Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Agency
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Service (DFPS), is a multifaceted agency that links with child protective services as well as adult and family protective services in cases of abuse or neglect. The agency acquired its name after the senate bill 6 changed its previous title from the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services in 2005. Additionally, another bill 200 in 2015 saw changes happen where the parliament rescheduled the purposes of DFPS to the Health and Human Services Commission. Located in Austin, Texas, United States, the agency ensures that examinations of cases get strictly done within thirty days from the recorded date; however, time extensions get issued in extreme cases where more investigation is needed (TSAC). Afterwards, filed claims get handed over to the police department who subsequently, act by the law in case of criminal tribunals.
DFPS conducts investigations through interrogations of family members and nearby communities to get substantial information for them to make protective conclusions. Subsequently, rulings get handed over to Child Protective Investigations (CPI) who in turn inspect allegations and then determine the adequacy or inadequacy of parents to take care of their offspring if cases of reported child abuse or neglect. The Child Protective services make provisions for children and families from home, enlist children in adoptive homes, assist youngsters in getting homes and providing amenities for adolescents in foster care to switch to maturity.
Through a new senate bill 669, the Texas parliament issued an order that the police department needed to escort the agency’s detectives whenever they responded to abuse or neglect cases. However, the only evidence that involved children who faced an immediate risk of sexual and physical abuse needed law enforcement escorts as they were number one priorities. In addition to that, the agency runs a toll-free hotline that engages the society to help in reporting cases that involve child abuse. In 2014, DFPS created an alternative response unit that responded to claims differently as it embraced a more elastic approach to deal with cases that engage families but still focused on child safety. Additionally, the agency has set up programs like the Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) program that emphasizes preventing immoral consequences before them happening. PEI oversees packages that give free, charitable amenities to folks through contracts with non-profit organizations and educational facilities. Additionally, PEI makes funding, among other resources to sustain communal services and the kin they aid. Moreover, PEI advocates on safeguards of families and children through their brochures, pupillages, videos and library sources for all public (DFPS).
A child safety office was formed in 2014 by John Specia purposely to work on and minimize cases related to neglect and child abuse. The office’s accountabilities include an examination of personal child violation and appraise state trends concerning fatalities. Also, the office is expected to issue reliable, precise and well-timed assessments of mortalities, injuries piloted by autonomous professionals. Additionally, evaluating the reasons for child mortalities to give the best direction to improve child well-being as well as involving the community in mediation determinations (DFPS). Additionally, the agency is expected to do background checks before investigations to understand if the alleged people have a criminal history that may pose a risk to children. The CPI usually uses such background checks for foster homes, records for DPFS offices, relatives adopting children, permitted volunteer establishments.
Child protective services have gotten praised for their support in helping children with records showing that at least 20,000 children left foster care. Also, commendations came in after it got noted that out of the 6,000 adoption cases CPI took over, 3,095 of those cases had children adopted by relatives (Moffet, 2019). The agency said that the increment in adoption was as a result of extended support to relatives who obligate themselves to take care of children exposed to abuse. Although the agency supports mostly abuse cases, it does not exclude the parents who want to better in how they raise their children even when the child is not their own.
DFPS introduced a Texas Home Visiting program, which helps adults by pairing them with a professional who answers questions and offers advice. Additionally, the professional is usually a member of the community and gets paired in accordance with the needs of the client such as nurses, teachers or communal volunteers. The visiting program is permissible to expectant mothers and also, to parents who have children aged six years and below. A special DPFS investigator with an upbringing of a police department and one that knows how criminal inquiries get done is usually needed to aid in complicated queries. Additionally, the investigator assists in cases involving school inquiries and children matters relating to drugs(DPFS).
As a multifaceted agency, DFPS programs get funded through a large contract of goods and services. Through the Procurement and Contracting Service and the Division of Health and Human Service, acquisitions are made for the immediate DPFS consumer advantage or the support of DPHS service. Additionally, a panel of lawmakers agreed to fund the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services by approving a large number of monies after falling into crisis. However, the parliament representative promised to advance their proficiency in child protection if DPHS immediately issued weekly documentation on the quantity of priority one children cases not addressed. Furthermore, 90 percent of priority one children were to be covered by the beginning of May and a total of 95 percent covered by the commencement of August (Evans, 2016). Likewise, the agency was expected to give bimonthly records of new employees, data on a case per employee, a new development on cases exceeding two months and the turnover proportions. Moreover, managers we requested to finish training by the commencement of June and the agency got asked to commence retrenchments reviews by January 2017 (Evans, 2016).
Job seekers looking to work with DPFS need to understand that the agency aims to defend children, defend unprotected aged adults with or without disabilities and control daycares and other rounds the clock foster homes. Additionally, the agency supervises programs in the community that stop breaking the law, exploitation, abandonment, and the manipulation of young adults and children alike. Qualifications to work for DPFS are divided into two sections, namely the self-assessment and the supervisor assessment. Self-assessment qualifications require careful self-evaluation of personal traits and a good understanding of the work expected by DPFS. Besides, positive outcomes on children and their safety need a child protective service worker to be devoted and to be dependable. Supervisor assessment, on the other hand, picks out the more qualified front runners who get picked after passing an assessment test with a pass mark of 80 percent then after individuals are allowed to apply for the job (DPFS).