Department of Social Services

County of Brunswick
PO Box 219 Bolivia, North Carolina 28422-0219
910-253-2077 Fax 910-253-2071
Catherine Lytch
Director
April 15, 2019

Senator Bill Rabon,

16 West Jones Street, Rm 2010
Raleigh, NC 27601

RE: Social Service Regional Supervision and Collaboration Working Group Recommendation
regarding NC FAST Project 4 – Child Welfare

Dear Senator Rabon,

I hope this letter finds you well. The purpose of my letter to you today is to re-emphasize the
North Carolina Association of County Directors of Social Services’, as well as my own concerns
for the appropriateness of utilizing NC FAST system for Child Welfare. As you may be aware, NC
FAST has been problematic for county Departments of Social Services since its inception. While
Brunswick County has not rolled into NC FAST for Child Welfare at this point (scheduled for
September 2019) the reports from the counties that are currently utilizing the system are very
concerning.

Admittedly, the NC FAST system has greatly improved on the Income Maintenance (Medicaid,
Work First and Food and Nutrition) side of Social Services since 2012. However, even on this
portion, there remains a magnitude of issues that need to be addressed. The system has
increased the workload and required Brunswick County to hire more staff in order to meet
State and Federal timelines.

The implementation of NC FAST on the Child Welfare side has been ongoing for the past 18
months. The system was piloted in 5 counties, and then the pilot was expanded to 11 counties.
Throughout this time, the Directors of the pilot counties have expressed concern on several key
issues. First, the system continues to be challenging for those who are currently using it. NC
FAST is not user-friendly nor is it efficient. One Director indicated at a recent meeting that in
order to maintain caseload sizes (10 cases per social worker) pre-NC FAST, he would need to
increase in staff by 28%. Historically, social work staff spent 30% of their time on
documentation and 70% of their time working with families. With the implementation of NC
FAST in Child Welfare, Directors in the pilot counties report that their social workers are
spending 70% of their time entering data in a cumbersome system when it is available. Social
Work is 24 hours, 7 days a week. NC FAST is not always available, and data is lost.

Social Workers by nature, choose this profession because they enjoy working with people. Due
to the system challenges, Directors have reported that the turnover in staff has been as much
as 40%! High turnover rates lead to increased caseload sizes for the remaining staff.
Overworked, overstretched staff have a greater chance of making mistakes. Child Welfare is an
area that we must get right as the lives of children are dependent upon us doing so.

Second, is the reliability, or lack thereof, of the data that the system is producing. As you are
aware, counties signed an MOU with the Division this year. Within the MOU there are specific
requirements for County Departments of Social Services to reach. It is extremely challenging to
ascertain where we are in relation to those measures when the data is suspect. This has been
an ongoing issue with NC FAST. Counties are not told how or where NC FAST is pulling data for
the reports.

While I realize that considerable resources have been expended on the NC FAST system for
Child Welfare, a system that is burdensome is not what North Carolina needs to meet the
challenges of Child Welfare. The loss of just one child’s life because of inefficacies within a
system is unacceptable.

I am asking you and the Legislature to immediately follow the recommendations from the
Social Service Working Group. I understand that years of research and millions of dollars have
been invested in NC FAST; I do not believe the State needs to find a new system, but ensure
that the current system is working optimally by supporting Child Welfare. NC FAST needs to
work efficiently and correctly before further rollout. Eight years later, there continues to be
issues and workarounds in NC FAST for the Income Maintenance programs. I ask for your
support to stop the rollout of NC FAST for Child Welfare until it can be available 24/7, it is
proven to be efficient, 70% of social worker time should not be spent on entering data and to
remove foster care payments from the system. I have also attached the Association’s Letter to
the Legislature on this important issue for you to review.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of my request. I can be reached at 910-253-2113
(office) or 910-599-3812 (cell) if you have any questions or would like to further discuss this
issue.

Sincerely,

Cathy Lytch
Social Service Director
Brunswick County