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monthly
article for April 2005
A Safety Intervention System
Introduction
For over two years, we have addressed safety assessment, safety
planning and safety management. Our focus has been directed toward
the front end of child protective services. Our intention has
been to lay a firm foundation for safety intervention concerned
with concepts, definitions, practices and decision-making. We
have emphasized casework practice. Now, we are ready to move
on to safety intervention required during ongoing child protective
services. Certainly the ideas, framework and practice we advanced
in previous articles remain relevant and necessary; however,
you will see how application and responsibility changes for the
ongoing CPS worker.
This month’s feature sets the stage for continuing to
look at casework practice. As we turn our attention to what happens
in safety intervention as the case moves deeper into CPS, we
offer a context – a safety intervention system. This is
necessary largely because safety intervention nationally has
not evolved as a systematic endeavor that takes a family from
intake to closure. In many places, safety intervention is pretty
much confined to the first week of case contact. In other places,
safety intervention becomes fuzzier, less defined as a case moves
past investigation. In most places, the definition and clarity
of safety intervention occurring during ongoing CPS is mysterious
and unsubstantial. To understand the responsibilities of the
ongoing CPS caseworker, it may be helpful to place those responsibilities
within the context of a safety intervention system.
So, this article is probably more for managers and planners
than for caseworkers, but, hopefully, it will be useful for them
as well.
Properties of a Safety Intervention System
We can think of a safety intervention system as a unified whole
comprised of components or parts. The parts, like assessing safety
threats, can be related to each other and, when connected, form
the whole safety intervention system. Does it make any sense
that one thing occurring as a safety intervention at a point
within the life of a case occurs without thought or respect for
other safety intervention activities that may occur later?
A safety intervention system has
purpose. Why else would it exist? The purpose of a safety intervention
system is to assure
that a child is protected. The purpose is best realized when
a child’s parents or caregivers are enabled to provide
the protection. It could be said that the primary purpose of
safety intervention is to enable parents and caregivers to provide
protection for their children. Therefore, it follows, that all
that happens as a part of the safety intervention system occurs
to achieve the primary purpose. All that occurs – the first
action to the last – is designed to achieve the primary
purpose.
A safety intervention system contains
actions, decisions and methods that are organized in such a way
so as to result
in an
orderly process of moving toward the primary purpose. These parts
of the system have relation to each other. Actions, decisions
and methods are based on the same concepts and definitions, occur
in some meaningful progression and are interdependent. A safety
intervention system requires that one get on one horse and ride
it to the end of the journey. The journey is not stopped short;
one doesn’t switch horses. The relation of the parts of
the safety intervention system is characterized by sequence in
activity and movement; flexibility to adjust; certainty with
respect to the way of doing things. A safety intervention system
influences workers behaving systematically.
A Safety Intervention System as Defined by ASFA and CFSR
Today child welfare is influenced by national and federal influence
like no other time. Through their requirements, the Adoption
and Safety Families Act (ASFA) and the Federal Children, Family
Services Review (CFSR) in effect provide a description of a safety
intervention system. A safety intervention system looks like
this. (We are looking only at requirements descriptive of safety
intervention from these sources.)
-
Timely response to contact
a family (CFSR)
-
Control recurrence (CFSR)
-
Expend
reasonable efforts to keep children safely in their homes
(ASFA)
-
Provide services to family
to protect children in home and prevent removal (CSFR)
-
Assess
safety in out-of-home placements (ASFA)
-
Address safety issues
in case (treatment) plans (ASFA)
This one deserves some elaboration.
Let’s look at exactly
what the law says. SEC.475.[42 U.S.C. 675] As used in this part
or part B of this title: (1) The term “case plan” means
a written document which includes at least the following:
(B) A plan assuring that the child receives safe and proper
care and that the services are provided to parents, child and
foster
parents in order to improve conditions in the parents’ home,
facilitate return of the child to his own safe home.
-
Enhance family capacity to
provide for their children’s
needs [protection] (CFSR)
Remember that this includes providing services to children,
parents and foster parents and child and family involvement in
case planning.
-
Continually assess and manage safety (ASFA)
The law says… SEC.475.[42 U.S.C. 675] As used in this
part or part B of this title: (4) (B) The status of each child
is reviewed periodically but no less frequently than once every
six months by either a court or by administrative review…in
order to determine the safety of the child.
-
Evaluate progress toward achieving a safe home (ASFA)
This one also needs some elaboration
so we go back to the law. SEC.475.[42 U.S.C.
