Children's Services Act Meeting Minutes

City of Suffolk Children’s Services Act Community Policy and Management Team Meeting Minutes October 19, 2022 9:00 am Social Services Building, Third Floor Training Room A Members Present: Mary Bess- Parent Representative Donna Boykin – WTCSB (Chairperson) Jenny Hodge – Tidewater Youth Services Commission Kimberly Jennings – 5th District Court Services Unit Marli Laudun – Suffolk Health Dept. Rachel Lewis – CSA Coordinator Saniyyah Manigault-Westbrook – Suffolk Dept. of Social Services Sheridan Meriwether – The UP Center Members absent: Glynda Branch - Fiscal Agent Randah Gaitan – Administrative Analyst, City of Suffolk Stephanie Whitley – Suffolk Public Schools Guests Present: Roxanne Flamer – CSA Office Assistant John Lewis - CSA Utilization Management Specialist 1. The meeting is called to order at 9:15 a.m. by Donna Boykin. 2. September 21, 2022 minutes were not approved due to miscommunication of upcoming Officer for Secretary. It will be discussed at November 16, 2022 meeting. 3. Rachel Lewis reviewed the financial report as of October 19, 2022. There is a total of $573,331.17 remaining in the budget. The City of Suffolk increased the original funding to 2.4 million. Motion made by Kimberly Jennings to accept Financial Report as written, and seconded by Marli Laudun. All in favor. 4. CLOSED SESSION - Donna Boykin entertains a motion to convene a Closed Meeting for the purpose of discussing cases before the Family Assessment and Planning Team in accordance with the provisions in subsection A of ş 2.2-3711 of the Code of Virginia as amended in 2001 and 2005 respectively. Only applicable exceptions as provided in section ş 2.2-3707 or subsection A of Section ş 2.2-3711 are to be discussed. Kimberly Jennings motions to enter closed session. Marli Laudun seconds motion to enter into closed session. All in favor. 5. RETURN TO OPEN SESSION – Donna Boykin entertains a motion to move out of Closed Meeting. Kimberly Jennings motions to enter open session. Saniyyah Manigault- Westbrook seconds the motion. All are in favor and the motion passed. Donna Boykin  initiated a roll call certifying that to the best of each member’s knowledge only the following matters were discussed during the closed session: 1) public business matters lawfully exempted from statutory open meeting requirements and 2) public business matters identified in the motion to convene the closed meeting. All affirmed. 6. Motion to approve all cases presented. Saniyyah Manigault-Westbrook enters the motion. Kimberly Jennings seconded the motion. All in favor. Total amount approved from FAPT requests: $95,248.68. Total amount approved from cases exempt from FAPT review: $3823.06 7. Old Business A. ARPA Mental Health Grant/Community Violence Initiative Update– The community tour took place on September 28, 2022 @ 9:00 a.m. Mr. Carlos Williams drove to areas of the city that are considered high crime. Afterwards members of the committee held a meeting for discussion. During this meeting it was suggested that other agencies and community leaders be invited to the October 19, 2022 meeting. Dr. Dave Ellis shared contact information for a potential facilitator. B. Truancy Meeting – Rachel Lewis sent an email to Kelly MacPherson on October 4, 2022 to follow-up, in reference to coordinating the truancy meeting. As of today she has not heard back from Ms. MacPherson. Mrs. Lewis will contact Mrs. MacPherson to see if she would do a doodle poll. C. Items for Members – Rachel Lewis shared information that she had received from the Auditor in reference to a Kinship case that happened one year ago. She will follow-up to see if any additional information is needed. 8. New Business A. Meeting Scheduled for 2023 – Discussion of meeting location. Rachel Lewis asked CPMT members if Training Room A would be the location for monthly meetings or would they like to move to the smaller conference room. All members agreed that the meetings would take place in Training Room A and that meeting will continue to be held on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. B. Draft Fiscal Policy for review – Rachel Lewis updated members on current policy changes. The language was adjusted to meet requirements. A copy of these changes were distributed to all CPMT members. C. Draft Policy for Virtual FAPT – Rachel Lewis stated that an actual policy was added to meet state requirements. Kimberly Jennings enters motion to approve both drafts for the Fiscal and Virtual FAPT Policy. Saniyyah Manigault-Westbrook seconded the motion. All in favor. D. CQI – Final SWOT Analysis – Rachel Lewis gave an update on the Final SWOT Analysis that Suffolk CPMT members had the opportunity to share their thoughts during the Retreat held in September and at the September CPMT meeting. Benchmark Data –  Suffolk CSA Benchmarks/Objectives focused on 1. Reduce the number for children in congregate care placements. 2. Reduce the length of stay in congregate care placements 3. Maintain the cost per child at or below the state average. 4. Maintain minimum attendance at CPMT and FAPT (75% per year per agency). John Lewis CSA Utilization Management Specialist gave a presentation on information from the CQI Dashboard. The Demographic Report showed how Suffolk compares to some of the other localities that included finance, demographics/utilization, outcome measures and comparison to services. Marli Laudun stated that it’s very hard to prove prevention. Donna Boykin feels that COVID had a huge impact on the data. Rachel Lewis read updated population data that she received from Randan Gaitan that showed Suffolk grew 15% in the last year with a current population of 94,194 citizens. Jenny Hodge talked about more planning on the front end of cases and less staffing. Rachel Lewis mentioned the time that it takes to staff each case. Jenny Hodge also noticed that the state was spending more for fewer African American children being served, but Suffolk CSA was spending less per child but are serving more African American children. Kimberly Jennings asked “Are we making similar decisions for the same cases?”. John Lewis feels the difference could be the cost of Residential Treatment and the length of time in treatment. It was also mentioned that Caucasian children could be referred for services at a younger age than other race groups. Rachel Lewis will gather more information in reference to the total amount of expenditures related to race and the total amount spent on services received. E. Items from the Members – FAPT Parent Representative – Rachel Lewis briefed members on the current situation with FAPT Parent Representative Ms. Johnson. After receiving the information, a discussion relating to a conflict of interest for the parent to remain on FAPT while her family is receiving services leads to Jenny Hodge reading Policy 4.4.1 Freedom from Liability and Conflict of Interest Act. Per CSA Policy 4.4.1 Saniyyah Manigault-Westbrook motioned that CPMT recommend FAPT Parent Representative step down until them/they are appropriate to return. Seconded by Sheridan Meriwether. Donna Boykin is not in favor of how the motion was written and how it is being used. All other members in attendance in favor. 9. Adjourn – CPMT adjourned the meeting at 12:23 p.m. Motion to adjourn by Jenny Hodge, seconded by Saniyyah Manigault-Westbrook. All in favor. Recorded by Roxanne Flamer, CSA Office Assistant.