Comprehensive Quality Improvement Initiative- Working Together to Achieve

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

As the recession is forcing many counties to reduce social services while at the same time those services are increasing in demand, many governments are finding themselves stuck with a social service dilemma. In response, Mecklenburg County has divided up responsibilities in their social services department to increase efficiency. In January 2009, the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services (MCDSS) created a separate unit to lead the agency with identifying, addressing, removing, and preventing errors in eligibility determination and service delivery; the Compliance and Quality Assurance unit (CQA). This area was designed to be in a separate division from the divisions that administer the various programs and services of DSS so that objective reviews and appropriate identification of areas that may need improvement would be possible. A comprehensive and flexible Quality Improvement framework was developed and implemented through various strategies, activities and follow-up measures combined with active ongoing collaborations with the other DSS divisions and state program representatives that to date has yielded multiple positive results for the agency, the staff, and ultimately the consumers. Overall program and service quality has increased over 10% since the unit’s implementation and there has been an increase in training scores from pre to post tests of 15.6% for staff and a decrease in County Responsible Overpayments in the Work First (TANF) program alone of $16,294.