Framework For Child Welfare Practice In California

1. Welcome to Framework For Child Welfare PracticeIn California Date: Trainer: Sponsor:

2. What strengths, capacities, attributes, and assets do you bring to this job that will benefit youth and families?

3. Once around your table please share your: • Name • One of the strengths, capacities, attributes or assets you bring to this job. Write them on the strips of paper provided.

4. Today's Agenda • Welcome • Overview Of Training: Common Core • New Initiatives • Evidence-Based & Promising Practices • Fairness and Equity Awareness • Lunch • Fairness and Equity Awareness – con’t. • Strength-Based, Family-Centered Engagement • Transfer of Learning, Course Evaluation & Closure

5. California’s Standardized Child Welfare Training California has four Regional Training Academies: • BAA • Southern • Central • Northern And the Inter-University Consortium in collaboration with Los Angeles County DCFS The coordination of California’s Child Welfare Training is conducted by the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC).

6. Statewide Training & Education Committee (STEC) The Statewide Training & Education Committee is facilitated by CalSWEC and CDSS. STEC includes representatives from Regional Training Academies, County Directors, and Staff Development. One of the purposes of STEC is to oversee the development and implementation of standardized core curricula in California.

7. CALIFORNIA’S 7*COMMON CORE COURSES • Framework (you are here) • Child & Youth Development • Child Maltreatment Identification: Parts 1 and 2 • Critical Thinking in Child Welfare Assessment: Safety, Risk, & Protective Capacity • Case Planning/Case Management • Placement/Permanency * PLUS more to follow

8. Five Themes in the Common Core • Accountability & Outcomes • Evidence-based & Promising Practices • Fairness & Equity • Strength-based Practices & Programs • Family & Youth Engagement

9. Competency Outcomes • Understands the federal, state and county emphasis on achieving positive and measurable outcomes for families and children. • Understands how evidence-based research contributes to the improvement of public child welfare practice and outcomes. • Recognizes and values the need for fair and equitable treatment of children, youth, and families that addresses their unique sociocultural context. • Understands and values the importance of engaging children, youth, and families, kin networks, care providers, and community resources in a collaborative, strength-based process. • Initial your priority today

10. Competency Outcomes Compare your selection with someone sitting near you. Ask them: Which competency interests you the most today? Why? Then share your priority.

11. New Initiatives Child Welfare prior to 2000

12. 1997 ASFA

13. Review of ASFA Two overarching goals: • Move children stranded in thesystem into permanent placements • Change the experience of children entering the system today!

14. Adoption & Safe Families Act (1997): • Safety • Permanency • Well-Being

15. Seven Indicators of ASFA • Fewer children are abused/neglected • Fewer children are in foster care • Fewer children re-enter foster care • Fewer multiple placements for children in foster care • Reduced lengths of time to reunify children with parents or caregivers • Reduced length of time to achieve adoption (less than 24 months) • Increase the levels of health and education support for children in foster care

16. Organization of Child Welfare in California • Federal laws and state laws are passed • Counties are required to follow these laws after the State issues regulations pertaining to the law that has been passed or through policy letters called ACLs • Funding is connected to following regulations and ACLs • Counties then provide their staff with county policy and procedures to implement these regulations and policies. Counties have many differences. Imagine a rural county with 5 social workers and L.A. County with 3000. Do you think they would have many differences?

17. Current California Statistics On a Post-It® note, write down what you think are: 1) The number of cases of child abuse/ neglect reported last year in CA 2) The number of children with a substantiated allegation of child abuse/neglect last year in CA 3) The number of children in CA Foster Care now

18. The Case for Change in CA • 487,154 referrals of child abuse/neglect each year(for the 12 months ending July 2007) • 108,513 children with substantiated allegations of abuse/neglect (for the 12 months ending July 2007) • 76,310 children in foster care (Point in time on July 1, 2007)

19. California’s Challenges California has: 13% of the nation’s child population BUT 16% of the nation’s foster care population (2005 Data)

20. The Case for Change in CA • 65% of foster children in care for at least 2 years experience 3 or more placements • 6% of children in CA are African American, but 26% of children in CWS are African American (Data for the period of July 06-June 07 )

21. New Initiatives Improving the way we serve families involved with child welfare

22. The Vision Every child living in a safe, stable, permanent home, nurtured by healthy families and strong communities. From the California Stakeholders’ Report

23. Goals/Outcomes • Children are protected from abuse and neglect. • Children are safely maintained in their own homes whenever possible and appropriate. • Children have permanency and stability in their living situations. • The continuity of family relationships and connections is preserved for children.

24. Goals/Outcomes, continued • Families have enhanced capacity to provide for their children’s needs. • Children receive appropriate services to meet their educational needs. • Children receive adequate services to meet their physical and mental health needs. • Youth emancipating from foster care are prepared to transition to adulthood.

25. California Child Welfare Outcomes and Accountability System • Three year cycle with quarterly reports • What about Division 31 Regulations? “Division 31 remains in full effect.  AB 636 is a review process and replaces the Division 31 Compliance Review Process;  so the Division 31 reviews have ended, but not the regulations themselves.” - S. Oppenheim Jan-04

26. System Improvement Efforts Children and Family Services Review (CFSR) Federal Program Improvement Plan (PIP) OUTCOMES: • Safety • Permanency • Child & Family Well-Being CWS Improvement California Child & Family Services Review(C-CFSR)/(AB636) Peer Quality Case Review (PQCR), Self Assessment (SA), and System Improvement Plan (SIP)

27. Evidence-Based Practice How do we know what works?

28. What does EBP mean? Please have a short discussion at your tables regarding what you think EBP means. Have you heard this term before?

