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The implementation of Wraparound in California's Title IV-E Child Welfare Waiver Demonstration Project
- Author:
- FERGUSON Charlie M.
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 34(7), July 2012, pp.1331-1336.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
In the late 1990s, 5 counties in California began implementing Wraparound as part of a federal Title IV-E Child Welfare Waiver Demonstration Project. Wraparound is focused on helping children live safely in the most family-like setting possible. This goal is accomplished through the development and implementation of strength-based, individualised case plans that contain a mix of integrated formal and informal services. The purpose of this study was to understand the implementation of Wraparound in regard to organisational and systems-related factors and contexts. Five Wraparound programmes were included in the process analysis, 1 from each county. Focus groups with a convenience sample of administrators and direct-service staff from the public agencies and private community-based agencies implementing Wraparound were conducted annually. This resulted in written case reports for each programme in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The findings showed that, while the Wraparound models were similar in configuration, there were also unique characteristics that developed in response to local conditions. Issues and solutions emerged regarding referrals and case closures, staffing and training, management information systems, funding, and contextual factors. The values and principles of the child welfare departments, group home providers, and families interacted with the values and principles of Wraparound. The results highlight the importance of organisation and systems-level characteristics.
Predicting public child welfare employees' intentions to remain employed with the child welfare organizational culture inventory
- Authors:
- WESTBROOK Tonya M., ELLETT Alberta J., ASBERG Kia
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 34(7), July 2012, pp.1214-1221.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
High employee turnover continues to be a serious problem in the field of public child welfare, with the annual rate of turnover for child welfare employees estimated to be between 20% and 40%. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which elements of dimensions of organisational culture could differentiate between public child welfare employees most and least likely to remain in their jobs. Public child welfare employees in a southern state were asked to complete the Child Welfare Organizational Culture Inventory and the Intent to Remain Employed-Child Welfare scale. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between organisational culture and employees' intent to remain in their in child welfare. The findings showed that supervisory and administrative support, professionalism and organisational ethos were predictive of intent to remain employed in child welfare. Autonomy, collegiality, and beliefs about parents were not predictive of intent to remain employed in child welfare. These analyses provide a view into which employees might be at higher risk for leaving their positions and which organisational factors are contributing to the problem of high worker turnover.
The potential for a more clinical approach to child welfare supervision to promote practice and case outcomes: a qualitative study in four states
- Authors:
- COLLINS-CAMARGO Crystal, MILLIAR Kenneth
- Journal article citation:
- Clinical Supervisor (The), 29(2), July 2010, pp.164-187.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
This article describes qualitative findings from a mixed method study of the impact of implementing clinical supervision in four public child welfare agencies. Particular emphasis is on the development of learning organizational cultures, promotion of self-reflective and evidence-informed practice, and outcomes-focused approaches to working with families. Themes identified from 15 focus groups with supervisors are provided, in terms of their use of clinical techniques, observed changes in supervisor and worker practice, and client outcomes attributed to the project. This study provides a rationale for clinical supervision in the child welfare setting, and the linkage between it and desired outcome achievement.
The context of program implementation and evaluation: a pilot study of interorganizational differences to improve child welfare reform efforts
- Authors:
- CREA Thomas M., CRAMPTON David S.
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 33(11), November 2011, pp.2273-2281.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This article contributes to the growing literature on evaluation and implementation science by examining the interaction between staff perceptions of organizational strength with perceptions and indicators of program fidelity. As part of a pilot project related to the evaluation of the Family to Family initiative, a survey was distributed to employees within two urban child welfare agencies in the US with a total of 410 respondents across both sites, for a combined response rate of 72.2%. Survey results were analyzed both in terms or respondents' perception of their agency as well as in relation to measures of program performance and workload. Multivariate models show that organizational indicators are the most significant and positive predictors of perceived program implementation. Specifically, staff who positively perceived the availability of information within their agency also believed that the programs were well implemented in their agency. These findings suggest that as the value of program changes are articulated within an organization, the implementation of the initiative is perceived to improve.
Organizational culture influence on service delivery: a mixed methods design in a child welfare setting
- Author:
- AGBÉNYIGA DeBrenna LaFa
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 33(10), October 2011, pp.1767-1778.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
There is a growing acknowledgement that mixed quantitative and qualitative methods can be useful to better understand complex organisational cultures. This article aims to illustrate how a concurrent triangulation was accomplished in a single organisational culture study in a child welfare agency. This study was conducted in a Midwestern private, non-profit, faith-based child welfare agency, using a purposive sample of 92 employees from 4 work units. The purpose of the study was to assess the organisational culture and its impact on service delivery. The study comprised 4 distinct methods: a standard organisational culture survey instrument; 4 focus groups; documental review; and an overarching organisational ethnographic method. These distinct methods allow for greater validity by collecting different data bearing on the same organisational culture phenomena. Convergence of data provides a clear illustration of the cultural behaviour norms, supporting the various cultural styles found and providing explanation and clarification where differences occurred in the findings.
