October 2010Vol. 11, No. 8Print issueSpotlight on Implementation

Issue Spotlight

• The Mountains and Plains Child Welfare Implementation Center

  The Mountains and Plains Child Welfare Implementation Center

  With a service area that cuts through the middle of the country, the Mountains and Plains Child Welfare Implementation Center (MPCWIC) supports State and Tribal child welfare agencies in Regions VI and VIII, extending from Montana south to Louisiana and covering 11 States and 66 Tribes. MPCWIC's funded projects reflect the diversity of this large area and include:

  • Colorado Department of Human Services' Project on Child Welfare Practice Reform. This 3-year project will define and implement a Colorado child welfare practice model, with a focus on providing technical assistance to ensure improved capacity for data measurement and quality assurance/improvement.
  • New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department's Child Welfare Practice Model. This project is focused on the development and implementation of a clearly articulated practice framework, inclusive of vision, mission, values, and operating principles, to guide all of the State's change initiatives.
  • Osage Nation Implementation Project. The goals are to develop a business mapping model and a culturally based family-centered child welfare practice model, along with a decision support data system to help facilitate these models. The project will create system change on the management and direct practice level to improve the coordination and delivery of child welfare services to Osage Nation families and children.
  • The Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations) and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa's Skun-eyah (Garden) Project. The project includes the development and implementation of a culturally sensitive child welfare practice model that is directly related to improved outcomes for Native families and children. The project also includes a business process mapping component to ensure consistent quality child welfare services to families and children.

  The MPCWIC approach for each implementation project will focus on aligning technical assistance and evaluation with the six stages of implementation:

  1. Exploration
  2. Installation
  3. Initial implementation
  4. Full implementation
  5. Innovation
  6. Sustainability

  MPCWIC's website includes a number of presentations and other resources from its regional forums on such topics as system change and practice models. Access the resource links here:
  www.uta.edu/mpcwic/link-resources
  
  MPCWIC is operated under a cooperative agreement by the University of Texas at Arlington, School of Social Work, Judith Granger Birmingham Center of Child Welfare; the University of Denver, Butler Institute for Families, Denver, CO; and the Native American Training Institute in Bismarck, ND.

  For more information, contact Dr. Maria Scannapieco, Principal Investigator:
  mscannapieco@uta.edu

  Or visit the MPCWIC website:
  www.uta.edu/mpcwic

• The Atlantic Coast Child Welfare Implementation Center

  The Atlantic Coast Child Welfare Implementation Center

  The Atlantic Coast Child Welfare Implementation Center (ACCWIC) partners with State and Tribal child welfare agencies in ACF Regions III and IV, serving 13 States, the District of Columbia, and 6 Tribes. ACCWIC provides long-term consultation and support to facilitate sustainable systems change. Using a systems of care framework and applying Child and Family Services Review principles, the Center:

  • Provides implementation knowledge to coach and facilitate successful individualized implementation projects
  • Fosters systemic and lasting improvements in child welfare agencies
  • Convenes regional forums
  • Supports peer-to-peer networking
  • Generates toolkits, resource manuals, and other products to document "what works"
  • Engages evaluation techniques and employs "lessons learned"

  ACCWIC is currently supporting five individualized implementation projects:

  • Mississippi Department of Human Services: Statewide Implementation of a Family Centered Practice Model: Increasing Readiness and Managing Change
  • North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Social Services Division: An Initiative to Create a Technical Assistance Program in North Carolina's Child Welfare System
  • Tennessee Department of Children's Services: Strengthening In-Home Services Through the Utilization of Service Array in Individualized Case Planning
  • West Virginia Bureau of Children and Families: Implementing West Virginia's Safety Assessment Management System
  • Maryland Department of Human Resources, Social Services Administration: Youth Engagement in Planning for Self-Sufficiency

  ACCWIC chartered the Learning Leaders Council (LLC) as a foundation for its peer-to-peer network. The LLC includes one representative from each State and Tribe with a depth of understanding of their child welfare programs and resources. The LLC exchanges information around the successes and challenges to implementation of sustainable systems change. It serves as a vehicle to assist in the development of the ACCWIC Learning Community by recommending structure and content for the peer-to-peer network. Members of the LLC assist with the development of strategies to target the dissemination of implementation resource information to best support each State and Tribe. Council members also provide valuable input to the planning of future ACCWIC forums.
  