675] As used in this part or part B of this
title: (4) (B) [periodic review to evaluate] …the
extent of compliance with the case plan, and the
extent of progress
which has been made toward alleviating or mitigating
the causes necessitating the placement…
A Safety Intervention System Framework How is a safety intervention system described, guided and supported?
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Policy
Policy establishes what is
to be done; what is expected; the rules and boundaries of safety
intervention. It articulates the
process within which safety intervention
will occur. It sets the standards and the limits. Policy identifies
the assumptions,
beliefs, values and principles
that
underpin
a safety intervention system. It articulates
concepts, definitions and protocol. Policy
states the purpose of a safety
intervention system, outlines how its purpose can be achieved
and identifies
its
outcome. Policy
systematically lays out in an orderly
fashion the actions, decisions and methods that lead to the
achievement of a safety intervention
system’s outcome.
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Procedures
Procedures provide for how safety intervention is to occur. This includes step-by-step
descriptions.
Procedures include guidelines
and instructions. Procedures define the
course of action to be taken from intake to closure. Procedures
dictate
the nature of
worker – client – family interaction.
Procedures identify required methods, tools,
instruments, forms, work organization
and record keeping. Procedures operationalize
case practice and decision-making within
a safety intervention
system.
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Staff
Development
Training provides the means for knowing how to
do safety intervention and mastering the skill necessary
to carry it out. Staff development
begins with pre-service efforts to assure
that staff possesses essential knowledge and skill prior
to being cast into the responsibility
for participating in a safety intervention
system. Training steps beyond policy and procedures to
assure that a safety intervention
system operates on the solid ground expressed
through research, literature and the state-of-the-art.
Staff development continues
to provide instruction and reinforcement
over time about the actions, methods and decisions that
form a safety intervention
system. Within a safety intervention
system, policy directs what is to be done; procedures direct
how
to do it; training interprets
what a safety intervention system is,
what must be known in order to provide safety intervention
and
what skill must be demonstrated
to perform safety intervention effectively.
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Information System
We
live in a time in child welfare in which information
systems have a profound effect on what we do.
Certainly, an automated information system must be considered
to be
an important part
of the framework for a safety intervention
system. The information system serves as the overt
expression of a safety intervention
system. What we mean by that is eventually
what is required (policy) and how it is to occur (procedures)
(training) become clearly
made known within the information
system. The results of what a worker does and how he does
it is
written on the screens of
the automated information system.
Therefore, the information system serves as a record of a
safety intervention
system but,
perhaps more importantly, prompts
and cues staff to be systematic; to follow the system plan.
Additionally,
the information system
can give guidance, help and support
by virtue of its capability and construction.
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Supervision
Traditionally,
the vote has been in favor of supervisors being
the linchpin regarding whether case practice
is good or not.
We know from our studies of states’ approaches to safety
intervention that staff typically rely more heavily on their
supervisor to articulate a safety intervention system than policy,
procedure, training or the information system. Regretfully, this
is usually the case because of the deficiencies that staff perceive
in other areas within this framework we are describing. Supervision
guides, directs, supports and oversees staff implementing a safety
intervention system. Supervisors shouldn’t make it up and
should not rely too much on their experience – at
least solely or alone. Supervisors are
the purveyors of a safety intervention
system. They, therefore, must rely on the
quality of how well the system is formed
and articulated.
Supervisors are best when
they are fully informed, coached and expert
in all aspects of a safety intervention
system. They
can only be as effective as
the system is good. Supervisors transmit
to staff what must be done and how. Supervisors
judge when
it is not done correctly
among individuals and across staff. Supervisors
move from overseeing work to creating approaches
to correction and development consistent
with the design of a safety intervention system.
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Program Management
Program
management, within this framework,
provides leadership to a safety intervention system.
This leadership includes
defining how a CPS safety intervention system will
interface with a community;
how CPS staff will collaborate with allied professionals
in order
to achieve the purposes of
a safety intervention system. Program managers are responsible
for generating sufficient
staff and
program resources to support
a safety intervention system. Program managers employ necessary
energy and effort to keep
a safety
intervention system a) in
proper working order; b) responsive to critical feedback;
c) routinely updated and
improved; and
d) effectively communicated within and outside
the agency.
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Quality
Assurance
To be a dynamic living arrangement,
a safety intervention system depends on routine review, evaluation,
criticism, feedback and
adjustment. Continual
improvement can
only happen when results of evaluation can
be spun into a process for adaptation,
improvement
or revision. Assuring
quality relies on how well a safety intervention system is
defined and described
in policy
and procedures. Those
expectations serve
as the basis for measurement. Quality assurance is most effective
when it doesn’t
concentrate too much on explanations for success
being vested primarily
in worker
behavior and case results but looks
deeper for flaws and gaps in the entire framework
described
here. Those
who perform this
function should be well-versed, expert
in a safety intervention system.
