Child Welfare Digital Services has announced the name — CWS-CARES — for the new system under development to replace the legacy Child Welfare System (CWS/CMS). The team also unveiled a Project Roadmap of upcoming features, including its first statewide release of a search tool called Snapshot.
Working with the California Welfare Directors Association (CWDA), the product formerly referred to as New System is now called Child Welfare Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System, or CWS-CARES. The process to name the new system included a collaborative effort with child welfare directors and staff. The new name is intended to convey what the new system will deliver to users across the state, said Bill Maile, communications director for CWDS.
The Project Roadmap details digital service functionality rollout dates for Intake, CALS (Licensing) and Case Management. The Roadmap covers a 15-month window of project releases, from July 2017 through September 2018, and provides a logical model illustrating general time frames, which may shift due to agile development priorities. Snapshot is the first digital service tool to be rolled out as a part of the Project Roadmap.
Scheduled to go live early next year, Snapshot allows staff to search for one or more people and view their history with the child welfare system, including referrals and cases, in a fraction of the time that it currently takes to do the same work in CWS/CMS.
Specifically, Snapshot gives staff the ability to search for people across CWS/CMS from a single field, see each person’s current contact information and demographics, and view an at-a-glance summary of his or her CWS history. The tool also includes a way to easily copy and paste key information, which officials say will greatly enhance workflow for staff. The CWS-CARES Implementation Team is scheduled to provide a number of services for counties to prepare for Snapshot.
A demonstration of the new tool will be given from 2 to 3 p.m. Monday via WebEx by following this meeting link. The event will also be livestreamed.