  The ACCWIC website offers a number of resources, including:

  • Materials (handouts and video presentations) from the ACCWIC 2010 Annapolis, MD, conference (http://www.accwic.org/news_events/accwic_10_conference_materials.htm)
  • Materials from the 2009 Atlanta, GA, conference (http://www.accwic.org/news_events/accwic_09_conference_materials.htm)
  • Toolkits and resources (http://www.accwic.org/lc/tools.html)
  • A PowerPoint presentation: What Child Welfare Agencies in Regions III and IV Are Most Proud Of (http://www.accwic.org/states_tribes/States%20and%20Tribes%20poster.pdf) (1,334 KB)

  For more information about ACCWIC, contact Cathy Fisher, Project Director:
  cfisher@ssw.umaryland.edu

  Or visit the ACCWIC website:
  http://www.accwic.org

• The National Implementation Research Network

  The National Implementation Research Network

  The National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, offers information on implementation and its constructs, especially as it relates to social services work. The website includes documents, presentations, reports, and links to other useful information. Visit the NIRN website (www.fpg.unc.edu/~nirn/default.cfm) to find:

  • Implementation Research: A Synthesis of the Literature, which summarizes findings from implementation studies and proposes frameworks for understanding effective implementation (www.fpg.unc.edu/~nirn/resources/detail.cfm?resourceID=31)
  • Reviews of Collections of Programs, Curricula, Practices, and Tools: Evaluated According to Evidence, which includes reviews of more than 200 education, youth, child welfare, and other programs (www.fpg.unc.edu/~nirn/reviews/index.cfm)
  • Presentations on implementation in the context of addictive behaviors, evidence-based education, systems of care, and more (www.fpg.unc.edu/~nirn/resources/type.cfm?typeID=3)
  • Information about the first Global Implementation Conference, which will occur in the fall of 2011 (www.implementationconference.org)

  Related Items
  A number of other websites are beginning to offer resources on implementation and human services:

  • The Urban Institute provides a basic article on implementation research and links to other articles offering examples of implementation in social work.
    www.urban.org/toolkit/data-methods/implementation.cfm
  • The World Health Organization sponsors a working group on knowledge synthesis and exchange and implementation research.
    www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/best_practices/en/index.html
  • Implementation Science is a journal website with a strong focus on biomedical science.  However, there are a number of general implementation articles that focus on organizational change and similar topics.
    www.implementationscience.com
• Defining Implementation

  Defining Implementation

  A special issue of last year's Research on Social Practice, Vol. 19(5), focused on the implementation of evidence-based practice in human services fields. Two articles in particular provide background on implementation and its components.
  
  "What Is Implementation Research? Rationale, Concepts, and Practices," by Onil Bhattacharyya, Scott Reeves, and Merrick Zwarenstein, provides an overview of implementation research in the social sciences, exploring the gap between knowledge and practice, and discusses how to bring current practice closer to best practice.
  
  "Core Implementation Components," by Dean Fixsen, Karen Blase, Sandra Naoom, and Frances Wallace, describes both the stages of implementation and the core components, arguing that the "missing link" between science and service is implementation.
  
  The six stages of implementation include:

  • Exploration
  • Installation
  • Initial implementation
  • Full implementation
  • Innovation
  • Sustainability

  The core components (or implementation drivers), which are discussed in more detail, include:

  • Staff selection
  • Preservice and in-service training
  • Ongoing coaching and consultation
  • Staff evaluation
  • Decision support data systems
  • Facilitative administrative support
  • Systems interventions

  As described by the authors, the components are integrated with each other to influence staff behavior and organizational culture. They are also integrated with the stages so that it is easy to identify where implementation teams are in the implementation process (i.e., what stage) and what they are doing (e.g., what core component). 
  
