Organizational Supports for Evidence use in child welfare

Despite its importance to achieving positive outcomes for vulnerable children and families, use of evidence by child welfare managers and practitioners remains limited. This study describes four types of organizational supports that child welfare agencies may use to facilitate evidence use. Data collected in 2016 from a six-state sample of private child welfare agencies are used to examine agency investment in different supports for evidence use and their association with managerial evidence use. We also identify contextual, organizational, and managerial factors associated with agency investment in these supports. Findings suggest that technical infrastructure is necessary but not sufficient for promoting managerial evidence use in the absence of other supports. Implications for policy and practice are discussed

Trends in local public child welfare agencies 1999–2009

US public child welfare agencies have faced increasing pressure in the first decade of this century to demonstrate efficiency and accountability, even as the Great Recession increased pressures on millions of families and undermined human service funding. This paper reports on analyses of the two cohorts of local public child welfare agencies from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being to identify changes in their structure and practice. Local agency adaptations have included some structural integration and apparently increased use of subcontracting, including investigations. Collectively, these trends appear to be fostering a tighter coupling of local child welfare agencies with other service providers. Some of these connections may improve families’ access to a range of services. However, the increased reliance on private providers may also undermine accountability and flexibility to respond to changing needs

Collaboration, competition, and co-opetition: Interorganizational dynamics between private child welfare agencies and child serving sectors

Human service agencies are encouraged to collaborate with other public and private agencies in providing services to children and families. However, they also often compete with these same partners for funding, qualified staff, and clientele. Although little is known about complex interagency dynamics of competition and collaboration in the child-serving sector, evidence suggests that competition can undermine collaboration unless managed strategically. This study explores the interrelationship between competition and collaboration, sometimes referred to as “co-opetition.” Using a national dataset of private child and family serving agencies, we examine their relationships with other child serving sectors (N=4460 pair-wise relationships), and explore how variations in patterns of collaboration and competition are associated with several organizational, environmental and relational factors. Results suggest that most relationships between private child welfare agencies and other child serving agencies are characterized by both competition and collaboration (i.e. “co-opetition”), and is most frequently reported with other local private child welfare agencies. Logistic regression analyses indicate that co-opetition is likely to occur when private child welfare agencies have a good perceived relationship or a sub-contract with their partner. Findings have implications for how agency leaders manage partner relationships, and how public child welfare administrators structure contracts

Child Welfare Practice within the Context of Public–Private Partnerships

Frontline and managerial child welfare practice occurs within the context of a “partnership” among public agencies that have statutory mandate for child protection and related services and private agencies that provide an array of services to children and families through contractual or informal means. Empirical literature has begun to develop around key questions within this interorganizational system, including how public and private child welfare agency relationships and contracting procedures should be structured to promote effective service delivery; how performance measurement and management systems can be developed to promote child safety, permanency, and well-being; and how managers can help promote the delivery of effective and culturally appropriate services. Yet the impact of these organizational and institutional child welfare trends on practitioners has not been clarified. This article synthesizes the literature on these questions to draw implications for practice for the frontline staff, both public and private, driving service delivery

Use of Data to Assess Performance and Promote Outcome Achievement by Public and Private Child Welfare Agency Staff

Despite the emphasis on evidence-based practice in the literature, little is known about the extent to which child welfare workers routinely use data to assess the effectiveness of their practice, or consider an array of evidence informed practices such as peer record review, supervisory sessions or program evaluation as useful in improving their performance. This study, conducted as a part of the planning phase for a larger research and demonstration project measured frontline staff perceptions in both the public and private sectors in one state regarding these and other outcome-focused activities. Statistically significant differences were noted between public and private agency staff. In addition, the relationship between staff\u27s use of data and their assessment of their own skill and the support provided by their agency for an array of out-of-home care practice activities are described. Implications for building the use of evidence-informed practice in child welfare are discussed

Organizational supports used by private child and family serving agencies to facilitate evidence use: a mixed methods study protocol

Abstract Background Challenges to evidence use are well documented. Less well understood are the formal supports—e.g., technical infrastructure, inter-organizational relationships—organizations may put in place to help overcome these challenges. This study will identify supports for evidence use currently used by private child and family serving agencies delivering publicly funded behavioral health and/or human services; examine contextual, organizational, and managerial factors associated with use of such supports; and determine how identified supports affect evidence use by staff at multiple levels of the organization. Methods We will use a sequential explanatory mixed methods design, with study activities occurring in two sequential phases: In phase 1, quantitative survey data collected from managers of private child and family serving agencies in six states (CA, IN, KY, MO, PA, and WI) and analyzed using both regression and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) will identify organizational supports currently being used to facilitate evidence use and examine the contextual, organizational, and managerial factors associated with the use of such supports. In phase 2, data from phase 1 will be used to select a purposive sample of 12 agencies for in-depth case studies. In those 12 agencies, semi-structured interviews with key informants and managers, focus groups with frontline staff, and document analysis will provide further insight into agencies’ motivation for investing in organizational supports for evidence use and the facilitators and barriers encountered in doing so. Semi-structured interviews with managers and focus groups with frontline staff will also assess whether and how identified supports affect evidence use at different levels of the organization (senior executives, middle managers, frontline supervisors, and frontline staff). Within- and between-case analyses supplemented by QCA will identify combinations of factors associated with the highest and lowest levels of staff evidence use. Discussion This study will inform efforts to improve sustainment, scale-up, and spread of evidence by providing insight into organizational and managerial strategies that facilitate evidence use, the contexts in which these strategies are most effective, and their effect on evidence use by staff at different levels of the organization

Identifying Barriers to Permanency: The Recruitment, Selection, and Training of Resource Parents

Staff and resource parents in the public child welfare agency and private child care facilities were invited to participate in research in one state to examine the barriers surrounding resource parent recruitment, training and selection, and strategies for achieving more timely permanency. Issues identified included the need for a shared vision among all stakeholders and the need to focus more on developing public and private agency partnerships. Data-driven strategies were then designed to address identified barriers. This process can serve as an example of how systems may use solicited input from the field to develop interventions or modify casework practice in an attempt to improve child and family outcomes as needed

Privatization and Performance-Based Contracting in Child Welfare: Recent Trends and Implications for Social Service administrators

Although social service privatization and performance contracting have increased over recent decades, there is a dearth of information concerning how public and private social service administrators manage performance contracts and develop collaborative relationships that promote desired client outcomes. The Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services (QICPCW) was funded by the federal Children\u27s Bureau to promote knowledge development regarding public/private contracting in child welfare. This article reports on results from interviews with a national sample of public agency administrators by the QICPCW regarding the scope and mechanisms of contracting in the child welfare sector. Results identify key administrative and agency practices that public and private agency administrators used to develop public/private collaborations and sustain effective cross-sector partnerships. Implications for social service administrative practice and research are identified