Welfare ombudsman planned

Critics and complainants about child welfare services in Clark County are getting their own advocate.

Clark County officials on Tuesday announced the creation of a child welfare ombudsman program that is expected to be fully operational by Sept. 1. The program is intended to be a central point of contact for members of the public, who in the past have may have had little success in cutting through the bureaucracy to obtain information or report a problem.

Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, hailed the action as a positive step that fulfills part of the agreement his agency and the California-based Youth Law Center made with county officials last year. Both groups negotiated with Clark County to make improvements to its faltering system of child welfare services, both in protecting the rights of minors and providing avenues for increased public involvement.

“I certainly commend the county for funding the position and moving forward,” Peck said.

Child welfare advocate Donna Coleman, an outspoken critic of the Department of Family Services, also praised the action. Up to this point, Coleman said she’s had nowhere to direct the people who call her asking for help with child welfare problems.

“This is really needed,” Coleman said. “It’s another check and balance. Time will tell how effective it is when we can see how complaints are resolved.”

The program is still being put together and will be modeled on similar programs elsewhere in the United States. No one has yet been named to the position of ombudsman, who will operate outside of the Family Services department and report directly to the county manager. Peck said that’s an important aspect of the new position — the person who fills the role of ombudsman has to be independent, not subordinate to the department people will be lodging complaints against.

Clark County Director of Family Services Tom Morton said traditionally, the complaints that have come to him have been referred to department managers. He acknowledged there have been problems with making timely responses to people who’ve voiced concerns about actions or decisions made by the department.

The benefit of having an ombudsman who can act as a fact-finder when people call in concerns is that a better tracking system will exist for logging those initial reports and recording when responses are given, Morton said.

“I think that overall, this will help us with better accountability,” Morton said.