29. Some Definitions: EBP “is the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and [client] values”Sackett, Straus, Richardson, Rosenberg & Haynes (2000). Evidence-Based Medicine: How to practice and teach EBM (2nd ed.) “It is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual [clients]”Sackett et al. (1996)

30. Definitions, continued Gilgun’s 4 ‘Cornerstones’ of EBP: • Research and theory • Practice wisdom, or what we and other professionals have learned from our clients • The person of the practitioner (personal assumptions, values, biases and world views) • What clients bring to the situation Gilgun, J.F. (2005). The four cornerstones of evidence-based practice in social work. Research on Social Work Practice, 15(1).

31. Definitions, continued Practice that is informed and ‘mindful’ of: • Best available research evidence; • Best clinical experience; • Client values and preferences.

32. The Five Steps of Evidence-Based Practice STEP ONE: What do we want to know? What are the questions? Convert information needs related to practice decisions into answerable research questions STEP TWO: What evidence is there? Track down the best evidence with which to answer them(Sackett et al., 2000, pp.3-4) courtesy of Eileen Gambrill

33. The Five Steps of Evidence-Based Practice STEP THREE: What is the quality of the evidence? Critically appraise that evidence for its validity, impact (size of effect) and applicability (usefulness in practice) STEP FOUR: How do we use the evidence to make decisions? Apply the results of this appraisal to practice/policy decisions. This involves deciding whether evidence found (if any) applies to the decision at hand, while also considering client values and preferences in making decisions as well as other application concerns. For example, is a client similar to those studied? Is access to services described?

34. The Five Steps of Evidence-Based Practice STEP FIVE: How did this work? Evaluate effectiveness and efficiency in carrying out steps 1-4 and seek ways to improve them in the future

35. Clearinghouse • www.cachildwelfareclearinghouse.org • Serves as an online connection for child welfare professionals, staff of public and private organizations, academic institutions, and others who are committed to serving children and families. • Provides up-to-date information on evidence-based child welfare practices. • Facilitates the utilization of evidence-based practices as a method for achieving improved outcomes of safety, permanency and well-being for children and families involved in the California public child welfare system.

36. Promising Practices . . . • Are programs that appear to be successful, but have not yet been rigorously studied or tested • Are implemented while rigorous research is being done

37. Examples of Promising Practices • Family to Family • TDMs • Linkages • Wrap-around services • California Permanency for Youth Project

38. …All children and families will achieve similar benefits and achieve equally positive outcomes. from the California Stakeholders’ Report Fairness and Equity:The Vision

39. Pizza Activity • You have been invited to a rather eclectic Pizza Party. As people introduce themselves to you, you realize there are only six pieces of pizza for all 21 of you. • Individually decide how to fairly prioritize who gets a slice of pizza and who doesn’t. • Convince your group that your way is the fairest way to share your six slices. • What fairness principle did you use to help you make these decisions?

40. Fairness, Equity & Equality Equity implies the application of justice influenced by principals of ethics. Fairness implies the absence of bias. Equality implies the likeness or sameness in quality, power, status, or degree.

41. Does Equitable = Equal? • What are the implications for child welfare? • How should services be allocated? • How do we build a fair and equitable system for service delivery?

42. FAIRNESS & EQUITY IN CWS INVOLVES MULTIPLE ISSUES • Disproportionate representation •Cultural competency • Diversity • Socioeconomic • Immigration status/acculturation • Sexual orientation (LGBTQ) • Gender • Disability • Age

43. Ethnicity at Decision Points of the California Child Welfare System-2006 Chart taken from presentation by Barbara Needell, CSSR UC Berkeley, California’s Child Welfare System: Using Data From CWS/CMS, February 2008

44. Statement of the problem African American children are: • Referred to child welfare more than any other segment of the population • Entering the system more frequently • Less likely to receive in-home services • Least likely to reunify • Staying in care longer than their White or Hispanic counterparts

45. What is Culture? • A unique set of behaviors, attitudes, practices, customs, values, music, beliefs, food, religious experiences, history, celebrations, preferences, lifestyles. • It is not innate: it is learned • It provides the lens through which we see the world, process information, and communicate with others.

46. Cultural Expression Not everyone of the same race will express culture in the same way; other factors are: • Social class/privilege/poverty • Rural or urban residency • Occupation • Education • Marital status • Age • Personal values

47. Cultural Backpacks We all bring our “Cultural Backpacks” or our “biases” with us to work… • Our own “backpack” shapes the nature of: • • the conversations we have with each family and child • • assessment • • treatment plans • • the allocation of resources

48. What’s in your “Cultural Backpack”?

49. Achieving Fairness and Equity Achieving Fairness and Equity in CWS as it pertains to: • the treatment of families and • the access of services for families requires us to look at MODERN DAY RACISM as a contributing factor in disproportionality.

50. Modern Day Racism Includes three systems which operate simultaneously to suppress discussion on race and mask biases: • Principle of colorblindness • Racial and gender stereotypes • Institutional racism