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Continuous Feedback: Executive Summary

The Joint Center for Policy Research at Lorain Community College, who actually performs the interviews for our continuous improvement surveys, is involved in assisting us in refining data resulting from the Continuous Improvement Surveys. The Center completed a total of 1,486 correlations from our three years worth of data. From these correlations, they determined the primary areas being measured by our questions as:

 Respect: The ability of LCCS personnel (primarily case workers) to treat clients with respect. A variety of questions related to respect among Active Cases, Closed Cases, Foster Parents, & GAL’s
 Communication: Invitation to attend meetings (Closed Cases & Foster Parents); Adequacy of notice when receiving/removing child (Foster Parents); Ongoing communication and continuous planning with clients (Community Agencies & GAL’s); agency communication with workers (LCCS Personnel)
 Helpfulness/Support: Helpfulness of caseworkers (Active Cases); LCCS support in carrying out visitation plans (Foster Parents).
 Agreement: With case workers and case plans (Active Cases & Closed Cases)
 Image: Perception of LCCS in general community (Community Agencies & GAL’s); Responsiveness of LCCS to community needs (Community Agencies); Responsiveness of LCCS to client needs/requests (GAL’s); Overall rating of LCCS as a service provider (Community Agencies & GAL’s)
 Other: Convenience of visitation plans/schedules (Active Cases); Adequacy of times for meetings with caseworkers (Closed Cases); Clients access to information and assistance (Foster Parents); Adequacy of business hours for clients (LCCS Personnel)

The next step for the Joint Center personnel will be to conduct a further statistical analysis of these primary areas and determine how the agency is doing in each of these areas. This is done by creating indices or composite scores from the questions that are related to each of the primary areas. Once this is completed, correlations will be provided as part of the semi-annual Aggregate Report. Since the Aggregate Report provides the statistically significant information–the changes over time and the correlations will depict how the agency is doing, we decided to eliminate the quarterly reports and move to an Executive Summary on a twice yearly basis.

Consequently, in 2001, we will be in a position to glean information and take action based on quantitative data resulting from our Continuous Feedback Surveys.

In lieu of more refined statistical data, the following summary information from the current survey may be helpful for agency planning purposes. Note that the small numbers of participants means that conclusions are difficult or inappropriate on a single quarter basis. Rather, the data become meaningful over time as the volume of data increases.

Active Clients-7

     Although a small number were surveyed, their overall ratings were in the percent range of previous clients surveyed.

·       28% of active clients were initially contacted by an on-going protective caseworker within a week.

·       43 % of active clients self-initiated contact with their newly assigned on-going protective caseworker. This was a higher percentage then in previous quarters.

·       43% answered they were provided an LCCS pamphlet that describes their rights, while 57 % indicated they understood their rights.

·       86% felt they were treated with respect by the agency overall.

·       57% responded their caseworkers offered to help with their needs outside of agency hours; 86% understood their case plan and felt their caseworker was helpful to them and followed through on what they say they would do.

·       86% rated agency provision of services good to excellent, and would contact the agency in the future, if needed.

Closed cases-12

·       83% were not involved beyond Intake

·       81% felt they were treated with respect by the agency overall.

Foster Parents-30

·       90% rated their training good and excellent.

·       90% felt they were treated with respect by the agency overall.

·       On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is extremely poor and 10 is extremely good, the caseworker’s ability to help their foster children was rated at 7.50; the caseworker’s ability to help them was rated 7.58.

·       80% rated the services of the agency as good and excellent.

Guardians ad Litem-11

·       91% felt they were treated with respect by the agency overall.

·       On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is extremely poor and 10 is extremely good, on-going communications was rated as a 5, continuous planning with them was rated as 4.0, responsiveness by LCCS was rated 6.2, and overall the agency was rated at 6.6 as a service provider.

·       55% rated the agency services as good and excellent.

Community Agencies-9

·       On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is extremely poor and 10 is extremely good, on-going communication was rated 7.2, continuous planning was rated 5.8, responsiveness 6.6, LCCS as a service provider 6.9, and general perception in the community 5.3.

Permanent Custody Children, Temporary and Long Term Care Children-16

·       All the children surveyed feel they are treated with respect and the agency has helped to protect them. They rate services provided by the agency as good and excellent.

Board Members-5

·       Rated the agency as very responsive (40%) and the agency responsiveness (60%) to possible modification of organization activities, personnel or structure in response to community needs.

·       60% were provided orientation when they became a Board Member.

·       80% rated communication between the Board, CEO and personnel as good.

·       80% of the respondents rated use of their talents & skills as average and good in the areas of needs assessment, finance, oversight, policy oversight, resource development and advocacy on behalf of clients.

·       100% rated use of their skills and talents as good and average in the areas of advocacy on behalf of the organization, relations with the community and evaluating organization performance.

Adoptive Parents-2

·       100% rated agency provision of services as excellent.

·       On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is not helpful at all and 10 is extremely helpful, caseworkers in Family Based Care who handle the adoption from preparation for the child’s placement thru finalization of the adoption were rated 9.

Agency personnel-54

·       87% rated working for the agency as good and excellent.

·       On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is extremely poor and 10 is extremely good, personnel rated agency response to matters of concern as 8.87, agency response to new ideas or suggestions as 7.38, teamwork among staff in the agency as 6.75, and overall agency communication with workers as 6.32.

Copies of the entire survey are distributed to all management personnel and are available to all personnel on the internal agency computer. Results of surveys are routinely discussed at Oversight Committee meetings and at that meeting, areas are selected for specific attention. (If you would like to know more about this survey process, feel free to contact JanetSchrott@ChildrenServices.org, Sdavis@LorainCCC.edu, or TmcCoy@LorainCCC.edu.)

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