Budget Cuts, Hiring Freeze, Stagnant Pay, Caseload Crisis
While legislators spent much time and energy on Child Protective Services issues, the same problems that led to numerous tragedies in one part of our agency will continue to fester and worsen in Adult Protective Services and Child Care Licensing. Both APS and CCL recently announced that positions would be cut, mostly from vacant positions caused by Gov. Abbott’s hiring freeze. This is making a bad situation worse for employees, and putting vulnerable Texans at risk.
It shouldn’t take a tragedy to grab headlines before decision-makers in the Capitol take action. During the interim period between legislative sessions, TSEU members will be meeting with legislators across the state to ask them to take emergency action. The Texans we serve have been put at risk by the choices they made, and they need to fix the problems.
Redesign Contract Procurement Cancelled in Region 2
DFPS has cancelled the procurement of a contract for a Single Source Continuum Contractor (SSCC) for Region 2 in West Texas. Earlier this year, the agency was in the final stages of negotiating a contract when a serious conflict of interest was revealed- DFPS’s chief negotiator was married to a member of the contractor’s Executive Board. With the passage of Senate Bill 11, Foster Care Redesign was rebranded as Community Based Care, and responsibility of case management will also move to SSCCs if new contracts are signed. The only SSCC currently responsible for placing children, ACH in Tarrant and 6 surrounding counties, will be renegotiating a new contract to include case management services. No requests for proposals (RFP) have been solicited yet by the agency. The RFP will indicate the next proposed catchment area for Community Based Care and the privatization of case management.