought to reduce the likelihood of future abuse and neglect.
In addition to the above, LCCS holds the well being and long term success of each child served by the agency as core values. Underlying all services and programs is an ongoing agency commitment to fiscal responsibility and public accountability. This, then, establishes the first dimension of the LCCS stakeholder map. It includes: protection, permanence, well-being, and long term success for each child served by the agency along with prevention of abuse and neglect of children in the community, financial responsibility, and public accountability. This is the “outcome” dimension of the stakeholder map.