ASFA TRAINING PROJECT PHONE POLL OF CHILD WELFARE AGENCIES

North Dakota

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:

b. Supervisors:

c. Workers:

Comments: The front line staff in the more rural counties has difficulty getting to the regional training sessions.

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?

• Managing for outcomes.
• Strategic planning
• Looking at data and knowing how to use it
  

b. Supervisors?

• Concurrent planning requires people to be able to deal with conflict resolution around case management issues. We need to be more the skilled at bringing up differences of opinion and mediating the differences on a case by case basis.
  

c. Workers?

• Same as Supervisors
  

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.
  The evaluations/performance appraisals of state staff include the strategic plan goals and outcomes.
  
• Job descriptions? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  We are building the strategic plan goals and outcomes into the job descriptions.
  
• Staff recruitment? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  

4. How do you handle staff training on ASFA?

a. Please describe the training.

We have had Sarah Greenblat here to train on permanency and concurrent planning issues, as well as Mark Hardin who worked with the courts and us. Tara Mulhauser, who directs the Child and Family Service Training Center at UND, presented ASFA issues, philosophy and requirements during 3 ½ day sessions in each region. These sessions were attended by child welfare, tribe and judicial personnel. We will be doing more of this type of session.

b. Who does the training?

The Child and Family Service Training Center at UND

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

The Child and Family Service Training Center at UND conducts our 4 week child welfare certification program and assures that this certification program is consistent with the underpinnings and philosophy of ASFA.

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

See 4a.

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?

The ND SACWIS is not yet fully functional. Foster care and payment information are on-line; in-home case information is very limited

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

At this time, only the Central Registry and Placement Tracking pieces of the SACWIS system are up.

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

Talking, talking and then talking more.

Training, training and then training more. It is important to measure the impact of the training; to figure out a way for managers to follow-up on the usefulness of the training so that the training is more than just a nice afternoon out of the office. One way to do that is to rate the skills learned at the training on the performance appraisals.

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

We currently have too many things going on at once. Our priorities include developing a Cross Agency Single Plan of Care and building an integrated data system, as well as the usual participation in the budget process, preparation for the federal review, recruitment of staff and delivery of services. We are understaffed even without the special projects. Also, there is a sense that the legislature and private sector 'under appreciates' the work this agency does.

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

It makes it much more of a relationship building process and less directive. The state acts more as a cheerleader than doer.

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?

A lot of ASFA is best practice. In ND, we already had in place many requirements similar to those contained in ASFA so when ASFA came along, it just reaffirmed what we were doing.

The frontline staff is getting hit with a lot of paperwork, some of which may be duplicative. We need to be thoughtful about what we ask of the frontline workers to be sure that we use their time most efficiently.

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