Karl Ensign, Director Evaluation for Children, Youth, and Families

1. Child Welfare Workforce Changing Context & ImplicationsResulting from Privatization & Performance-Based Contracting Kansas Workforce Kick-Off & Excellence in Supervision Conference September 23rd, 2009 Karl Ensign, Director Evaluation for Children, Youth, and Families Planning and Learning Technologies, Inc. Arlington, VA

2. Information sources • Qualitative information: External Evaluation of the Kansas Child Welfare System • Six topical papers: Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, US Department of Health and Human Services • Two topical papers: Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services

3. What hasn’t changed… • Adequate pre- and in-service training • High stress and low pay • Limited career advancement opportunities • Adequate placements in close proximity • Adequate availability of community services

4. What is changing… • Payment linked to performance • Public/private partnerships • Data driven decision making • Evolving roles & responsibilities

5. Payment linked to performance • Increasingly, contracts specify expected outcomes and link payment or contract renewal to achieving these • May be more traditional process outcomes (paperwork filed on time), longer-term outcomes (permanency, safety, well-being), or both • As a result, tracking and QA must occur at multiple levels within and between agencies • Benefits — healthy competition can result, desired outcomes made explicit, payment for performance can build public support • Workforce implications — job becomes more complex, data collection & reporting expands, desired outcomes can clash, priorities must be set

6. Public/private partnerships • The more the role of the private sector grows in service delivery, the more the public sector becomes dependent on private sector performance • As a result, accountability, trust, and partnership can develop • Benefits — combined resources, abilities, and functions can improve service delivery • Workforce implications — job becomes more complex, requiring collaborative problem-solving skills, avoiding blame-shifting, and building solid foundations of trust that can withstand crises

7. Data driven decision making • Outcome focus of service delivery combined with improvements in data systems and technology impacts decision making at multiple levels • As a result, underlying issues become apparent • Benefits — can help set priorities and focus • Workforce implications — job becomes more complex, requiring technical skills in addition to people skills. Can run counter to what are often perceived to be traditional social work skills (Is it science or art? Perhaps both?)

8. Evolving roles & responsibilities • Each of the forgoing areas continues to evolve as systems mature, new challenges emerge, tools become more sophisticated and knowledge develops • Workforce implications — job functions are not static, requiring flexibility and adaptability

9. Position description — “the ideal candidate will: • Work with your clients in a family-centered manner so that they complete the requirements specified in their case plan in a timely and complete manner • Collect and report large amounts of data for everyone on everything you do and do not do • Juggle too many cases receiving inadequate pay in compensation • Work as a team to achieve objectives, while meeting your own performance goals • Make decisions in a timely manner based partly on experience, data, and your gut, and defend your decisions in court • Reach out to your counterparts in other agencies, accept blame even when it could cost you your job and work helpfully and proactively with others at all times • Remain flexible and adaptable — anything can and will change • Engage in other duties as assigned and needed”

10. What we want… what we can get… and what we need to continue to do • Build strong agency infrastructure to give staff at all levels the skills and tools they need to do what they are best at • Provide the necessary support to minimize their stress

11. For more information please visithttp://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/CWPI/ • Assessing Site Readiness:  Considerations about Transitioning to a Privatized Child Welfare System.  Key issues about transitioning to a privatized system of service delivery--assessing “site readiness” to undertake systems reform. • Program and Fiscal Design Elements of Child Welfare Privatization Initiatives.  A range of program and contracting models currently used by sites across the country, how these models have evolved over time, and their challenges and benefits. • Evolving Roles of Public and Private Agencies in Privatized Child Welfare Systems.  Challenges and lessons learned about transitioning from publicly to privately delivered services--examples of how states have divided roles and responsibilities across systems once privatization occurs. • Evaluating Privatized Child Welfare Programs:  A Guide for Program Managers.  A “how to” guide for evaluating the effectiveness of reforms--establishing appropriate policy relevant research questions, determining appropriate short and long term outcomes, identifying appropriate data, and selecting the best outcome evaluation design. • Preparing Effective Contracts in Child Welfare Systems.  What the field has learned about developing contracts in child welfare and related social services--writing clear expectations about services provision and performance standards, billing and payment arrangements, and standards for reporting. • Ensuring Quality in Contracted Child Welfare Services.  Key responsibilities and challenges that public agencies often face in effectively monitoring the organizations with which they contract--primary responsibility for different areas of contract monitoring, information system needs, commonly used performance measures, and agency appeal and grievance processes.

12. And still more information • Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services http://www.uky.edu/SocialWork/qicpcw/ • Karl Ensign kensign@pal-tech.com (703) 908-8866