Philadelphia’s embattled social services agency, Department of Human Services, has sped up visits to children age five and younger. That is one of the findings of the Community Oversight Board report released this afternoon .The report said the following:

DHS has fully implemented an Expedited Response (ER) program that provides a 0–2 hour response time for any report received at the Hotline that involves a child between the ages of 0 and 5. This is a critical success for DHS, as it has dramatically increased the responsiveness to Philadelphia’s most vulnerable children.

The COB  was established by Mayor Nutter in January 2008 to monitor internal reforms at the agency. A Grand Jury Report released in Aug 2008 indicted two DHS workers for allegedly failing to spot signs of abuse of a 14-year-old girl  under the agency’s supervision.

The COB report issued today is part of an on-going effort to monitor DHS reforms. The report also credited DHS with restructuring how the agency accepts cases and making the safety of any children involved the number one priority for its workers.

Read the full report.

Full coverage of DHS from The Philadelphia Inquirer

See the It’s Our City TV interview of DHS Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose aired in December 2008. In this interview, she talks about how the agency has tried to instill a culture of accountability among all of her workers.