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New Child Welfare Service Array

New Child Welfare Service Array. Enhancing Systems Collaboration. Experiences Across the Country and from Within Iowa. National Trend is to Share Child Protection with the Community It cannot be one agencies job to keep children safe—it must be a community endeavor

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New Child Welfare Service Array

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  1. New Child Welfare Service Array Enhancing Systems Collaboration

  2. Experiences Across the Country and from Within Iowa • National Trend is to Share Child Protection with the Community • It cannot be one agencies job to keep children safe—it must be a community endeavor • Sampling of the States with Shared Roles: • Kansas • Florida • California • Massachusetts • Illinois • Wisconsin • New York • Missouri • More trained “eyes” in the home ensuring safety of children • Enhances ability for a wider net of professionals to understand how to assess safety and risk—to understand the difference, to understand how to effectively develop in home safety plans and to recognize when children have to be removed ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  3. Experiences Across the Country and from Within Iowa • There are effective methods to set up the transition that will positively impact the results • All must understand that there are predictable tensions during early stages of ANY contract • Fear and loss • Role Confusion • Tension About Recommendations • Resist the temptation if things don’t go smoothly (and they will not!) to Create Myths About “Good Old Days” • Have logical, rapid response and locally driven problem resolution processes in place • Ensure that resource families and other key partners understand the process shift • Courts • Attorneys • Casa • Law Enforcement ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  4. Experiences Across the Country and from Within Iowa • Need to Intentionally Create an Environment of Learning • There will be contractual/practice issues to resolve –THIS IS A GIVEN! • Each problem, each local and statewide resolution and each learning has to be shared across the state • Statewide Standards and Local Solutions to Problems Can Co-exist • Examples from R&R Contract ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  5. The apparent successful bidders are: Boys & Girls Home Mid Iowa LSI Families First LSI Four Oaks Tanager Place Mid Iowa Family Resources CFI CFI First Resources CFI Mid Iowa CFI ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  6. New Service Array The new service array is divided into two separate service packages: • Safety Plan Services • Family Safety, Risk and Permanency Services These services begin on October 1, 2007. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  7. Characteristics of The New Service Array • Aligned with the Department’s Model of Child Welfare Practice and CFSR • Encourage greater flexibility and innovation • Designed to build on family strengths • Enhance caregiver’s protective capacities • Connect families to community resources and informal support systems • More family-focused • Use of evidence-based practices in service delivery. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  8. Change in Case Definition Current Definition: 1 Case = Each child receiving services Definition effective October 1, 2007: 1 Case = 1 Family Constellation ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  9. New Definitions • Case: For Safety Plan Services, case means: the child or children on whom the Department has initiated a child protective or CINA assessment; and any whole, half, or step siblings of that child or children who reside in the same household; and the parents, stepparents, adoptive parents or caretakers of the alleged abuse victims. • Case: For Family Safety, Risk, and Permanency Services, case means: the child, or children, who are victims of abuse and meet the Department’s criteria for opening ongoing services, or a child or children who are subject to a court order based on child in need of assistance proceedings; and any whole, half, or step siblings of these children who reside in the same household at the time of service referral or move into the household during the service delivery period, or are in placement under the care and supervision of the Department; and the parents, stepparents, adoptive parents, or caretakers, such as relatives or significant others of the parents, of the above children. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  10. Population to be Served ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  11. Criteria for Family Safety, Risk and Permanency Services ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  12. Family Functioning Assessment ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  13. Examples of Service Activities andSupports • Family functional assessment • Visitation planning and supervision of visitation between parents and children and between siblings • Crisis intervention responses • Family functioning interventions • Family reunification services and activities • Concurrent and permanency planning service activities • Safety checks and supervision service activities • Household management assistance and instruction • Transportation assistance • Activities, or provision of funding, to help children and their family secure necessary concrete supports • Individualized case-specific services ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  14. NEW SERVICE ARRAY WORKER PROCESS

  15. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  16. Safety Constructs:Moving From Understanding to Practice

  17. Refining our approach • Safety assessment and planning are already core functions of the work CPWs, SWCMs, and community professionals do. • Our goal is to become even better – to clarify and make more consistent our practices around safety ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  18. Not just a CPW thing. • All of us are responsible for assessing and planning for safety. • Safety assessment and planning occur throughout the life of a family’s case • This ongoing assessment will be reflected in our documentation throughout the life of a case. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  19. Impact of good safety assessment • Linked to placement decisions – and placement rates. • Linked to reunification decisions – and reunification rates. • Can be a matter of life or death for a child ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  20. Safety versus Risk We have to be clear… • safety is an immediate and impending threat which requires our immediate attention • risk are those issues that may be contributing factors or underlying conditions that are responsible for the safety concerns ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  21. What is the difference? ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  22. DEFINITION OF SAFE CHILDREN ARE CONSIDERED SAFE WHEN: • There are no present or impending dangers or • When existing dangers are controlled by the caretaker’s protective capacities ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  23. DEFINITION OF UNSAFE CHILDREN ARE CONSIDERED TO BE UNSAFE WHEN: • They are vulnerable to present or impending danger and • Caretaker is unable to assure the child is protected or • Lacks the caretaker/protective capacities to do so ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  24. Definition of Conditionally Safe

  25. One or more signs of present/impending danger identified. This situation is not expected to place the child in impending danger of maltreatment because protective capacities or lack of child vulnerability offset the threat of imminent danger to the child. One or more signs of present/impending danger identified. Child’s vulnerability and/or protective capacities don’t offset the impending danger of maltreatment. Controlling safety interventions have been initiated and based on these safety interventions, the child will remain in the home at this time.

