As promised, we are presenting our next level of organizational structure for the new Department of Children, Youth, and Families. What we are outlining here is a model that describes the organization of functions within DCYF, not individuals. Getting this functional model in place allows us to start putting names in slots, but we have not completed that phase of the planning yet.
This model indicates the offices reporting directly to the DCYF secretary, the divisions reporting to the two deputy secretaries. It also shows the current functions in Children’s Administration, Department of Early Learning, Juvenile Rehabilitation, DSHS headquarters and DCYF that will be included in each office and division. With this outline, it’s important to note a few things:
- JR and the Office of Juvenile Justice formally join DCYF in July 2019.
- Working Connections Childcare functions that will transfer in July 2019 will be added to the model soon.
- There may be a few small adjustments to this functional model before July 1.
The DCYF Regional Structure
As a reminder, after much deliberation we have decided to move to a six region model for the new agency, based on the regional structure previously used by DSHS. Read more about how we made this decision here.
Switching to this type of structure is not an overnight task (as so few things are) so it will take some time to transition from the various regional models that the agencies of origin have now to this new DCYF model. The child welfare field division will transition first. We have a recruitment process for the three new vacant child welfare regional administrator positions in April and our goal is to have these positions filled by July 1. We will phase in the transition for licensing and other regional activities in separate, future stages.
Next Steps
There are two big pieces that we’ll be announcing sequentially in the coming weeks. First, we’ll be announcing plans for filling the office and division leader positions, and then announcing those hires when they are final. Second, our goal is to share the full organization structure for DCYF, with all positions and reporting relationships by the end of April. Employees will then be able to see their place in the organization.
As leaders are named and begin their roles, they will work with teams to consider how best to organize within each division or office. For many groups, this may mean there is very little change on July 1 in their work or supervisor. In other areas, particularly the administrative areas, there will be changes needed, even if temporary, to ensure effective operations on day one.
Our goal with this is to not break things that are working well, give teams a chance to envision themselves once they are in the new agency, and continue the work of assessing the strengths and opportunities of the functional structure before making further, long-term shifts.
Thank you for your patience as we work through these issues. I know it is not easy having to wait on important information about how the new agency will be organized and how it will function.
Many of our staff and some stakeholders have asked about the location of the DCYF headquarters after July 1. It appears increasingly likely that DCYF will be able to use 100 or so workspaces in the 1500 Jefferson Building (where our handful of DCYF staff are currently stationed). This gives us an opportunity to establish a small DCYF “headquarters” group with less cost and disruption than we had expected. We will keep you posted on this effort as we learn more.
Regards,
Secretary Ross Hunter