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| EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
Background Child welfare agencies throughout the United States are in the midst of implementing the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA). A 'promising practices' phone poll, recently conducted by the Institute for Child and Family Policy at the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine, asked child welfare agency and court improvement project representatives to identify how meeting ASFA requirements has changed the way that child welfare agencies do business. The poll results indicate that in recognition of the complexities of the ASFA legislation child welfare agencies are launching a variety of training and administrative activities designed to support agency staff, court personnel and other community partners as they carry out the provisions of ASFA. Highlights of the Findings The results of the poll show that child welfare managers, supervisors and workers generally have some understanding of the intent of ASFA and have received training on its requirements and implementation. All states polled have done training on ASFA, often this training included community partners, guardians, advocates, foster parents and court personnel. Court training is of particular interest since the relationship of the child welfare agency and the court is an important factor in how smoothly cases move through the system. When asked what skills were needed by child welfare managers, supervisors and workers to implement ASFA, respondents mentioned casework skills most frequently. This result seems surprising as managers and supervisors don't usually do case work as part of their day to day jobs. Yet, given that many agencies reported that implementing ASFA was, in effect, performing 'good casework practice', enhancing skills in casework practice may be understandable. Other skills often mentioned by poll respondents were communication, collaboration and understanding ASFA requirements --- all are reasonable skills to expect given the emphasis by ASFA on increased interaction with stakeholders. The poll also showed that child welfare agencies have made changes in agency structure and internal communication as part of ASFA implementation. However, agencies were less likely to have changed performance appraisals, job descriptions or staff recruitment practices as a result of ASFA. Next Steps The project team will distribute the Building the Child Welfare Team, 'Promising Practices' 2001 Phone Poll Results report to respondents, child welfare agencies and other interested entities and will use the poll data to inform the development of a curriculum on ASFA implementation and data use skills for child welfare managers and supervisors. We hope this report and the related training will be productive forums for sharing throughout the child welfare community promising administrative practices that have proved helpful to individual child welfare agencies as they work to meet the challenge of implementing ASFA. |
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