CANC Screening social workers directly assign Immediate Response (IR) referrals to IR social workers, based upon the IR social worker's place on the IR board located in the CANC.

Referrals on families not currently receiving child welfare services which are determined to be 10-Day Responses are given to ER clerical who assign the referrals to ER unit supervisors, based on criteria that includes zip code, language and ethnicity. 10-Day Response referrals on cases currently opened under family maintenance services are assigned to the primary social worker for the child.

An IR social worker's position on the IR board is determined by the following:

• Client's ethnicity
• Client's language
• Client's zip code
• Social worker's place on rotation
• Social worker's availability on any given day.

Screening social workers notify IR social workers of IR referrals in-person, or by cell phone or pager, if the IR social worker is out of the office. An IR social worker is required to respond immediately to a call from the CANC Screening social worker.

The Screening social worker may choose a social worker on the IR board out of rotation for an IR response when there are unusual circumstances related to the case or because the next person on the list is unavailable due to emergency circumstances, such as removing a child. The Screening social worker chooses the social worker next on the rotation list following the social worker who was skipped.

The following policy points apply to Immediate Response referral assignments.

• All IR social workers are expected to be available for IR referrals, until one-and-a-half hours prior to the end of their workday.   IR social workers who work a regular 8 a.m.-5 p.m. are expected to be available until 3:30 p.m.  And, as an example, an IR social worker whose adjusted work schedule is 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. is expected to be available for IR referrals until 4:30 p.m.

In any case, all IR social workers are expected to take IR referrals until 3:30 p.m., regardless of their work schedules.

• The time of the assignment of an IR referral is determined by the time the Screening social worker pages or calls the IR social worker to advise him/her of the referral.
  • That time is logged on the IR Board by the screener.
   
• Each individual IR social worker who receives an IR referral can choose to respond immediately to the referral, based on a working copy of the SC22 and verbal information provided by the Screening social worker, OR the IR social worker has the option of waiting for the Screening social worker to complete inputting of the referral into CWS/CMS (which is to take no more than a half-an-hour) and then respond to the scene of the referral.  In either case, the IR social worker should be able to respond to the IR referral within the established departmental guidelines.

• IR social workers may not decline assignment of an IR referral that is appropriately assigned.
  • social workers have an opportunity to discuss assignments with the unit supervisor or SSPM after responding to and completing assignments.

• IR referrals received earlier in the day should be assigned to IR social workers whose work schedules end earlier, so that distribution of the IR referrals can be more appropriately managed throughout the course of the business day.

Upon receiving the referral document, the IR clerical desk does the following:

• Completes the final ID, which includes the CWS/CMS Search and Merge functions. If new information is gathered, the IR Desk creates a new referral document in CWS/CMS.  
• Forwards the new CWS/CMS referral documents and the SC22 to the ER clerical case processing desk.

Upon receiving the 10-Day Response referral documents from the Screening social worker, the ER clerical does the following:

• Completes the final ID process
• Completes the CWS/CMS updates
• Makes the referral assignment

If there have been no previous referrals, the ER clerical assigns a new case number from an approved list. If there has been a previously opened referral or case on the family, the ER clerical assigns the existing case number.

The ER clerical   assign 10-Day Response referrals to unit supervisors. The assignments to units are based on the following:

• Client language
• Client ethnicity
• Geographical location as determined by zip code

After the referral is identified and assigned a number, the ER clerical gives the referral to the Case Processing Desk.

The ER clerical at the Case Processing Desk does the following:

• Makes a new folder for the referral documents, if there has been no previously opened referral or case.
• Requests the file from the Retention Center or pulls the file from the 1-year closed file room (located in the ER area), if there have been previous referrals. The ER clerical inserts the new referral into the existing case file and then sends the file to the assigned social worker.

The unit supervisor assigns 10-Day Response referrals to an ER social worker in the supervisor's unit based on the following:

• Caseloads
• Availability
• Need for special skills or expertise

The unit supervisor keeps records of each ER social worker's caseload in the Unit Assignment Log.  

ER social workers receive one case credit for the following:

• Each family case assigned for intake/investigation.
• Each full day of absence for vacation, illness, jury duty, bereavement or training.