Building a Model and Framework for Child Welfare Supervision

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