Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
FFY 2008 Annual Progress and Services Report
Chapter: 14
Program Support: Infrastructure and Systems for Ensuring the Service
Quality and Program Accountability
Quality Assurance As a Program Support Function
Quality Assurance is a program support function in that it is designed to monitor the standards
for child welfare service delivery to ensure the health, safety and well-being of children in the
Department’s care.
Enhancements to Illinois QA Systems/Activities as a Result of the CFSR
Illinois continues to have a comprehensive Statewide QA system that is among the few
accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Services for Families and Children. DCFS Rules
and Procedures and national child welfare best practice standards are an integral part of the
infrastructure for delivering quality services to children placed in substitute care in Illinois. The
Department’s formal Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) process has been in operation
since 1997. This CQI process includes a quarterly peer record review process, the on-going
assessment of stakeholder satisfaction via a standardized survey process, and the use of various
types of data and information by Department staff in monthly QI team meetings.
As noted in previous submissions, DCFS continues to utilize an outcome based review process
that mirrors the CFSR since 2000. This outcome-based review process is called the Outcome
Enhancement Review (OER) and was used initially to inform the Illinois Statewide Assessment
prior to the 2003 CFSR and later to measure the implementation of the Illinois PIP. Each of the
Department’s six regions continue to collaborate in the Department’s Regional PIP process,
where Department staff and private agency staff formally engage in collaborative regional
program improvement planning processes following each regional OER. The regional OER PIP
process differs from the statewide PIP in that regional PIPs typically more directly address day to
day case practice and supervision, versus statewide systemic issues which are addressed in the
broader statewide PIP.
Illinois also continues to benefit from other QA-related initiatives and programs. The Division of
Quality Assurance (DQA) continues to generate numerous reports on its various activities that
staff use to assess service provision to children and family served. The DCFS Advocacy Office
for Children and Families addresses issues and complaints regarding the quality of services,
responsiveness of workers and problems related to the application of DCFS rules and procedures.
The DCFS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) continues in its role of assuring accountability
for services to children and families. It performs this function by conducting investigations of
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