Child welfare management: a model curriculum.

A social work school curriculum designed especially to train persons to manage child welfare program is in its second year of operation. It may provide a model for training personnel in this area.     

Child welfare workers: who they are and how they view the child welfare system

This article examines the characteristics of child welfare caseworkers, their views of the child welfare system, their clients, their agency of employment, and child welfare policies, and whether these views vary according to caseworkers' characteristics. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze in-depth interviews conducted with caseworkers in New York and Chicago. The major themes that emerged from the analysis indicate caseworkers believed that the child welfare system does not meet the needs of the children in care, lacks the resources to appropriately serve clients, and often establishes goals that cannot be attained by the biological parents. Caseworkers held negative views of the biological parents and, although most described their organization as well equipped, almost as many reported that their organization lacked technical, administrative, and personnel resources. Caseworkers' views of child welfare policies emphasized the need for reforming the system and reevaluating funding priorities.     

Child wellbeing assessment in child welfare: A review of four measures

Child wellbeing is identified as one of the three primary goals for child welfare outcomes, thus strong wellbeing assessment tools are crucial to the monitoring of child welfare success. Data from wellbeing measures can serve to identify child needs, inform case planning, monitor change over time, and evaluate intervention impact at the individual, local, state, and national levels. This paper examines the goals, strengths, and challenges of four wellbeing measures currently used with child welfare populations, namely: the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS), the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Assessment Tool (CANS), the Child Behavior Checklist and related tools from the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (CBCL/ASEBA), and the Treatment Outcomes Package (TOP). For each measure, we describe the content, practical attributes, clinical applications, and evidence of reliability and validity. We explore implementation considerations and provide recommendations for system changes to ensure the optimal use of each instrument. Agencies are encouraged to carefully consider their needs, goals, capacities, and implementation infrastructure to inform selection of tools that will aid them in successfully supporting and monitoring child wellbeing over time.     

Societal factors impacting child welfare: Re-validating the Perceptions of Child Welfare Scale

ObjectiveThis research examines the psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Child Welfare Scale (PCWS) by seeking to understand the differences between workers' perceptions of how society views them based upon job title by revalidating the PCWS with a sample of administrators and clinicians.MethodsConfirmatory factor analysis was utilized to analyze data on 165 administrators and 153 clinical child welfare workers.ResultsThe final model consisted of three latent variables with ten indicators related to stigma, value, and respect ([X²] = 167.6, [p] = 0.00; [RMSEA] = 0.07; 90% [CI]: 0.06–0.09; [CFI] = 0.95; [TLI] = 0.95).DiscussionThe factors found in the previous study were confirmed using an entirely different sample of child welfare workers. The factors value, stigma, and respect were confirmed across the sample based upon whether the workers were administrators or clinicians. This provides reassurance that measuring how workers perceive they are viewed by those outside the child welfare system does not vary based upon job title.     

Organizational responses to the Convention on the Rights of the Child: international lessons for child welfare organizations.

This article describes ways several large, international, child-focused institutions have responded to the nearly universal ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Although governments (with the exception of the United States and Somalia) are the actual signatories to the CRC, non-governmental organizations played an active role in drafting the CRC, and continue to monitor its implementation and integrate it into their own work. Many have expanded their own human rights/child rights program approaches in recognition of the CRC's principles. Children's participation in organizations, perhaps the most radical element of the CRC, is a challenge to all groups.     

Methamphetamine and the changing face of child welfare: practice principles for child welfare workers

Methamphetamine use and production is changing child welfare practice. Methamphetamine is a significant public health threat (National Institute of Justice, 1999) reaching epidemic proportions (Anglin, Burke, Perrochet, Stamper, & Dawud-Nouris, 2000). The manufacturing of methamphetamine is a serious problem for the child welfare system, yet child welfare has not addressed the needs of children living in homes where methamphetamine is manufactured (U.S. Department of Justice, 2002; DOJ, 2003; Altshuler, 2005). This article presents key issues for child welfare workers related to the use, production, and effects of methamphetamine on children and families, and identifies practice principles for child welfare workers in order to ensure safety for victims, parents, and workers themselves.     

