Read and listen to part one here.
Read and listen to part two here.
Over the last year, the Nelson County Department of Social Services, or DSS, has faced state and local scrutiny over practices that led to kids being left in unsafe situations. In this last of a three-part series, WMRA's Meredith McCool reports on how state law governs local departments, and how Nelson County's office is rebuilding from the ground up.
In the first two parts of this report, we learned that Nelson County DSS has faced staffing and funding challenges for years. As a result of a harrowing letter from the acting commonwealth’s attorney and a corrective action plan by the state, Nelson County DSS has undergone a complete reorganization – dissolving its advisory board and accepting the resignation of the director. The county now finds itself in the position of rebuilding the department on a budget.
In their proposed budgets, both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly currently include increasing the minimum salary for family services employees to $55,000, according to the Virginia Association of Counties.
REBECCA MORGAN: While I am very excited to see a proposed increase to the base salary …
Rebecca Morgan is the director of social services in Middlesex County and the president of the Virginia League of Social Service Executives.
MORGAN: … we'll have to wait for the budget to come out in the next couple of days to see exactly, but for a rural locality, while we appreciate that increase, 15.5% of the cost to do that is going to be passed on to the locality. … Localities are then, especially rural ones who maybe aren't as wealthy, are going to still struggle to make that match.
Ernie Reed, who serves on the Nelson County Board of Supervisors, echoed that sentiment.
ERNIE REED: I would have to say that Department of Social Services is kind of historically underfunded, I think that's pretty easy to say and justify. So to some extent, that system has some flaws that probably can only be corrected at the state level, in terms of staffing. You know, there just is not a pool of willing and able applicants to fill those positions; they just don't exist.
Eric Reynolds, director of the statewide Office of the Children’s Ombudsman, agreed.
ERIC REYNOLDS: We definitely need to support our workers. We don't pay them enough, and there's such a disparity between if you're to go to work for Nelson County or go to work for Charlottesville, the disparity in compensation, in the support, the training that you get. And I'm not pointing the finger at Nelson County. It's not just Nelson County. … Where a community can't provide that support, the state needs to invest in those localities. We need to support these workers because it's very difficult work. … Once we start giving these folks what they deserve, I think we're going to see better case outcomes.
Calls for oversight
When we spoke in October, I asked the ombudsman what authority or tools his office has to ensure better case outcomes.
REYNOLDS: There's very little authority that I have. There's very little authority that the state commissioner or the state DSS has. The only real authority lies with the locality. … This is why this office exists, is to shine a light on those areas and advocate for changes, whether it's a local change that needs to be made or a statewide change.
Director Morgan says one of those changes needs to be in accountability.
MORGAN: When we talk about accountability, yeah, local departments need to have a lot of accountability. I take it very seriously. … But we also need some accountability on the state's part, in terms of when we ask for help, and when we say, my neighbor over there is really struggling, and I'm concerned. … And is our current structure set up so that the state has the legal authority and or resources to help? No.
A new law scheduled to go into effect next summer could address that problem. This legislation expands the authority of the Commissioner of Social Services over local agencies, particularly when it comes to enforcing a corrective action plan for any local board or department of social services that fails to administer public assistance, social services, or child welfare programs in accordance with applicable laws. If the local board fails to comply with the corrective action plan, the commissioner will have the authority to temporarily assume control of the local board’s operations.
MORGAN: Everybody's human. But nobody in this work gets up every day to not help somebody, or to make a mistake, or to do poor work. And when it happens, there's a long, long story behind it, and it's not always simple to figure out and untangle.
Rebuilding from the ground up
Nelson County’s Department of Social Services continues that work of untangling today.
[traffic and construction sounds]
Just off of Route 29 in Lovingston, construction is underway on a new $8.1 million Department of Social Services building that the county will be paying off for the next 25 years. DSS Director Grace DeShong says –
GRACE DeSHONG: I'm very fond of my little double-wide over here, but if you want to put me in a nice new building that actually represents the work that my staff and our agency can do, and has been doing for many years, I welcome it.
A number of changes have come to the local department in the past six months. The county hired DeShong as its new director. The board of supervisors appointed a new DSS advisory board. And, according to DeShong, they are no longer under a corrective action plan from the state. But, as of June 18, one of the two family services specialist positions has been filled and the other remains open. The open position is currently posted online as Nelson County DSS continues the work of rebuilding from the ground up.