Rural child welfare professionals: organizational culture and ethical practice
- Author:
- ROEDER Kevin R.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Public Child Welfare, 3(4), October 2009, pp.409-426.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Numerous challenges can influence a professional's ability to practice ethically. This study looked at the ethical concepts and skills helpful in child welfare activities according to child welfare professionals, the types of ethical planning child welfare professionals engage in, and the elements within organisations that child welfare professionals identify as either helping and/or hindering their ethical practice. The study gathered data using individual action plans completed as part of social work ethics training by rural child welfare professionals in a Midwestern state. The participants were asked to identify important ethical concepts or skills, a plan implementing the aforementioned concepts or skills in their work, and resources and barriers to plan implementation. The author discusses the results, with examples of comments from the action plans, and the implications for practice and research.
Walking the tightrope: using power and authority in child welfare supervision
- Authors:
- BOGO Marion, DILL Katharine
- Journal article citation:
- Child Welfare Journal, 87(6), 2008, pp.141-157.
- Publisher:
- Child Welfare League of America
Recognizing the importance of understanding the way in which supervisors in child welfare perceive their administrative responsibilities and use of power and authority, an exploratory study was conducted. Supervisors in child welfare agencies in urban and rural settings participated in focus groups and discussed the impact of macro and micro factors on their performance. Policy changes, including using new approaches to child welfare, and organizational culture had a major affect on the way they offered supervision. At the micro level, their use of power was related to elements in their relationships with frontline workers and their own professional development. Implications for child welfare practice and for new and experienced supervisors are presented.
Moving from blame to quality: how to respond to failures in child protective services
- Authors:
- LACHMAN Peter, BERNARD Claudia
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse and Neglect, 30(9), September 2006, pp.963-968.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This Commentary was submitted while the first author was a Quality Improvement Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Audit culture, accountability, and care: a phenomenological anthropology of child welfare
- Author:
- VALENZUELA Robin
- Journal article citation:
- Qualitative Social Work, 20(6), 2021, pp.1477-1495.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Front-line child welfare workers have long since preoccupied social work, sociological, and anthropological scholarship. This article employs phenomenological anthropology to attend to the embodied, experiential, and sensorial dimensions of front-line child welfare work. However, rather than renew calls to improve casework through increased institutional support, resilience-building, or retention efforts, I draw on caseworkers’ lived experiences to engage in a critical examination of the state’s role as parens patriae. What do caseworkers’ experiences “on the inside” reveal about the state’s capacity to care - both for its own frontline staff and the families in its purview? How do such experiences problematize our understanding of state accountability? Ultimately, how can they shift the scholarly fixation on developing “better” workers who can accommodate the ever-increasing demands of casework, to a larger critique of the state’s ability to serve as “the guardian and ultimate guarantor of child welfare” (Boyden, 2005: 195)? By locating caseworkers’ experiences within a larger context of “audit culture” - a climate of suspicion and surveillance that forces workers to constantly account for their productivity and performance - this article problematizes the state’s model of accountability and care (Shore and Wright, 2000). I argue that, in light of the toxic social dynamics it creates, “audit culture” is incommensurable with the state’s role as parens patriae. (Edited publisher abstract)
An explorative study on perpetrators of child sexual exploitation convicted alongside others
- Authors:
- SENKER Sarah, SCOTT Matthew, WAINWRIGHT Lucy
- Publisher:
- Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 104
- Place of publication:
- London
This report sets out the finding of a study into the motivations and modus operandi of perpetrators of child sexual exploitation who operate in organised networks; and the interventions and approaches that could prevent or disrupt perpetrators of child sexual exploitation who operate in organised networks. The research was qualitative in nature, undertaking first-hand interviews with individuals who were identified by gatekeepers as meeting some or all of the criteria. There are four key findings from the research, which the report discusses in detail: participants interviewed for this research study were diverse and came from a range of backgrounds; perpetrators could be loosely clustered around three groups according to their lifestyle, motivation, sexual interest and attitude towards conviction (participants who admitted their offence, participant who denied their offence, and participants who neither admitted or denied their offence); networks were described by participants as loose associations rather than organised networks; and participants acknowledged their behaviour to varying extents, with some using minimisation and justification to explain their motivations and offending behaviours. (Edited publisher abstract)