Watchdog: End Privatization of Metro Area Child Services
A public watchdog of Nebraska’s child welfare services recommended Thursday that state officials end their practice of having a private contractor manage cases in the Omaha area.
The Office of Inspector General of Nebraska Child Welfare made the suggestion in a special report focused on Saint Francis Ministries, a provider that has faced major financial problems after winning a state contract in 2019. Nebraska officials negotiated a new contract with Saint Francis in January to prevent the provider from running out of money.
The inspector general’s report says Nebraska should terminate its contract with Saint Francis, arguing that the provider hasn’t met several of its contractual obligations over the last two years. It also recommends a return to its practice of having the state manage cases in the Omaha area.
The 12-year experiment “has provided the state with a significant amount of data, all of which suggests that the privatization of case management has not delivered the intended benefits,” Inspector General Jennifer A. Carter said in the report.
The report notes that Saint Francis has never come close to meeting its caseload ratio at any point in its contract. The highest performance it has reached is 54% of workers in compliance.
“While it may be reasonable to expect some performance issues in the early stages of the contract, Saint Francis’ performance issues have persisted and even increased with new issues emerging,” the report states. “The result has been a consistent failure to meet key terms of the contract. Beyond the scope of contractual deficiencies, these failures represent children who have not been accounted for in the system, or seen in person and families that have not had a case plan that identifies how they will be reunified.”
In a response to the report, Saint Francis Ministries acknowledges it has failed to meet the requirements of its contract with the state.
“However, it is SFM’s position that additional information should be considered, given the importance of these decisions to Nebraska children and families,” the organization said in a statement.
Saint Francis specifically argues that children are doing better now on metrics outlines than they were under state management prior to privatization. It also states that the Omaha metro area is the largest and most complex of the state’s service areas for child welfare.
The report came as the Legislature’s Executive Board voted to subpoena Saint Francis to force the organization to testify at a hearing and provide lawmakers with documents related to its management.
Find a copy of the report at bit.ly/2Wf5iis.
The Daily Record contributed to this report.
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