  26. THREE BASIC CONSTRUCTS OF SAFETY • THREATS OF MALTREATMENT • VULNERABILITY • PROTECTIVE CAPACITIES ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  27. THREATS OF MALTREATMENT • Situation ( e.g. Unsafe home, criminal activity) • Behavior (e.g. Impulsive actions, assaults) • Emotion (e.g. Immobilizing depression) • Motive (e.g. Intention to hurt the child) • Perception (e.g. Viewing child as a devil) • Capacity (e.g. Physical disability) ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  28. DEFINITION OF VULNERABLITY The degree in which a child cannot on his own, avoid, negate or minimize/modify the impact of present or impending danger. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  29. DEFINITION OF PROTECTIVE CAPACITIES Family strengths or resources that reduce, control and/or prevent threats of maltreatment from arising as well as factors and deficiencies that have a negative impact on child safety. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  30. SAFETY ASSESSMENT • A decision-making and documentation process that evaluates safety threats, present danger, child vulnerability, and family protective capacities to determine the safety response. • An on-going process, rather than a one-time event. It will occur at critical junctures throughout the course of DHS involvement. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  31. TIMES TO ASSESS FOR SAFETY Formal Safety assessments will be completed: • Initial visit with the family • Completion of the protective and family assessment • Prior to initiation of unsupervised visitation • Prior to family reunification • Prior to case closure ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  32. SAFETY DECISIONS • SAFE • UNSAFE • CONDITIONALLY SAFE ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  33. SAFETY PLAN • A specific, formal, concrete strategy for controlling threats of maltreatment/harm or supplementing protective capacities. • Employed immediately when a family’s protective capacities are insufficient to manage immediate threats of maltreatment/harm. • Is designed to manage the foreseeable danger in the least restrictive manner to allow CPS intervention to proceed. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  34. STRATEGIES FOR ASSURING SAFETY • CONTROL • SUPPLEMENT AND • REDUCING VULNERABILITY ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  35. DIFFERENCE IN:SAFETY PLANCASE PLAN ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  36. DIFFERENCE IN:SAFETY PLAN CASE PLAN ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  37. MOVING FROM SAFETY TO RISK GOING FROM THE CONCRETE TO THE FEATHER BED

  38. WHAT IS RISK? • Underlying Conditions – Those factors that are internal within the family constellation. • Contributing Factors – Those factors that are putting external pressure on the family constellation. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  39. Why are we concerned about risk? • Impacts the types of interventions that are most likely to be successful. • Provides direction for the family in achieving the identified outcomes. • An unattended risk MAY escalate into a safety threat. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  40. Underlying Conditions Domestic Violence Substance Abuse Mental Illness Physical Illness Unrealistic expectations Uncontrolled Anger Impulsiveness Contributing Factors Neighborhood Poverty Limited access to resources due to Language barriers Cultural barriers Rural demographics No social supports Lack of transportation Identifying Risk Factors ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  41. The Path of Underlying Conditions and Contributing Factors ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  42. The Family Plan • Identifies the safety threat to be ameliorated • Identifies the behaviors or conditions based on the risk factors that need to be changed, controlled or supplemented in order to ameliorate the safety threat • Documents specific behaviors that the plan benchmarks for changes. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  43. Putting it all together • Safety • Risk • Family Plan • Underlying conditions and contributing factors ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  44. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  45. Writing the Family Plan Understanding safety and risk provides the basis for developing the overall Family Plan goals. Family Plan goals are behaviorally specific based on the safety and risk factors. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  46. No matter what your job function in CPS, there is nothing more important than understanding the differences between conditions in a family that create risk of maltreatment and conditions that create threats to child safety.

  47. Communication Between DHS and Service Contractors

  48. ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  49. Safety Plan Services (SP) and Family Safety, Risk, and Permanency Services (FSR&P) Question/Response Process The responses to the questions will be posted to the website on Mondays and Thursdays @ <http://www.dhs.state.ia.us/children_family/child_welfare/welfare_system.html> DHS staff completes the electronic question form (SP, FSR&P Questions) DHS staff sends form to Service Area (SA) screener SA screener reviews the question and submits to Central Point at mnorwoo@dhs.state.ia.us Central Point receives question and submits for response Approved response posted to website ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

  50. Safety Plan Services (SP) and Family Safety, Risk, and Permanency Services (FSR&P) Question/Response Process The responses to the questions will be posted to the website on Mondays and Thursdays @ <http://www.dhs.state.ia.us/children_family/child_welfare/welfare_system.html> Non-DHS staff completes the electronic question form (SP, FSR&P Questions) Non-DHS staff sends form to Mindy Norwood at mnorwoo@dhs.state.ia.us Mindy Norwood receives question and submits for response Approved response posted to website ICN September 11 & 12, 2007

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