  The full articles are available for purchase on the Sage Journal website:
  
  http://rsw.sagepub.com/content/19/5.toc
   

• The Northeast and Caribbean Child Welfare Implementation Center

  The Northeast and Caribbean Child Welfare Implementation Center

  The mission of the Northeast and Caribbean Implementation Center (NCIC) is to facilitate communication and networking across public child welfare systems, to offer guidance and tools identifying sustainable system change strategies, and to provide resources to support intensive implementation projects that improve the quality and effectiveness of services for children, youth, and families. The NCIC serves States, territories, and title IV-B funded Tribes in ACF Region I (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut) and Region II (New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands).
  
  The primary work of NCIC is to provide technical assistance focused not simply on a discreet problem or issue but on topics that are substantial enough to create sustainable systemic change. To carry out our work, NCIC offers a range of activities and resources to the States and Tribes in ACF Regions I and II, including:

  • Peer Networking: NCIC supports regional peer networks that share implementation experiences and provide mutual aid and problem-solving. Recent network opportunities have focused on public sector leadership strategies, coaching models, and starting up implementation projects.
  • Intensive Implementation Projects: As of June 2010, the NCIC is providing training and technical assistance resources to six State child welfare agencies to support projects that focus on improving child welfare practice and enhancing the skills of supervisors. The following are the current NCIC implementation projects:
    • Connecticut Department of Children and Families: Advancing Child and Family Outcomes through Integrated Practice and Contracted Program Improvement Initiatives
    • Massachusetts Department of Children and Families: Enhancing Supervisory Capacity to Support and Sustain the New DCF Integrated Casework Practice Model
    • New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families: Designing and Implementing a Statewide Family-Centered Practice Model for Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice
    • New Jersey Department of Children and Families: Managing With Data to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families
    • New York State Office of Children and Family Services: Building a System of Sustainable Supports for Child Welfare Supervisors
    • Vermont Department for Children and Families, Family Services Division: Implementing a Comprehensive Statewide Practice Model Implementation

  From engaging with these States to implement their projects, NCIC is learning many lessons about what it takes to implement large-scale system reform in public child welfare agencies. These early lessons and full descriptions of these projects can be found on the NCIC website. 

  • Evaluation and Dissemination of Learning
  • The NCIC website offers audio files of NCIC peer networking calls, information about NCIC services, links to other sites of interest to those in child welfare, and recent NCIC publications, including:
    • Basics of Coaching: A Brief Review of Recent Literature
    • New Jersey Department of Children and Families “Manage by Data” National Promising Practice Findings
    • Supervisory Models in Child Welfare

  For further information, contact Susan Kanak, Project Director:
  skanak@usm.maine.edu

  Or visit the NCIC website:
  http://ncic.muskie.usm.maine.edu

• West Virginia Implements Integrated Safety System

  West Virginia Implements Integrated Safety System

  West Virginia's Bureau for Children and Families (BCF) is implementing a new child protective services (CPS) model that makes child safety the primary consideration in child welfare decision-making. The West Virginia Safety Assessment and Management System (SAMS) is based on a comprehensive safety intervention model developed by ACTION for Child Protection, Inc. ACTION for Child Protection consulted with West Virginia to define and adapt intervention concepts, criteria, and processes that are intended to establish structure and standardization for practice and decision-making during CPS involvement with families.
  
  West Virginia BCF partnered with the National Resource Center for CPS and the Atlantic Coast Child Welfare Implementation Center (ACCWIC) to plan and support systematic implementation of SAMS across the State.
  
  Advantages of SAMS
  SAMS represents a significant change in how West Virginia's CPS workers respond to reports of child abuse and neglect. BCF staff knew that a meaningful change in approach was necessary, especially after the State's two Federal Child and Family Services Reviews (in 2003 and 2008) indicated that West Virginia's child welfare practice did not meet the standards for child safety. In addition, the State had a high acceptance rate for reports made to CPS and a high repeat maltreatment rate.
  
  As an evidence- and research-based model, SAMS offers a number of advantages over the previous CPS approach:

  • It provides workers with consistent standards and tools to help them collect appropriate information from families.
  • It offers guided decision-making so that workers can make more objective decisions based on the safety of children and the protective capacities of caregivers.
  • It emphasizes supervisory involvement and oversight.
  • It is a family-centered approach designed to respect families and to engage them in decision-making and problem-solving.

