Building a Model and Framework for Child Welfare Supervision

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• Place ASPIRE (TANF welfare to work) participants in offices to provide backupadministrative support.• Re-engineer the Payments Process;• Eliminate regional review of transportation bills;• Place MSW students in offices to provide program support;• Train Mental Health providers to work effectively with Child Welfare system;• Provide administrative support for authorization and payments.• Help supervisors support new caseworkers through the two-three year transition period.• Provide a supportive climate for debriefing traumatic situations• Provide recognition and rewards for longevity.• Disseminate information on options for unpaid educational leave.• Support the use of flexible work schedules.• Continue gathering data on retention through exit interviews of caseworkers.• Authorize non-emergency overtime pay.• Conduct a salary/benefits survey of child welfare caseworkers in public and privateagencies.• Develop a plan that will allow caseworkers to take educational leave to complete MSWdegrees and ensure that their work is covered in their absence.• Strengthen the role of the supervisor.• Provide opportunities for caseworker sabbaticals for independent study after two years onthe job.• Provide workshops to help caseworkers bridge the two-three year transition period.• Incorporate findings from retention literature into training for supervisors.Use training programs to prevent supervisor burnout in child welfare agencies. Training must focuson (1) how to recognize symptoms of stress, (2) how to develop effective coping mechanisms formanaging stress, (3) how to identify work stresses in the agency and in the profession of socialwork, (4) how to develop political acumen and skill, (5) how to communicate with and better relateto colleagues so that strong peer support may be developed, and (6) how to improve supervisoryskills and techniques (Zischka, 1981).Expect supervisors to establish a positive work climate. Specific expectations include:• Acknowledge effective performance, caseworker efforts, client progress, accomplishment,and individual contributions.• Treat staff with importance, dignity, and respect.• Create/model high standards of practice.• Be sensitive to the needs and feelings of staff.• Support staff in taking care of themselves physically and emotionally.• Treat staff as professionals.• Support a climate of trust and openness.56
• Encourage staff to express their feelings and concerns about individual clients as well as theagency and help them to resolve these feelings.• Create a sense of safety and stability to support risk-taking.• Create an environment in which cultural differences are appreciated.• Refer staff to outside assistance (e.g., employee assistance program), when appropriate.• Use mistakes as an opportunity to teach and learn.• Developing/supporting a teamwork approach;• Facilitating successful resolution of conflict within and outside the agency (CO DHS, 1994).Help workers “to become masters of their immediate environment” in the workplace and “to feelthat their work and they themselves are important -the twin ingredients of self esteem”. Workersneed to feel valued and needed and not manipulated or used. This is central to the quality of servicedelivered by clients. Example of “worker of the week” where worker is nominated by supervisor(Hughes, et al, 1991, p.6.5-6.6).“To help identify, recognize, and prevent burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, andsecondary traumatic stress,…organizations must acknowledge the emotional aspect the work cantake on supervisors.” The following strategies are offered:• Develop pre-screening tools to assess suitability to child welfare and supervision• Regular use of Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) that meet with staff on a regular basis(team meetings, retreat days)• Provision of regular and frequent supervision to front-line supervisors• Develop peer supervision within agency• Create job rotation to facilitate moving from high-stress situations (ex. intake to foster careafter two years)• Regular professional development on the concepts of burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarioustrauma, and secondary traumatic stress.• Implementation of a Peer Support Program to promote a caring community where allprovide support in times of stress (Dill, 2007)"Focus on getting and hanging on to the right people in the first place—those who areproductively neurotic, those who are self-motivated and self-disciplined, those who wake upevery day, compulsively driven to do the best they can because it is simply part of theirDNA - instead of using incentives to “motivate” otherwise unmotivated or undisciplinedpeople.In the social sectors, when big incentives are simply not possible, this becomes even moreimportant. Lack of resources is no excuse for lack of rigor—it makes selectivity all the morevital." (Collins, 2005, p.1).57
Page 3 and 4:
AcknowledgementsThis report, Buildi
Page 5 and 6:
Executive SummaryA Call to Action f
Page 7 and 8:
IntroductionWhy is a Model of Child
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 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
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Building a Model and Framework for Child Welfare Supervision

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