Prevention in child welfare: a framework for management and practice

Development of preventive programs in child welfare has been handicapped by the necessity to serve those in immediate need. A framework defining the role, objectives and techniques of prevention is based on a different perspective for service.     

Family-centered child welfare services: new life for a historic idea

The recent emphasis on permanency planning in child welfare has strengthened the resolve of policy makers and service providers to serve the families of dependent children better. Permanency planning asks child welfare services either to reunite children in care with their families of origin or to find permanent substitute families for children, but the goal of a permanent family for every child has been much easier to articulate than it has been to achieve.     

Child resilience in out-of-home care: Child welfare worker perspectives

The study of resilience and its associated factors is highly applicable to the child welfare population as children living in out-of-home care have often experienced much adversity and are particularly vulnerable to the development of problems in numerous domains of functioning. The use of qualitative research in this area is scarce, and the majority of such studies have been based on the U.K. or U.S. child welfare systems. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to gain child welfare workers' perspectives on resilience and to explore the factors that they believe might influence resilience. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 child welfare workers from Ontario (Canada) to accomplish this goal. The interview was developed using an ecological perspective that inquired about possible sources of resilience from within children themselves, their family, their community, and the child welfare worker and agency. The workers identified a number of factors associated with resilience (e.g., child intelligence, worker communication skills); however, the critical importance of a child's relationships and social support from others underpinned all factors discussed. The findings highlight the importance of including the perspectives of all those involved in the child welfare system in assessing the well-being of children in out-of-home care. In addition, the dynamic interrelationships between the various levels of the ecological model and how these can impact on how a child is doing in out-of-home care were highlighted.     

Reaching children at risk: a model for training child welfare specialists

An innovative model for the training of social welfare students in the special skills essential in child welfare work is predicated upon a classification system of children at risk and a continuum of services.     

Serving the urban poor: a study of child welfare preventive services.

This summary, for journal publication, of a study whose full details are being published in book form, brings the welfare field up-to-date on what began as a precedent-setting agency. The Lower East Side Family Union, in New York City, has provided many years of service, and has justifiably drawn national attention from its inception, when prevention was more talked about than funded. The lessons to be drawn from its work and the example it has set grow more timely every year.     

Child welfare: A view from Australia

In this article the author presents an analysis of family and child welfare in Australia. The author explores the philosophical approaches underlying the development of child welfare policies. Through a historical perspective the author identifies factors which may have influenced some current child welfare policies and practices. Characteristics of the Australian child are described and selected child welfare services in Australia are discussed.She is Editor ofAustralian Child and Family Welfare Journal. She has worked in child welfare in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.     

A child welfare agency project: therapy for families of status offenders.

A pilot project providing therapy for families of status-offender youths has proved effective in reducing placements and costs.     

Transgender children and youth: a child welfare practice perspective

Using an ecological framework, the existing literature and research, and the authors' combined 60 years of clinical practice with children, youth, and families, this article examines gender variant childhood development from a holistic viewpoint where children, youth, and environments are understood as a unit in the context of their relationship to one another. The focus is limited to a discussion about the recognition of gender identity; an examination of the adaptation process through which gender variant children and youth go through to deal with the stress of an environment where there is not a "goodness of fit"; and a discussion of the overall developmental tasks of a transgender childhood and adolescence. Recommendations for social work practice with gender variant young people are presented in the conclusion of the paper.     

When a child welfare client dies: an agency-centered perspective

When working with vulnerable children and their families, the specter of client death for child welfare workers and agencies is recognized as a rare but unsparingly real event. This article uses an agency-centered perspective to explore the multilayered steps agencies may implement at the supervisory through administrative levels to build agency-wide support for workers to cope and perform well during such crises.     

Substance-abusing child welfare parents: treatment and child placement outcomes

The authors present findings from their study of 167 child welfare parents referred for substance abuse assessments. Relationships between gender, prior treatment, court-ordered intervention, significant others' support, and treatment and placement outcomes are examined. Findings indicate significant others' support positively influences all outcomes while court-ordered intervention is not predictive. Prior treatment is associated with continued substance abuse. Gender differences exist for assessment completion and several client characteristics. Implications for practice are drawn.