THE CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES REVIEW (CFSR) PRACTICE PRINCIPLES:

Critical Principles for Assessing and Enhancing the Service Array

The Service Array Process

National Child Welfare Resource Center For Organizational Improvement A Service of the Children’s Bureau, U.S.D.H.H.S.

April 28, 2008 1

What Is the CFSR?

A periodic review by the Federal Government in partnership with the State Child Welfare System.

Seven child welfare outcomes in the areas of Safety, Permanency, and Well-Being, seven systemic factors (needed infrastructure), and 45 items/indicators are evaluated.

Areas needing improvement need to be addressed in a Program Improvement Plan (PIP).

Meant to be a continuous quality improvement process.

Best hope for an accountable child welfare system that continuously improves the achievement of good outcomes for children and families in child welfare.

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CFSR Practice Principles

The CFSR Practice Principles guide the entire process.

They are used to evaluate the State’s current child welfare system.

They also serve as a child welfare practice model, defining what child welfare practice should look like.

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What are the CFSR Practice Principles?

Family-centered practice.

Community-based services.

Strengthening the capacity of parents to care for their children.

Individualizing services.

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What do the CFSR Practice Principles have to do with the Service Array process?

They are the core principles to be used to evaluate a jurisdiction’s current services.

They also serve as the blueprint for improving services so they are more effective.

They also serve as a guide for designing needed new services so these will be effective.

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First Practice Principle: Family-Centered Practice Definition: In the delivery of services to children involved in the child welfare system, the jurisdiction’s practice is to work with and support the entire family, including fathers, as we address the abuse or neglect of a child within that family.

Assumption: The most fundamental needs of children, such as safety, nurturing, and belonging, cannot be addressed effectively without attending to the entire family’s needs.

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Examples of Family-Centered Practice in Child Welfare: Conducting assessments of the entire family.

Engaging families in developing the case/service plan.

Working with fathers as well as mothers.

Encouraging the use of family-based placements rather than institutional placements and temporary shelters.

Focusing on the broad and underlying issues that affect child safety, permanency, and well-being.

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Second Practice Principle: Community-Based Services Definition: Community-based practice first and foremost means that the services for families engaged in child welfare are provided in and by their community. Assumption: We focus our interventions within the communities in which the families we are serving reside.

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Rationale for Community-Based Services Access: we all heard stories of mothers traveling across town on three different buses to take the parenting class required by the child welfare agency.

Easier access to services means that families are becoming part of their communities in ways that will support them long after they leave the child welfare system.

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Rationale for Community Based Services (cont’d) Through community-based services we are also helping local communities reconnect with families in caring for children, with a focus on prevention-oriented services and supports.

Each community is unique in terms of the families it serves and the resources it has to serve them. When communities identify and then design, implement, and oversee services to families, those supports tend to be more appropriately targeted to the families that comprise that community.

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Community-Based Services Need to Be Evaluated on their: Timeliness.

Flexibility (ability to individualize the service).

Accessibility.

Coordination of services.

Provision of services in the home.

Parental involvement in service design and delivery.

Respect for the culture and strengths of families and their communities.

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Third Practice Principle: Strengthening the Capacity of Parents to Care for Their Children.

Definition: Working with parents no longer means that we are doing things to or for them or their children. Rather, we are supporting them in being good parents and learning to make the best short and long-term choices for their children.

Assumption: Parents, not the State, should care for their children. The correct role for State child welfare agencies is to work with families to prepare them to care for their children. This prevents the State, through foster care or other placements, from assuming the role of long-term caregiver.

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Examples of Strengthening Parental Capacity Practice and Services in Child Welfare: Family preservation, family support, and other types of placement prevention services.

Practices to strengthen parents’ relationships with their children who are in foster care such as agency support for parental visitation with their children by developing clear plans, arranging flexible meeting locations and communicating the reasons for restrictions on visitation.

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Examples of Strengthening Parental Capacity Practice and Services in Child Welfare (cont’d): Conducting comprehensive assessments that identify the underlying needs of parents as well as the children and addressing those in comprehensive case plans.

Contact between caseworkers and parents, including the frequency, quality, and substance of the contacts.

Engaging parents in planning, especially making decisions about goals for their children and family. Parents are far more likely to engage in and commit to services that they have had a voice in developing.

Agencies developing systems for providing this type of support for parental involvement, including policies, practices, and strategies for communicating that this is the agency’s philosophy.

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Fourth Practice Principle: Individualizing Services Definition: The capacity of public and private agencies to address concretely the needs of each child and family and not simply providing services because they are available or are the latest program du jour.

Assumption: One size does not fit all. Every family and child is different, as is their environment and the circumstances that brought them to the attention of the child welfare system. The ability to individualize services to parents enhances parental capacity to care for their children.

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Examples of Individualizing Services Practice in Child Welfare Involving parents and children, as age appropriate, in the assessment process. They know best the strengths they bring to the process and where they need help.

Genuinely involving parents and children, as age appropriate, in the development of the case/service plan and service delivery. Assessing services to see if they are truly being individualized.

Funding for services that are flexible enough to let staff develop individualized services.

Training staff on how to assess needs and develop service plans that will really help.

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