THE CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES REVIEW CFSR PRACTICE PRINCIPLES:

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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 Childrens Bureau, U.S.D.H.H.S.
• April 28, 2008

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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 States 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 jurisdictions 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 PrincipleFamily-Centered Practice

• Definition In the delivery of services to
  children involved in the child welfare system,
  the jurisdictions 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 familys 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 PrincipleCommunity-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 forCommunity-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 forCommunity-Based Services (contd)

• 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 (contd)

• 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 agencys
  philosophy.

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Fourth Practice PrincipleIndividualizing
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.