Typically, when DHS child-abuse workers see warning signs of abuse or neglect, they hire private contractors to help protect children at home and keep families together. The department relies on this program, known as Services to Children in Their Own Homes, or SCOH, because DHS workers don't routinely visit clients. They oversee 40 contractors who care for nearly 7,000 city children every year.
But an Inquirer review of hundreds of city performance evaluations and contracts, along with interviews with officials and private caseworkers, uncovered a system riddled with flaws. Among them:
Audits show that DHS cited some providers for the same failures year after year and then ignored its own recommendation that those contractors stop receiving cases. In 30 years, records show, DHS officials terminated just three of them.
Unlike some other cities, Philadelphia does not require private providers to bid competitively for work. Two years ago, when City Council pushed for bidding rules for those contracts, DHS officials succeeded in killing the proposal, saying it would decimate the relationship between providers and the families they serve.
As far back as 1988, auditors have urged DHS to strengthen its oversight of welfare workers. Again in 1997, auditors made similar findings. But DHS took little action.
Such lapses can have tragic consequences.
Last summer, Danieal Kelly, a 14-year-old with cerebral palsy, died of neglect while DHS and a private provider, MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, were supposed to be checking on her.
After revelations about her case, Mayor Street dismissed the top two officials in DHS and appointed the reform panel.
