INSIDE OKDHS: COMMISSIONER'S REPORT, JULY 2012

Interim Director Doerflinger: Good Morning Commissioners. I'd like to extend my welcome to Chief Clabes and Commissioner Pope. I appreciate you guys being willing to link arms with us in what is really very important work and I'd actually just like to express at this time my thank you to all the Commissioners. It's glamorous work (laughs) and I don't think you get told enough that you are appreciated for what you do for this Agency and for the state of Oklahoma. 

So, I'm going to apologize now, I reached my Red Bull limit for the day at about 6:15 this morning so, those of you who know me know that's dangerous. Let me get set up here. You're going to be impressed. I actually have three PowerPoint slides. They don't do anything fancy, they're just there but I do have three PowerPoint slides. 

So, you can see the first thing I have up there is "First who, then what?" When I first became your interim director, in evaluating this organization and, really, the success of any organization, it's the people you have within the organization and making sure that those people are, first, the right people and then that they're in the right places within the organization. This is really the most important thing that I think I can do during the time that I'm with you, is to assist in this effort. 

One of the ways that we do this is reflected in the Pinnacle Plan. It does something that I think should have been done a long time ago: it calls for incremental raises for our frontline workers, our Child Welfare Specialists. 

To me there are no more important people in this organization than the people on the front lines. And it's about time that we begin to pay them in the manner that they should be paid. So, with that said, I have gone ahead and moved on increasing the pay for the frontline workers, the Child Welfare Specialists I, II, III and IV. 

It is part of the Pinnacle Plan, it will help in recruitment of new Child Welfare Specialists but equally important it sends the message, I hope, to the people who currently work for us that you are important, you're valued and that we're going to follow through with what we say we're going to do. I won't spend too much time on that other than to say that that process is under way. I approved the paperwork that calls for it to be effective July 16 so it'll be reflected in their August paycheck. 

I also want to give you an update on reorganization. As you well know, Oklahoma DHS recognizes the current organizational structure of three divisions, being Children and Family Services, Family Support and Field Operations Divisions. This does not allow the Agency to meet certain expectations. The current structure separates Field Staff from Program Staff, creating barriers to effective communication, clearly aligned goals and support to frontline staff. 

In many locations management is responsible for a myriad of programs covering Family Support, Adult Protective and Child Welfare Services. Creating new vertically integrated divisions for Child Welfare Services and Family Support Services will prove advantageous for staff, leadership and, most importantly, for the adults and children we serve. The goal of vertical integration is to create a system with clear delineation of roles, effective lines of communication and accountability throughout the system. 

Vertical integration allows for more direct communication between top-level management and frontline staff leaving room for fewer mixed messages or multiple interpretations. Line authority is clear, and supervisors and workers now have more immediate access to management. Accountability for program integrity is focused allowing managers to be more responsive in time and intensity to program and staff needs, including training, consultation, data mining and monitoring. 

These organizational changes will foster improved employee and public confidence. Adult and Family Services - and you note there's no "Division" at the end of that - Adult and Family Services, the new title for the merger of Field Operations Division and Family Support Services as we continue the process of vertical integration. As you may recall, House Bill 3134 passed this session, abolishes the Field Operations Division on January 1, 2013. 

For the new Commissioners, as part of the Oklahoma Pinnacle Plan, which you will be hearing about from our Child Welfare Director, Deb Smith, the services of Child Welfare will be vertically integrated with field staff. In communicating the change in structure to the field staff and getting their input on the proposed structure and relevant issues, senior staff has spent five days in the field obtaining feedback from about 200 staff from all five areas of Oklahoma DHS representing all counties of Oklahoma. 

County Directors, Supervisors, frontline Workers in Family Support and APS to the receptionist attended. OPEA helped with all of the forums as well. The Adult and Family Services forums were held in the last ten days in Enid, Norman, McAlester, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. If you're interested, on the OKDHS website there is a Restructuring Corner on the home page and all the feedback from the forums will be posted there. A little bit more of a review as far as Adult and Family Services reorganization, the structure of Adult and Family Services was designed with two things in mind. 

First, specific ratios were used to establish the number of Supervisors, County Directors, and Deputy Directors for regions where needed. Secondly, key functional areas were identified being Programs, Operations, Business Processes, Vulnerable Adults and Community Engagement. Historically, County Directors were responsible for being the face or image of the Agency at the local level; responsible for immediate responses and other endeavors in the community. Although there was a general expectation of some level of community involvement it was not prescriptive, targeted or measured well. 

The new emphasis on community engagement will focus on building capacity at the grass roots level. County Directors will be expected develop and utilize skills and mobilize leaders in the service, business and faith community. It's not rocket science but I like to keep it simple. Failing to plan is planning to fail. We have a Pinnacle Plan now which provides a roadmap in the area of Child Welfare. I want it to provide a roadmap in the area of community engagement and provide an update on the status of Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives. 

