Automated Referral Entry System

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

The County of Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has over 32,000 children in its care. To support an effective child welfare system of services, DCFS relies on using the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS). CWS/CMS is a statewide tool that improves the lives of children and families by giving service workers information to improve case work services and frees them from repetitive tasks; however, on occasion, the CWS/CMS system experiences outages for various reasons, including system upgrades. Loss of access to CWS/CMS during these outages would potentially negatively impact DCFS’ ability to provide children with the care they depend on. The Automated Referral Entry System (ARES) application was implemented on February 18, 2015. It was developed to promote uninterrupted services to our County’s children by allowing DCFS Child Protection Hotline (CPH) staff the ability to enter Hotline referral call information in an auxiliary system in the event that the main CWS/CMS application becomes inaccessible. ARES also provides a more effective alternative for tracking referrals, rather than relying on handwritten notes. The increased efficiency made possible by ARES reduces call volume and wait times, and accelerates the initial assessment of child safety, all of which collectively contribute towards enhancing the quality of service provided to our County’s children.