June 2022Vol. 23, No. 5Brief Details Findings About Coordinated Services Approaches in Child Welfare

A recent brief from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation within the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services details findings from the Assessing Models of Coordinated Services (AMCS) study. The brief describes lessons learned and examples gathered during interviews with leaders from 18 coordinated services approaches.

A coordinated services approach is an effort by a program, agency, or organization that involves coordinating services for children and families through partnerships. These approaches can occur at both the state and local levels. 

During the interviews, the AMCS research team identified key themes about coordination and partnerships. The following are some of the key takeaways from the interviews: 

• Collaborating with partners and aligning goals can help partners meet families' needs. 
• Coordinated services approaches can improve access to, enrollment in, and the quality of certain health and human services, including early care and education. 
• Successful partnerships often involve information sharing. 
• State and local coordinated services approaches often reciprocally share information. 
• Coordinated services approaches often combine funding to meet multiple family needs. 
• Collecting data from coordinated services approaches can inform partners' understanding of their service areas and help them provide customized services.