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Competencies
A safety
intervention system becomes alive
through the behavior of those responsible for implementation.
We have always considered
a competency as a
worker behavior designed
to achieve something. We have
determined that there are fifteen safety intervention
competencies that are present within a
safety intervention system.
1.Gathering safety related information
2.Assessing present danger
3.Creating, implementing & managing an immediate-short
term protective/safety plan
4.Assessing foreseeable danger
5.Assessing protective capacities
for the safety plan
6.Assessing child vulnerability/capacity
for self-protection
7.Creating a continuing safety
plan
8.Using safety concepts to invoke
the authority of the court*
9.Evaluating safety in out-of-home
placement
10.Reunifying a child with their
family
11.Assuring that safety plans
are working
12.Arranging/conducting/managing
visitation
13.Analyzing protective capacities
to address in the case plan
14.Creating a case plan that
enhances protective capacities
15.Assuring the case plan is
working - measuring caregiver
protective
capacity progress and
change
Criteria for Judging
the Quality of
a Safety Intervention System
Judging the quality
of a safety intervention
system is a difficult,
challenging
undertaking. We do not intend
to oversimplify that here, but
we’ve
decided
to
include
criteria
that
can
serve
as
a basis
for
forming
a way
to
judge the attributes
and
worthiness
of
a safety
intervention
system.
Criteria for Judging
a Safety
Intervention System
Conceptually Based
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Is the system built on a conceptual understanding
of how safety and danger are manifested? |
| Correspondence with the State-of-the-Art |
Does the system include up-to-date research, literature
and experience available nationally? |
| Clarity and Precision in Form and Function |
Is the system and all of its parts clear and understandable
including relation and contribution to purpose? |
| Characteristics of Practice and Decision- Making |
How are activities, methods and decisions actually
performed within the system? |
| Compliance with Established Expectations |
Do activities, methods and decisions occur according
to requirements set forth in the system? |
| Congruence among Staff Perceptions |
Do staff view and understand the system in common ways? |
| Consistency in Use |
Are activities, methods and decisions performed in
similar ways across all staff? |
| Cohesiveness among Concepts, Structure and Application |
Is the system a unified whole? |
| Competency Based |
Does the system perpetuate desired worker behavior
throughout? |
| Constitutionality |
Is the system respectful and does it safeguard individual,
civil rights? |
What
a Safety Intervention
System Does
When
a child
is judged
to
be in present
or foreseeable
danger,
a safety intervention
system implements
certain
actions, methods
and decisions
to change
that
child’s
status to
one of refuge,
security
and
protection.
The means
for
achieving
that status
is to enable
a parent
or caregiver
to
provide
protection
for
the child.
To reach
that
end, a safety
intervention
system accomplishes
the
following:
-
Identifies threats
of severe
harm;
-
Judges parent
protective
capacity;
-
Controls threats of
severe harm;
-
Assesses diminished
parent protective
capacities;
-
Develops case plans
to
reduce threats
and enhance
parent protective
capacities;
-
Arranges for
services
to reduce
threats and
enhance parent
protective capacities;
-
Evaluates extent of
progress;
and
-
Closes cases with
safe homes;
or
-
Seeks out
alternative,
permanent
safe homes.
What
a Safety
Intervention
System
Achieves
Notably
the
conclusion
of our
list
of safety
intervention
accomplishments
is
the establishment
of
a safe
home.
We
close with
a summary
of
what
a safe
home
is.
Remember,
earlier
when looking
at
ASFA
direction
for
creating
a safety
intervention
system,
we
quoted
a
portion
of
the law?
The
law
requires…
A plan assuring
that the child receives safe and proper care and that the
services are provided to parents,
child and foster parents in order to improve conditions
in the parents’ home,
facilitate
return
of
the
child
to
his
own safe
home
The
outcome
of
a
safety
intervention
system
is
a
safe
home.
Cases
can
be
closed
at
the
point
that
a
child
is
residing
in
a
permanent
safe
home.
A
safety
intervention
system
is
successful
when
it
achieves
a
permanent
safe
home.
A
safe
home
contains
the
following
qualities:
-
Absence
or
reduction
of
threats
of
severe
harm
-
Presence
of
sufficient
parent
or
caregiver
protective
capacities
-
Existing
and experienced
refuge
for
children
-
Perceived
and
felt
security
by
children
-
Confidence
in
consistency
of
conditions
that
produced
the
safe
home.
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We
provide consultation, training and technical assistance to
child welfare agencies faced with the constant challenges
of serving and protecting children and families.
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