Section 10609.7.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) The department has convened the Child Welfare Services Stakeholders Group for the purpose of making recommendations to redesign California's child welfare system to create and sustain a flexible system, comprising public and private partnerships, that provides a comprehensive system of support for families and communities to ensure the well-being of every child.

(2) In the first year of the stakeholders group, there was significant attention brought to the carrying capacity of direct service professionals through the development of an implementation plan of child welfare services workload study pursuant to Section 10609.5.

(3) The stakeholders group has convened a series of working groups, including the Human Resources Workgroup, whose tasks are to develop core strategies and recommendations resulting in a high capacity, competent, satisfied child welfare services workforce able to perform the essential functions of the redesigned child welfare system.

(4) In the second year, the Human Resources Workgroup report found that workload issues have not appreciably declined and that for the child welfare services redesign to be successful, workforce considerations need to be at the forefront of all redesign efforts.

(5) The stakeholders group and its Human Resources Workgroup have entered the third year of the redesign process for the state's child welfare services.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Human Resources Workgroup of the Child Welfare Services Stakeholders Group include in its next planned report the core strategies needed to establish minimum caseload standards under the redesigned child welfare services system for all service areas.

(c) It is the intent of the Legislature that the Human Resources Workgroup also make recommendations for implementing the new caseload standards, including a recommendation that would achieve at least 20 percent of the caseload reductions annually over a specified period of time, as required under the newly recommended standards.

(Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 635, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2003.)