Broad-Based County Effort to Improve Child Services

San Diego County’s chief administrative officer, Norman Hickey, Tuesday accepted a package of sweeping county-supported recommendations to improve the quality of public services for children, ranging from finding foster parents for troubled youths to investigating cases of child abuse.

In an attempt to improve coordination among the various county agencies that serve children, Hickey also called for the establishment of a Children’s Commission that would serve as an advocate for children’s rights. The commission would develop policies or improve existing ones to make the county more responsive to children’s needs.

Under Hickey’s proposal, the Children’s Commission would study a wide range of issues, including adoptions, child abuse, child care and the needs of latchkey children. The commission would make specific recommendations in these and other areas that would be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors for action.

The 104 recommendations approved by Hickey arose out of a five-month study done for the county by the Public Welfare Advisory Board. The report was submitted to the Board of Supervisors in February, and Hickey was instructed to respond to the study.

However, the idea for a Children’s Commission was proposed by Hickey. The commission would report directly to Hickey and would also serve as an ombudsman. The report submitted by the Public Welfare Advisory Board, a supervisor-appointed body made up of community and private sector members, recommended that the Department of Social Services hire an ombudsman to handle citizens’ complaints, but Hickey suggested that the commission could serve the same purpose.

The proposal for a Children’s Commission and the study’s recommendations will now go to the board, which will decide how to implement them. Augie Bareno, a project manager in the CAO’s office, said the challenge will be finding $6 million to fund 23 of the recommendations that are unbudgeted. Supervisors are expected to grapple with this issue in June when they hold hearings on the Department of Social Services budget.