Building a Model and Framework for Child Welfare Supervision

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Our intent in undertaking this project is to provide child welfare leadership with provenstrategies and tools that support supervisors as they carry out their diverse activities. We intendthat agency leadership will use this information to design an integrated organizational responseto the diverse needs of their agencies’ supervisors. The Children’s Bureau Training andTechnical Assistance network is available to work with state and tribal leadership as they createand implement a customized plan to enhance their child welfare supervisory practice and thusimprove organizational and child, youth and family outcomes.2
IntroductionWhy is a Model of Child Welfare Supervision Needed?The need for a model of child welfare supervision and an organizational framework designed tosupport effective supervision emerged during and following the first round of the Child andFamily Services Reviews (CFSRs). At least 22 States included strategies related to supervisionin their Program Improvement Plans (PIPs) to improve performance on child and familyoutcomes (National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement 2007:4). Inrecent years, federally mandated child welfare agency responsibilities have been redefined,requirements increased and the time frames revised, providing greater clarity regarding thedesired outcomes of child safety, permanency, and well-being and of family preservation (e.g.Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997; Adoptive Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980).Systematic data collection and analysis have become central to child welfare service provisionand evaluation (Milner, Mitchell, & Hornsby 2005). Insufficient resources require child welfareagencies to be more judicious with existing resources (Faller, Meezan, Mendez, Tropman,Vandervort, & Willlis 2004; Kadushin & Harkness 2002:xiv), and also to rely more heavily oncontracted services (Mallon & Hess 2005). Currently, many child welfare agencies areexperiencing significant cuts in funding that create challenges for all staff who must do as muchor more with fewer resources.Within the context of these and other changes, the child welfare supervisory role has beenevolving. In some agencies, supervisors have been pivotal in identifying the need for changeand providing leadership in implementing change and evaluating outcomes. As change hasoccurred, child welfare supervisors have necessarily interacted with a number of constituentgroups: clients served by the agency; line staff assigned to the supervisor; the professionalcommunity and organizations and individuals providing contracted services; agencyadministrators and managers, and those financial and legal bodies under whose auspices theagency functions; and resource parents and child care providers. Therefore, the Children’sBureau asked the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and PermanencyPlanning and the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement toexamine the responsibilities and needs of supervisory staff and develop an organizationalframework to support effective child welfare supervision. Our intent in undertaking this effortwas to provide child welfare leadership with the strategies and tools they need to support theirsupervisors as they carry out their diverse activities and accomplish the mission of the agency.What Approach Was Used to Identify an Emerging Model?In approaching this task, we collected information from the most recent literature, experts in thefield of child welfare, and currently practicing child welfare administrators and managers,supervisors, frontline practitioners, and trainers. Collecting detailed data from these multiplesources and perspectives greatly enhanced the reliability of our data, findings, and conclusions.The design and methodology used in carrying out this examination included the establishmentof a working group selected from the following positions and organizations: agencyadministrators, regional/area managers, county directors, supervisors, caseworkers, training3
Page 3 and 4: AcknowledgementsThis report, Buildi
Page 5: Executive SummaryA Call to Action f
Page 9 and 10: • a continuum of professional dev
Page 11: • providing knowledge and securit
Page 14 and 15: necessary, and providing permanency
Page 16 and 17: Table 1. Job Responsibilities Ranke
Page 18: Manage caseloads in the supervisor
Page 22 and 23: Supportive Supervision Responsibili
Page 24 and 25: Element 4Mandate explicit, manageab
Page 26 and 27: Element 7Support supervisors in the
Page 28 and 29: Several activities are included to
Page 30 and 31: Table 2. Job Responsibility Data Co
Page 32 and 33: include "acknowledging effective pe
Page 34 and 35: Component 2A model of supervisory p
Page 36 and 37: • assigning ongoing cases to an e
Page 38 and 39: • Develop an internal process to
Page 40 and 41: A Continuum of Initial and Ongoing
Page 42 and 43: Helpful Child Welfare and Training
Page 44 and 45: Sources CitedAllnoch, A. (1998, Feb
Page 46 and 47: welfare practice serving Indian com
Page 48 and 49: Whittaker, J. & Maluccio, A. (2002)
Page 50 and 51: The project team contacted potentia
Page 52 and 53: Appendix BLiterature ReviewThe foll
Page 54 and 55: Providing leadership within organiz
Page 56 and 57:
Ensure manageable staff/supervisor
Page 58 and 59:
prepared to move into permanent pos
Page 60 and 61:
• Place ASPIRE (TANF welfare to w
Page 62 and 63:
Facilitating Communication and Coll
Page 64 and 65:
• Document worker performance rel
Page 66 and 67:
• Hiring diverse staff• Trainin
Page 68 and 69:
Bernotavicz, F. (1997). Retention o
Page 70 and 71:
O’Connor, M. (1997). Building Sup
Page 72 and 73:
5h. If there is a discrepancy betwe
Page 74 and 75:
Job Responsibilityissues, confident
Page 76 and 77:
13a. Does your supervisor effective
Page 78 and 79:
SUPERVISOR JOB RESPONSIBILITIES6. I
Page 80 and 81:
Job ResponsibilityMost importantto
Page 82 and 83:
11. Are there written resources (tr
Page 84 and 85:
esponsibilities as “most importan
Page 86 and 87:
Job responsibilityMost importantto
Page 88 and 89:
Appendix DSample Job DescriptionJOB
Page 90:
Data Conception: Requires the abili
show all

Building a Model and Framework for Child Welfare Supervision

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?