ASFA TRAINING PROJECT PHONE POLL OF CHILD WELFARE AGENCIES

New York

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: Because of the training that was done and our interactions with managers, we know that they have a comprehensive understanding of ASFA.

b. Supervisors:

c. Workers:

Comments: Unable to answer from a central perspective because NY is a state supervised locally administered state.

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?

• How to engage clients in service planning.
• How to help supervisors overcome obstacles and focus on opportunities that they encounter as they engage clients.
• How to use data to do planning for staffing, workload and fiscal projections.
• Preparing other agencies for the practice changes resulting from our implementation of the ASFA requirements.
• How to use information and data to improve outcomes
  
  

b. Supervisors?

• How to guide decision making with families around issues such as termination, concurrent planning and safety assessments.
• How to prepare and present information for permanency hearings.
• Given the high turnover rate, how to build rapport and be able to work with people quickly
• How to organize and package facts and information in ways that make sense to a variety of audiences.
• How to use information and data to improve outcomes
• How to prepare quality case record documentation to support
  

c. Workers?

• The ability to understand people really well.
• An understanding of partnerships and the ability to tell when they are working, when they aren't working, when they should continue and when they should be ended.
• How to deliver difficult information professionally and not feel badly about it or take it personally.
• How to deal with competing and occasionally conflicting organizational and practice interests.
• Understanding the importance of quality documentation
  
  

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
  We are using and looking into ways to get accurate information out quickly. So we are using more teleconferencing and video conferencing and are looking into setting up chat rooms. Technology is taking on a new and more immediate importance for us.
  
• 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.

We do child welfare training, not ASFA training. When ASFA was first implemented, we did regional forums and teleconferences on the individual requirements of ASFA. What we found was that that approach didn't work. When we looked as ASFA as child welfare services and incorporated that approach into our training for all levels of staff, the acceptance and understanding of the new practice requirements improved.

b. Who does the training?

University based trainers

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

Incorporated.

d. Have you done any training with or for the courts? No Yes
If yes, please describe.

The Courts do their own training, which the child welfare agency often participates in and occasionally funds.

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?

We have provided some system support for the tracking of key events from our legacy systems. We are adding additional ticklers and alerts into these systems to provide additional support until such time as our SACWIS system is able to support these areas-

A data warehousing effort is in pilot now. This includes data from both our legacy and SACWIS systems and will provide additional support for ASFA monitoring

If a rating of 1 or 2 is given, probe as to the status of the SACWIS system.
See 5a.

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

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

You must incorporate ASFA requirements into the casework flow, make them part of practice. Staff need to understand ASFA as a method of moving quickly to permanency for children, as a way to think about permanency, safety and well -being up front and as an approach to move decisively and clearly with people, not as a set of disjointed requirements.

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

A lack of data and information from our systems

Management reports are not easily produced.

Training is slow and not enough no matter how much is delivered.

It is often difficult to get legal advice early enough in the process because of the limited number of attorneys.

Lack of funding to increase resources and training around permanency for the judiciary.

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

ASFA implementation has shifted even more power to the localities. Counties have the responsibility and accountability for ASFA without a lot of new funding and with the potential for local failure. Thus, Counties have come to rely on their own data (because of the limitations of the SACWIS), deal directly with the local courts, and negotiate their own partnerships.

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?

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