Policy & Practice | Summer 2023

from our partners

By Danielle Barnes

Strategic Transformation: Small Steps that Help Place Children and Families at the Center

S afeguarding children who have experienced poverty, abuse, or neglect is one of the most pressing chal lenges faced by governments around the world and in the United States. A total of 606,031 children were served by the U.S. foster care system in fiscal year 2021, according to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.¹ That number is down from the 631,686 U.S. children served by foster care in fiscal year 2020. It is still a large number of children, however, who face consid erable uncertainty, instability, and insecurity during their formative years. And there are no easy answers to fix the problem. Front-line workers experience the difficult circumstances of each child on a daily basis and do their best to support them in their journey through the system. Their ability to convey these challenges to management at child welfare agencies can boost visibility and provide valuable scope and perspective into the problems children face. But everyone, from those on the front lines to the leadership team, are still working in a system with a daunting mission and a steady stream of new concerns that make the work even more difficult. The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) was signed into law in 2018 to shift the focus of the child welfare system toward “keeping children safely with their families to avoid the trauma that results when children are placed in out-of-home care.”² The intent is to provide greater access to mental health services, sub stance use treatment, or parenting skills courses and shift how the

country provides services for family and youth. While it is an encouraging step, more needs to be done to effect real change in how the child welfare system functions in the United States. It can begin with the creation of a transformation management office (TMO). Seven Key Challenges Ernst & Young LLP (EY) has identi fied seven key challenges that convey the difficulties child welfare agencies face as they attempt to do their work: 1. Increased child welfare caseloads: While the national numbers reflect a decrease in the number of new children entering the system, anec dotal evidence at the local level tells a different story. 2.Limited staff resources: Departments are challenged with hiring, onboarding, and maximizing available skill sets to create a full and effective workforce. Fewer people are taking jobs in child welfare,

while more people are leaving the profession. In addition to the job stress, workers claim they can make just as much money working in other professions that are much less chal lenging on an emotional level. 3. FFPSA: Among other things, this legislation includes a funding mech anism that helps states place kids with other members of their family rather than in the system. 4. Outdated information systems: Data are complex, incomplete, and difficult to consolidate; the systems that house that data are outdated and only make this task more difficult. 5. Ineffective oversight of over arching system changes: The need to triage operational issues in various crisis situations hinders careful over sight. When a problem arises, the goal is to solve the immediate crisis as quickly as possible. The urgency is understood, but it often leads to flawed solutions that eventually lead to additional concerns.

Illustration by Chris Campbell

8

Policy & Practice Summer 2023