Virginia Administrative Code › Title 22 - SOCIAL SERVICES › Agency 30 - DEPARTMENT FOR AGING AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES › Chapter 70 - THE VIRGINIA PUBLIC GUARDIAN AND CONSERVATOR PROGRAM › Section 22VAC30-70-30 - Public guardian programs

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
A.
				Designation. The department shall select public guardian program contractors in
				accordance with the requirements of the Virginia Public Procurement Act. Only
				those operations of the public guardian program contractor governed by and
				funded pursuant to the department's contract shall be designated as public
				guardian programs. Funding for public guardian programs is provided by the
				appropriation of general funds.
B.
				Authority. A public guardian program appointed as a guardian, a conservator, or
				both shall have all the powers and duties specified in Chapter 20 (§
									64.2-2000 et seq.) of
				Title 64.2 of the Code of Virginia, except as otherwise specifically limited by
				a court.
C. Staff.
1. Program director. Each public guardian
				program shall have a program director who supervises and is responsible for
				providing public guardianship and public conservatorship services to any
				incapacitated persons assigned by the court and to provide overall
				administration for the public guardian program.
2. Client to paid staff ratio.
a. Each public guardian program shall
				maintain a direct service ratio of clients to paid staff that does not exceed
				the department's established ideal ratio of 20 clients to every one paid
				full-time staff person 20 to one.
b. Each public guardian program shall have in
				place a plan to immediately provide notice to the circuit court or courts and
				sheriffs in its jurisdiction, where appropriate, and to the department when the
				public guardian program determines that it may exceed the ideal ratio of
				clients to paid staff.
c. In an
				emergency or unusual circumstance, each public guardian program, in its
				discretion, may exceed the ideal ratio by no more than five additional clients.
				Each public guardian program shall have in place a policy to immediately
				provide notice to the department when such an emergency or unusual circumstance
				occurs and when the emergency or unusual circumstance ends and the ideal ratio
				has returned to 20 to one. The notice to the department shall comply with
				policy established by the department. Other than an emergency or unusual
				circumstance as described in the preceding sentence, a waiver must be requested
				to exceed the ideal ratio. The department, in consultation with the advisory
				board, shall establish written procedures for public guardian programs to
				obtain appropriate waivers regarding deviations in the ideal ratio of clients
				to paid staff. Procedures shall comply with §§
											51.5-150
				and
				51.5-151
				of the Code of Virginia. The department shall report waiver requests and status
				of granted waivers to the advisory board at its regularly scheduled meetings.
				The department shall review such waivers every six months to ensure that there
				is no immediate threat to the person or property of any client and that
				exceeding the ideal ratio is not having or will not have a material and adverse
				effect on the ability of the public guardian program to properly serve all of
				the clients it has been designated to serve.
3. Volunteers.
a. Volunteers may be recruited and used to
				supplement paid staff. However, volunteers shall not be counted in the client
				to staff ratio.
b. Volunteers may
				not exercise the authority of a public guardian or conservator.
c. Each public guardian program that uses
				volunteers shall develop and implement written procedures for volunteer
				management and supervision.