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July 23, 2007

New DSS chief has action plan for beleaguered agency

By Jessica Fargen, Boston Herald Health & Medical Reporter

Angelo McClain knows that the sprawling social service agency he just inherited probably can’t stop every single child from being hurt or killed, but he says that’s his goal.

 “We can’t prevent bad things from happening, because they happen,” McClain, 50, said in his first sit-down interview since taking over as Commissioner of the Department of Social Services a month ago.

But he said he wants to make sure that if a child is hurt, it won’t be because of something he didn’t do. “What makes the public upset is when something bad happens and it looks like we dropped the ball,” McClain said.

Former Commissioner Harry Spence’s six-year tenure included crises such as the 2005 beating death of Boston foster child Dontel Jeffers, and the beating-induced 2005 coma of Haleigh Poutre, of Westfield. DSS also was criticized for missing warning signs before Rebecca Riley, 4, was drugged to death in December, allegedly by her parents.

This month, DSS was blasted for failing to protect New Bedford tot Jayla Silveira, whose face was disfigured by human bitemarks, allegedly by her mother’s boyfriend.

McClain has made changes based his review of those and other cases that he hopes will save more kids. They include:

Requiring two DSS investigators rather than one to do emergency in-home assessments

Increasing consistency of policies office to office

Expanding on teams, being used in nine offices, that use five workers, instead of one, on a case;

Creating a list of risks that require removal of a child from a dangerous home.

McClain said he will encourage workers to rely more on their gut sense. Each week, he wants workers to red-flag a case that makes them uneasy. Each week, he wants every area office to give him a list of those cases.

 “A lot of this work is instinctual. Your gut will tell you, you’ll have this uneasy feeling, you’ll be anxious,” said McClain, who started out as a social worker in the 1970s and spent his teen years at Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch, a Texas school for troubled youth. “When they are feeing that anxiety we want them to talk to the supervisor.”

He later spent 15 years working with Massachusetts social service agencies.

McClain has taken over an agency with a $786 million budget, 3,457 workers in 29 offices, working with 40,000 families. The job of commissioner is considered one of the most thankless and difficult in Massachusetts government.

McClain is up to the task, said Richard Sheola, president of the public sector division of ValueOptions, where McClain held management posts in Massachusetts and New Jersey, administering social service contracts with state government.

 “He’s used to managing big jobs,” Sheola said.

Former colleagues say McClain brings empathy, front-line experience and an open, non-reactionary management style.

“His priorities are always in the right place. It’s always about the kids and family. He looks under every rock to make sure everything is done right,” said Joan Mikula, an assistant commissioner at the Department of Mental Health who hired McClain in 1988 to oversee locked residential treatment programs for mentally ill kids  He took the $135,000-a-year job, which was a pay cut, for reasons he described as “hokey.”

 “Partly, it had something to do with being 50,” he said. “It was like this is something I can do. I can help bring the leadership this organization needs and help bring good things to a lot of people.”

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