The Indiana Department of Child Services recently restructured its organization, eliminating several layers of upper management positions in part to help devote more resources to frontline services.
Indiana Public Broadcasting’s Brandon Smith sat down with DCS Director Adam Krupp to discuss the reorganization, dubbed Project Awaken.
IPB News Statehouse Bureau Chief Brandon Smith: At what point in this sort of timeline that you've been in the position, did you start to think, 'oh, we need a sort of reset in the structure of DCS'?
Indiana Department of Child Services Director Adam Krupp: One of the things I like to do at any agency I've been a part of is take a look at the org chart — not necessarily for the people, but for the structure. How are we aligned? Are we best positioned to have an effective communication strategy, for example? Are we positioned to have good decision making based on the business units, the vertical alignment, who reports to whom? All of that matters. And when I took a fresh look at the DCS org chart, I thought there were some opportunities for improvement.
Smith: Were budget constraints a part of the discussion in why this reorganization was needed?
Krupp: Not at all. As I'm watching the flow of communication, how decisions get made at DCS, really how the day-to-day operation of this agency works, it became clear to me that we needed to restructure. We had too many layers of upper management. We had too many layers of supervision, I'll call it, between a family case manager who's on the front lines of child abuse and neglect up to me as the agency head. You know, it just took too long for things that I said, wanted to do, decisions, changes to flow down to the front lines — and even then, sometimes it's not just a matter of time; it's about consistency.
READ MORE: Indiana Department of Child Services undergoes ‘transformational’ reorganization
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Smith: In addition to the elimination of those upper management positions, another significant step was dramatically reducing the number of regions under DCS from 18 to five. Is there any concern about losing something with that?
Krupp: I don't have concern about that because we were very careful and thoughtful about who the five individuals would be. And we had a great conversation with each of them to say, ‘This is more responsibility. It's a larger territory.’ We had 18 regions, which meant, unfortunately, in some cases, 18 different ways of doing things, 18 different personalities, 18 different worldviews leading those regions for DCS. So, we had really good, thoughtful, strategic conversations with five leaders who are identified for the field operations side. We also do that on the legal side as well, where we now have five lawyers who are going to serve as the equivalent of a regional general counsel to lead the legal side and partner with the field side — so, in tandem now, which is also something that we didn't really see with the 18 regions.
Smith: If you're a family case manager or kids or families who work with DCS on the other side, is this reorganization going to change things for them in terms of how they interact with the agency, or what they're doing day to day?
Krupp: If the services you receive or any of the work you do with DCS is based on a particular region, then that will change. That's mostly for our contractors, our community partners. In the past, we'd awarded contracts based on a regional approach. So, if you have a contract for Region One, it's now a bigger region. So that'll impact you in some ways. I would say, though, the experience should improve, right? Nothing operationally or logistically will change in ways that you feel it. I think the overall sort of organic, natural improvement of the agency by going to this new regional alignment will be what people experience, right? They should be receiving services faster, decisions quicker, better flow of information. Interaction with family case managers on a day-to-day basis won't change.
Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.