Communications Initiative

Background

Investigations by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission's Inspector General's Office pointed out the critical role communications plays in reforming CPS and APS and providing quality services to this state's most vulnerable citizens. The Governor's Executive Order RP 35 concluded that a sound communications plan is important to support local alliances, reduce public misunderstanding of CPS' mission and improve community partnerships. Executive Order RP33 (APS) also focused on building partnerships and an integral part of that involves communications.

From this need sprang the DFPS Communications Initiative, which is transforming the way agency staff communicate with each other and with communities at large.

Internal Communications

The centerpiece of the Communications Initiative was the creation of a master communications plan to provide DFPS staff with standards and principles of organizational communications. This plan acts as blueprint for changing the way DFPS staff communicate with each other and the outside world.

Communications Policy

With agency wide input the Office of Communications developed a communications plan that was approved by DFPS leadership in November 2005. The plan was committed to policy in early 2006, becoming the DFPS Communications Policy Handbook. All DFPS staff are required to complete an online communications training based on the Communications Policy Handbook. The training was made available in October 2006 and by August 2007 more than 8,500 DFPS staff had completed the training. All new DFPS Employees must take this training shortly joining the agency.

Strategic Planning

Strategic communications plans were also developed for each region and the state as a whole. These "action" plans assure that DFPS communicates more effectively with stakeholders and its staff. They also assure communications support is provided for everything from statewide public awareness campaigns to local foster parent recruitment drives.

Tools and Processes

• The DFPS Intranet was redesigned into a one-stop-shop for news, information and tools.
• DFPS Delivers is the agency's new bi-monthly, electronic newsletter, which is fully integrated with the Intranet.
• Cascading Communications is a formal process that was developed for assuring important information is disseminated effectively through the chain of command.
• The Commissioner Q & A is a system created to allow staff to ask the Commissioner questions, which he answers in a FAQ format.

External Communications

The Communications Initiative also improved the consistency, accuracy and effectiveness of DFPS' external communications. To achieve this goal a number of steps were taken.

Organizational

All agency public information officers were consolidated under the Office of Communications and are supervised and trained by the Communications Manager. This assures that throughout Texas public information is provided promptly and accurately, while confidential information about vulnerable children and adults is protected.

Community Service

One major accomplishment was the cooperative effort between the Office of Communications and Adult Protective Services (APS) to create a year-around APS public awareness campaign. The It's Everyone's Business campaign includes several mini-campaigns:

• Adult Abuse (Spring)
• Summer Heat (Summer)
• Fire and Fall Prevention (October)
• · Exploitation (February)

Two other public awareness campaigns were also created by the collaborative efforts of DFPS' Child Care Licensing (CCL) division and the Office of Communications.

• The See & Save campaign aims to reduce the number of children who drown in Texas each year.
• The Don't be in the Dark About Child Care campaign warns parents about the risks of unlicensed child care, shows them how to investigate a provider's record, and encourages illegal operations to get licensed.

Web Communications

Another significant outgrowth of the Communications Initiative was the improvement of web-based communication with stakeholders and the public. That includes:

• a major reorganization of the DFPS Public Web site to make it easier to navigate, more accurate and timely;
• the creation of the Renewal Web site, which you are viewing right now; and
• a subscription email service that allows viewers to sign up for automatic notices when new information is posted on DFPS websites that is of particular interest to them.

Commitment to Communicate

The Communications Initiative was formally completed in April 2006 but the effort of re-evaluating and improving both internal and external communications is an on going process. DFPS is committed to finding new ways to keep stakeholders and the public informed and to engage them in the our mission of "Protecting the Unprotected."