  Implementing SAMS
  After an extensive planning process, West Virginia is implementing SAMS in a staged rollout that began in 2009. Dr. Sarah Kaye, Director of Research & Evaluation for ACCWIC, notes, "West Virginia's approach to SAMS implementation is grounded in implementation science and brings best practices from other fields to public child welfare. The State is focusing on organizational structures and supports as well as staff competence to increase the likelihood of sustained practice change." 
  
  The four family assessments are being introduced individually, so that workers have time to fully learn and incorporate each new process. "Special Forces" teams—composed of program managers, supervisors, child welfare consultants, and trainers who are experts in SAMS—are embedded throughout the State to provide training and mentoring to staff and supervisors. The work of Special Forces is supported by technical assistance and consultation from the National Resource Center for CPS.
  
  Commissioner Jason Najmulski and Deputy Commissioner Louis Palma are active and visible champions of SAMS. The State is aligning policies, procedures, data systems, and quality assurance to provide the infrastructure to support SAMS. Stakeholders and collaborative partners have been engaged at the State and local level to promote community support. 
  
  West Virginia is one of five States that was selected as an ACCWIC implementation project in 2009. ACCWIC provides technical assistance and has helped in developing a Fidelity Monitoring System to collect SAMS fidelity data during clinical case consultation that is used to inform the implementation process. Eventually, fidelity data and Federal outcome data will be integrated into data dashboards that all BCF staff across the State will be able to access.
  
  SAMS and Workers
  Both workers and stakeholders have had generally positive reactions to the new model. Amy Lawson Booth, Statewide SAMS Implementation Coordinator, explained, "Because of SAMS, we're really getting a chance to practice social work. We've moved away from investigative work, and we're intervening with families when and how we should." An online newsletter, SAMS Horizons, keeps BCF staff across the State informed of the implementation progress, provides regional news about SAMS, and spotlights an outstanding SAMS worker in each region.
  
  Looking Ahead
  BCF staff expect to see full implementation of SAMS in the fall of 2011. Besides the staged rollout, the State is making changes to its Families and Children Tracking System to be able to incorporate SAMS data. SAMS implementation is also having a big effect on the State's Program Improvement Plan (PIP) process, and staff look to SAMS to contribute to improved practice, more appropriate services for families, fewer entries and reentries into the child welfare system, more emphasis on family-centered practice, and, of course, improved safety for children.
  
  Learn more about SAMS and access the extensive materials on the SAMS website:
  www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/sams
  
  Many thanks to Amy Lawson Booth, Statewide SAMS Implementation Coordinator, who provided the information for this article.
   

• The Western and Pacific Child Welfare Implementation Center

  The Western and Pacific Child Welfare Implementation Center

  The Western and Pacific Child Welfare Implementation Center (WPIC) partners with States, Tribes, and territories in transforming child welfare systems to improve the services delivered to children, youth, and families in ACF Regions IX (Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii, American Samoa, and Guam) and X (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska).
  
  The Center provides technical assistance to overcome barriers to systems change, accelerate the pace of change, and operationalize core values systemwide to transform policy and practice. The Center has identified five interrelated key elements that are critical for implementing sustainable systems change: leadership/commitment, vision and values, environment, capacity/infrastructure, and stakeholder involvement.
  
  To support the implementation of sustainable change, the Center administers and facilitates systems change implementation projects. These projects are intensive, in-depth technical assistance efforts tailored to the strengths and needs of child welfare systems. Based on the review and selection of their initial applications, the following sites in Regions IX and X have been selected by WPIC and the Children's Bureau to implement their proposed systems change efforts:

  • The Navajo Nation has proposed to implement culturally competent permanency planning consistently into practice. This project will increase timely permanency by implementing concurrent planning practices.
  • In partnership with 15 other Alaska Tribal organizations and in collaboration with the State of Alaska, the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska will address disproportionality of Alaska Native family involvement in child welfare systems by creating an alternative response system and enhancing family involvement in decision-making.
  • Los Angeles will align and coordinate its existing child welfare reform efforts and engage families, youth, and stakeholders as partners in planning for and implementation of child welfare system change efforts.