With recent staff changes and restructuring discussions, it is important to let you know the Agency's community engagement efforts will continue. At this time Karen Jacobs is working to ensure continuation of services and projects provided by OKDHS. Karen Jacobs is also continuing her role as Coordinator of the Office of Volunteerism, Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives or its partners. At the same time, many of the OKDHS staff are continuing noteworthy community and voluntary services across the state. 

Can you raise the next one, next slide? And, Commissioners, you should have this in front of you as well. Correct? It'll be a little easier for you to see. But the main thing I want to point out about this roadmap is, and it goes back to the previous slide, I don't feel in this area for some time that we've had a strategic path or roadmap that we were following. And make no mistake, there is no way that we achieve the goals outlined in the Pinnacle Plan or the goals that I, and I believe the Commission, have for this Agency without engaging the faith-based community and engaging them in a very real way. 

What you have in front of you on the PowerPoint is a document that I worked with staff and requested. It's a roadmap of how this Agency can better engage the community, faith and business alike. You will first see the ongoing commitments directed by, and partnerships that are engaged by, OKDHS Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives. We're continuing to honor those commitments. 

Next you will see on the roadmap the vision for creating a strategic plan of community engagement. As we move forward, the Agency will develop an agency-wide vision and strategic plan for community engagement. This will include and build upon the discussions recently engaged in with Field Staff and forums held in the five areas of OKDHS. Some of you may remember the strategic planning process used for OKDHS Strategic Communications Plan. I don't because I wasn't here. 

A few years ago we planned to use a...it was a few years ago. We planned to use a strategic and implementation process in order to achieve equally successful results in this area. In the next week, Commissioners and the Executive Team of Oklahoma DHS will receive an invitation to a strategic planning retreat for the topic of community engagement to be scheduled in late August or in September. 

This will be the kick-off event to determine the future of agency-wide implementation and coordination for community engagement. Your attendance is most appreciated in order to ensure the Agency moves forward in a strategic and positive way. In addition to yourself you may bring up to two individuals from your office, not applicable to Commissioners, engaged in the community. As we did for Communications our vision is the first part of the retreat and then Commissioners, Divisions Directors and Officers will have input and they can leave community engagement professionals to continue in the strategic planning process. Do you have any questions about the roadmap in front of you? 

Commissioner: I've got one. 

Director Doerflinger: I knew you would.

(laughter) 

Commissioner: Good guess. In looking at this roadmap up there, I know that this Agency looks at faith communities as being just, really, the critical pool from which to draw help for instance, most notably, in foster care, in fact, it's even noted in the Pinnacle Plan, I don't know if it's still in there, recognizing what it's done... so what I'm looking at right here is Karen Jacobs at the Office of Faith Based is collapsing into Karen Jacobs' already role of community engagement in general. 

The question occurs to me right now is that I know that the folks that were, I know that that Office of Faith Based was in kind of a state of overwhelm, as it was, just dealing with their slice of pie. I'm just wondering what the staffing is going to be since we've collapsed back in on Karen Jacobs. What does that going to look like? 

And secondly, I'm also, and I say this from having sought to engage faith-based community and recognizing there's a language all its own I mean, some people speak "church" and some people don't and so I wondered what your plan is for staffing that with people who actually know how to integrate with, or to deal with the church. 

Director Doerflinger: In collapsing, I think that will allow us, my plan is, that it will allow us to better engage all aspects of the community not just the faith-based community. With that said, there's no question that we will, through this process, identify people who have those expertise of interacting with the faith-based community more directly and interfacing with them as well. 

This is an area that I think needs to be more robust in staff, period. And so, in going through the strategic planning process I think that we'll be able to come out with an idea of what, exactly, we need in this area. Since Commissioner Yarborough started it under the Keating administration, it's been an important part of this Agency. I don't think it has been as utilized or as big of an important part as it should be. Like I said, it was a pretty strong statement. If you look at the numbers that we are attempting to achieve in new foster families and other initiatives contained in the Pinnacle Plan, and you look around the state of who will help us achieve those goals, there's no question that the faith-based community is where we go for help. 

And fortunately, and you know this Chairman Lane and so do the other Commissioners, right now like no other time in our history is there as many people holding their hand up to help as they can... as we have right now. So, I don't want you to be concerned, I guess, that in collapsing it we're going to lose that element of the faith-based target. I think it'll enhance the overall reach of engaging the community at large but we certainly will not lose sight of the specific target of engaging the faith-based community in a very real and meaningful way. 

Commissioner: Are you seeing this retreat as really being a focal point of kind of fleshing that out? 

Director Doerflinger: Yes. 

Commissioner: What will happen to the Faithlinks brand? 

Director Doerflinger: I'm sorry? 

Commissioner: What will happen to the Faithlinks brand? 

Director Doerflinger: I don't have any preconceived ideas. I want to call you Chairman, Commissioner Yarborough. Again, I think that process and getting a lot of minds in the room so we can figure out. I don't... my knee jerk is I don't see that going away unless collectively there's a better idea. 

Commissioner: Anything else? Okay. Appreciate it.