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After your Administrative/CACFP Review, there are usually findings of noncompliance with CACFP program regulations. Most likely, you already know what some or all of those findings are. The next step is urgent and important: to develop a CACFP corrective action plan to permanently and adequately correct your findings.
You may have created corrective action plans in the past. Although that is useful, it is important to understand that things have changed in recent years. Plans that were once acceptable are often no longer adequate. A corrective action plan that contains “recycled actions” (things you said you would do and used in the past) will likely not be effective and may be rejected by your state agency.
Corrective Actions are not “quick fixes”. The reasons for your CACFP noncompliance are varied and often complex. For the corrections to be effective and permanent, you must go beyond “trying harder” at what you were already doing. We’ve all heard the futility of “doing the same thing and expecting a different result”: Don’t be that person.
Find the root cause of the issue.
Don’t focus on the symptoms, focus on why it’s happening.
Ask “why”: why was this an issue?
Don’t blame your staff. Examine your “systems” instead.
Do you have the right resources available?
Take ownership of the problems. Take responsibility for their resolution. Don’t delegate this responsibility to others.
Make the solution specific: who, what, when, where, how.
Assign specific tasks to specific staff. Be sure to have a backup person in place.
Make the solution practical. Know your operation and what it can and cannot accomplish.
Don’t try to correct everything all at once. Focus on fixing the most serious issues first. Then, stage out the rest of the fixes over a prescribed time.
DO IT NOW! Or asap…
Make sure the “fixes” you put in place are permanent.
Create a system for checking your corrective action plans regularly.
Follow up with your team on a regular basis to ensure your plans are working. If not, go back to the drawing board and figure out a better solution.
Failure to permanently resolve issues could lead to the termination of your contract. State agencies are increasingly focusing on this in follow-up reviews.
We’ve all been there, allowing the urgent to get in the way of the important. Running a care center is hard work and requires long hours. Often, there is simply not enough time in the day/week/month to get around to everything, not to mention finding time for family.
Your CACFP operation can benefit from our additional resources, which not only allow your CACFP corrective action plan to be effective but also make your food program less stressful and time-consuming. We’ve helped hundreds of centers create successful and permanent corrective action plans.
Let’s talk about it. Book an appointment today!
