Los Angeles, CA
DIRECTOR OF CHILD PROTECTION
m/Oppenheim Associates is assisting the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors in the search for a Director of Child Protection to lead a significant reform effort to create one comprehensive, fully integrated Countywide approach to child protection. For more information, see the full Position Description.
Reporting to the Board of Supervisors and working with other County officials, the Director is tasked with developing, annually updating and submitting for Board approval a Joint Strategic Plan that proposes Countywide child protection system improvement projects, along with project execution budgets, project staffing, deliverables, milestones and execution timeframes. After the Joint Strategic Plan receives Board approval, the Office of Child Protection functions as a project office on behalf of the Board. The Director and the Office of Child Protection will coordinate project implementation across County departments, regularly reporting to the Board on project milestones, delivery timeframes, resource utilization, project issues, etc.
The Director will lead a small, highly-qualified staff of senior-level project specialists, and where possible projects will be executed utilizing existing resources in County departments, existing departmental management teams and the existing chain of command. When the Board determines that the situation requires it, new project leads who are vested with appropriate authority and are directly supervised by the Office of Child Protection may be assigned.
Staffing for the Office of Child Protection is not expected to be large in comparison to other County Departments that administer direct services. Initially, the Office will be organized into four teams that coordinate action on:
- Team 1 – Protective investigations, including workflows and casework challenges faced by caseworkers, probation officers, law enforcement and others involved in investigations;
- Team 2 – Direct services to children and families, including foster care, juvenile delinquency, health and education;
- Team 3 – Information systems, including an understanding of information used in real time at the point of service, and information needed for various reporting purposes;
- Team 4 – Budgeting, flexible funding streams and contracting with nonprofit and other providers of services to children and transition-age youth under agreements with the County.
In the first 30 days of the Director’s tenure and then annually, the Director will set before the Board of Supervisors a staffing and resource plan for the Office of Child Protection.
The Director of Child Protection will work with the County Departments (including Children and Family Services, Mental Health, Health, Public Health, Probations, and various law enforcement departments that are engaged in this reform effort), to annually produce metrics and other evidence of measurable improvement that can be shared with the public. Success will ultimately be measured by increased service quality, speed and effectiveness at the point-of-service to children (i.e. improvements that children experience directly), and improved outcomes for children and families in Los Angeles County.
For more information to apply, please contact David Santore (310-943-9355), Kim Brettschneider (646-762-0818) or Mark Oppenheim (415-762-2640) at info@moppenheim.com
Finally, here is the Los Angeles County Blue Ribbon Commission on Child Protection‘s final report titled “The Road to Safety for Our Children“.