ASFA TRAINING PROJECT PHONE POLL OF CHILD WELFARE AGENCIES

California

1. How would you rate your agency's staff in terms of their understanding of ASFA requirements? We are particularly interested in the level of understanding of managers, supervisors and workers. Please rate their understanding on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being 'poor' and 5 being 'comprehensive'.

a. Managers:

Comments: The scores will be low since ASFA didn't have much impact in CA as we already had laws requiring concurrent planning and 14 reason not to re-unify. Therefore, the primary impact of ASFA on us was in the area of TPR.

b. Supervisors:

Comments: Same as managers.

c. Workers:

Comments: Same as managers.

2. Based on your agency's experience to date, what skills do you think managers, supervisors and workers need to have to implement ASFA?

a. Managers?

• Cooperative working relationships among the various parts of the child welfare agency. Managers for the various units need to work together around cases and case planning very early in the process.
• Policy and procedure creation.
• Leadership around practice and permanency issues.
  
  

b. Supervisors?

• Skillwise they are already there. Our issue is workload.
  

c. Workers?

• How to talk to relatives about making a permanency commitment.
  
  

3. As part of your ASFA implementation has your agency undertaken any activities in the following areas:

• Agency structure? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  
• Internal communication? No Yes
  If yes, please describe
  Performance appraisals? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
• Job descriptions? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  
• Staff recruitment? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  

4. How do you handle staff training on ASFA?

a. Please describe the training.

On the topic of concurrent planning, we did training of trainers for the counties and regional training centers. What we train on now is shifting from the initial emphasis on policy and procedure to more focus on practice issues.

b. Who does the training?

Primarily CalSWEC (CA Social Work Education Center)

c. Is the training just on ASFA or is it incorporated into other training that you provide?

Incorporated. For example, the Inter-disciplinary training that CalSWEC is doing includes concurrent planning.

d. Have you done any training with or for the courts? No Yes
If yes, please describe.
We try but we haven't yet hit on the best strategy to keep in synch with them. While we present at the annual Beyond the Bench Conference, court officers who already know about timely permanency are the most likely to attend. The California Department of Social Services sponsored a practice training for court staff but the attendance of judges was disappointingly low.

5. How well does your information system support the work of managers, supervisors and workers in implementing ASFA? Please rate the support provided by your system on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being 'poor' and 5 being 'outstanding'

a. Why did you give your system that rating?

Our system doesn't support it particularly well. The system does have some key dates, such as TPR and adoption screening, and we did add the concurrent plan to the treatment plan. However, the system is not fully up in all 58 counties. It is hard to get ad hoc reports and the system is cumbersome and difficult for the workers to use. The system doesn't yet support adoption activities so it is difficult to track activities from TPR to adoption finalization.

b. If a rating of 1 or 2 is given, probe as to the status of the SACWIS system.

NA

6. What has worked best for you in terms of supporting staff as they implement the ASFA requirements?

You must emphasize the agency's mission of safety, timely permanency and well being for children over and over again. The workers are caught in conflicting demands, contradictory policies and all the details. It is important to remind them why we are doing this work and let them know that not all families can be rehabilitated.

7. What do you view as barriers to your agency's support for staff as they implement the requirements of ASFA?

Caseloads are horrendous. High caseloads prevent you from doing the best job you can in the first three months when so many important activities need to happen.

Judges not following the law especially in the smaller jurisdictions where there isn't a specialized dependency court.

The CFS reviews don't have as a measure the 'number of kids in long term care' which can result in foster care drift.

8. (For County based systems only.) To what extent does the fact that your state is county-based impact your ASFA implementation?

The early adapters got out there and did a good job. There isn't a perfect way to do child welfare and having a county-based system allows us to be responsive to local service needs.

9. Is there anything else that you want to tell us regarding the best way to support staff as they implement the requirements of ASFA?

Get management to organize the system, including policies, procedures and role expectations, to support workers. Workers will usually do what you want them to do but they need to understand the expectations. With ASFA, the practice issues are fairly straightforward; it is the system issues that are the challenges.

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