SAFE Release 2.525
(January 2006)
Resize of Windows
In the July 2005 SAFE release, a new window size was introduced to users for the Functional Assessment and Activities windows. For this release, we have resized additional windows to allow more information to be displayed.
The lists of contributing factors and individual characteristics have been significantly modified. Remember to include these on every case:
Contributing Factors
Factors that directly contribute to the reason why DCFS is involved, or why a finding is being made. These factors are case specific, not person specific.
Person Characteristics
Characteristics that apply to a specific individual and should be entered for each person receiving case services. Choose only those that apply to the highlighted person. This person may be an adult, a child, a perpetrator or a victim. These characteristics are person specific, not case specific.
In SAFE there are a number of person types displayed in the directory: Person, Provider, and Worker. Often the person record and the provider record are the same individual, and the system does not need two separate records to display. Added functionality will now allow navigation to either the SAFE Person Window or the Provider Window when a provider record is selected. This will allow entry of person demographic information as well as adding providers to cases.
This field is located on the General Tab of the Case Creation and on the General tab of In-Home and Out-of-Home case windows. The window will now only allow 400 characters to be entered and saved. Workers should document the current circumstances and reasoning as to why the case is being created. This field has been shortened to accommodate future display in the new Child and Family Plan. If a case already has more than 400 characters entered in this field, a worker will be unable to save changes to this area unless the entire entry is shortened to meet the requirement.
Independent Living Age Lowered to 14
The age to begin documentation of Independent Living Services has changed from age 16 to age 14. This means that an IL Plan and IL Module will first be required when the foster child is 14 years old. The IL Module is located on the Ind. Living tab of the SCF case window. Workers should begin documentation in the IL Module by entering relevant data in the ‘IL Service Start’ column for the foster child.
Help in SAFE
SAFE Helps have been updated to include additional information about SAFE components. Copies of the Day One--Participant and Trainer manuals are now located in the Help section.
Child In Foster Care 12 Out of the Last 22 months
When a foster child has been in foster care for more than 12 of the last 22 months, SAFE will prompt the worker with a new Action Item due when the child reaches 15 of the last 22 months in custody. The new Action Item will direct workers to indicate the status of the child’s permanency by entering information on the Permanency Tab of the SCF case (TPR view). The worker must enter either the date a TPR petition was filed or select an appropriate ‘Reason(s) for Not Filing TPR’.
Placement Window
The placement window has been modified in order to collect demographic information related to the child’s caretaker. Occasionally, foster children are placed with organizations that maintain their own foster homes. The caretaker section has been reworked to allow SAFE to clearly identify who is caring for the child and to link this individual with a SAFE person record. These modifications will allow SAFE to more accurately reflect the number of placements, and provide information for federal reporting purposes.
SCF-Permanency Tab
The adoption tab of SCF case has been modified and renamed the Permanency Tab. The Permanency Tab contains more information and the ability to identify parents more clearly.
The intake checklist has been modified in SAFE to reflect when a Priority One should be used: “Child is at imminent risk and there is no adult (including law enforcement, school, medical personnel, etc) available to protect.”
If a situation does not meet the above Priority One definition, then it should not be dispositioned as a Priority One. Intake workers may disposition a case as a Priority Two with individualized instructions of more urgent time frames if necessary. See Practice Guideline 201.5 for further detail.
The checklist has also been modified to include instructions regarding emergency situations and staffing priority with a supervisor. A blank version has been added to Intake Forms in Document Index.
The significant risk tools (CPS 26 “Severe Physical Abuse Assessment Procedures” and CPS 28 “Youth Initiating Sexual Contact, YISC”) are only required in cases with a supported finding involving a juvenile perpetrator of certain severe allegations. They are no longer required on unsupported cases.
CPS cases can now be transferred directly from a supervisor in one region to a supervisor in another region without going through the inter-region case transfer process in SAFE. CPS supervisors are expected to communicate and coordinate prior to any transfer in SAFE. See Practice Guideline 209.2
Although workers will continue to follow the same Unable to Locate protocols, the CPS Case Closure Wizard will no longer require all of the Unable to Locate policies to be selected from the policy list in activity recording when closing a case as “Unable to Locate.” All completed “Unable to Locate” policies must still be selected from the policy list and documented appropriately in activity recording in order to provide documentation for supervisory review, Case Process Review, and compliance with both Practice Guideline 204.9 and Utah Code 62A-4a-105.
Confidential CPS Cases
Closed CPS cases that have been marked confidential will no longer display the findings in the directory. Instead, the findings column in directory will display the word “confidential.” If you have a legitimate need to access a confidential case, contact your Regional Director and have him/her contact the SAFE Helpdesk for assistance.