  WPIC also provides opportunities for States, Tribes, and territories to learn from each other about planning and implementing systems change in child welfare. The Center hosted a regional forum on lessons learned in implementing systems change, coordinated webinars featuring strategies for planning and creating buy-in for systems change, and shared information through a listserv and website. The Center will be facilitating peer learning with sites approved for a systems change implementation project and providing opportunities to learn from the experiences of these sites in implementing systems change.
  
  WPIC is led by the American Institutes for Research, working in partnership with four other national organizations:

  • National Indian Child Welfare Association
  • Center for the Study of Social Policy
  • Georgetown University's National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health
  • Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida

  For more information, contact Marketa Gautreau, Project Director
  mgautreau@air.org

  Or visit the WPIC website
  www.wpicenter.org

• The Midwest Child Welfare Implementation Center

  The Midwest Child Welfare Implementation Center

  The Midwest Child Welfare Implementation Center (MCWIC) is part of the Center on Children, Families and the Law (CCFL) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. CCFL is a multidisciplinary center devoted to teaching, research, and public service on issues related to child and family policy and services.  MCWIC works with the States and Tribes in Region V (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota) and Region VII (Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas). Using a multidisciplinary, multilevel, and systemic approach, MCWIC is engaged in four implementation projects:

  • Indiana Department of Child Services; Project: Centralized Intake Unit
    MCWIC is providing implementation support as the Indiana Department of Child Services institutes a centralized intake system to replace the current system of approximately 210 different phone numbers staffed by case managers, supervisors, and contract employees located throughout the State's 92 counties. The new system will result in consistency of practice, improved responsiveness to community stakeholders, and improved case tracking capability.
  • Iowa Department of Human Services; Project: Partnering With Parents for System Change
    MCWIC is partnering with the Iowa Department of Human Services to institutionalize parent engagement strategies that actively inform child welfare policy, practice, and programs statewide. One of those strategies is the Parent Partner program, which will be initiated across the State. This implementation project will also help to establish policy and practice informed by parents' insights by building a cadre of parents actively engaged in all levels of child welfare practice in Iowa.
  • Ohio Office of Families and Children; Project: New Technical Assistance Model
    The Ohio Office of Families and Children, with MCWIC's support and collaboration, is developing and implementing a new model for providing technical assistance to its stakeholders. The project consists of several distinct elements: a formal assessment of organizational culture and climate, a comprehensive rule review, implementation of organizational structural and functional changes to facilitate the new technical assistance model, and ongoing fidelity monitoring.
  • Wisconsin Department of Children and Families; Project: Best Outcomes for Indian Children
    The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and MCWIC are working with Wisconsin's 71 county child welfare agencies and the 11 sovereign Tribes in Wisconsin to improve outcomes for Indian children. The project includes developing child welfare practice principles, training materials, and standardized case practice tools designed to effectively implement the recently enacted Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act.

  MCWIC also provides peer networking opportunities for child welfare professionals, such as:

  • Consultative in-person meetings between child welfare professionals engaged in similar implementation efforts
  • Tribal Gatherings focused on topics of interest to Tribal child welfare practitioners. Tribal Gatherings provide opportunities to build and foster links between peers. MCWIC also provides participants with information regarding system change and innovative Tribal Child Welfare practices. Information and media from the first three Tribal Gatherings are available here: www.mcwic.org/events
  • Regional Forums designed to foster peer connections among child welfare professionals and to provide them with knowledge relevant to the implementation process, in Years 1, 3, and 5 of our project. Information and media from our first Regional Forums can also be found here: www.mcwic.org/events
  • Implementation project focused webinars
  • CONNECT, an Internet social networking website developed and hosted by MCWIC specifically with the child welfare community in mind. It serves child welfare workers, administrators, trainers, and their support network - including individuals at the State, Tribal, county, and Federal levels. CONNECT is free, flexible, and for those who care about the welfare of children.

  MCWIC has a number of other child welfare and implementation resources listed on its website. To access those resources, visit:
  www.mcwic.org/resources

  For more information, contact Mark Ells, Project Director:
  mells@ccfl.unl.edu

  Or visit the MCWIC website:
  www.mcwic.org