Human Services Employees among the Best in the State

Published on February 09, 2017

Members of the Child Welfare Staff received awards from the state for their assessments in child welfare cases.

Members of the Child Welfare Staff (CWS) of the Weld County Department of Human Services were recent recipients of C-STAT awards for their work in assessing referrals of child abuse or neglect and determining if a case need be opened in a timely manner. In total, 32 Weld County Case Workers, 26 Child Protection employees, six Intake Supervisors, one Intake Manager, and two division heads received C-Stat awards.

C-Stat is a state performance based analysis strategy intended to focus on and improve performance outcomes within the various divisions of a Colorado Department of Human Services. This strategy measures the impact of day-to-day activities so that these activities may be analyzed for productivity and effectiveness. In this case, C-Stat measured how often the Weld County Department of Human Services CWS was able to assess the welfare of a child within a 60 day period of receiving their referral regarding possible neglect or abuse.

To receive a C-STAT award, the CWS had to determine the welfare of a child within 60 days for 90% of all referrals they received. The Weld County Child Support Services team reached this 90% milestone as a group, and several individuals were able to reach a 100% success rate for the timely closure of their assessments. Due to these high success rates, Weld County’s Child Support Services Team not only outperformed the state average, but was also one of only six county Human Services Departments in Colorado to be granted C-Stat awards.

“Weld County’s Child Welfare Staff has always been exceptional when it comes to helping children quickly and effectively,” said Commissioner Coordinator Barbara Kirkmeyer.

“They have proven to be a frontrunner for timely assessment of child welfare in the state, and are often used as an example to explain why the C-Stat performance analysis strategy is so effective.”

 Each individual C-STAT award recipient received a framed certificate, and Judy Griego, Director of the Weld County Department of Human Services (WCDHS), received a large framed certificate with each of the award recipient’s names for display at the WCDHS’ new downtown location.