Does Your Child Welfare Agency Have a Practice Model?

In A Child Wel­fare Leader’s Desk Guide to Build­ing a High-Per­form­ing Agency, the Casey Foun­da­tion high­lights the impor­tance of a prac­tice mod­el for pub­lic agen­cies. A des­ig­nat­ed prac­tice mod­el pro­vides man­agers and social work­ers a con­cep­tu­al road map that keeps every­one mov­ing toward the same goals.
 
​“To be effec­tive, a prac­tice mod­el bal­ances two ele­ments,” said Tracey Feild, direc­tor of Casey’s Child Wel­fare Strat­e­gy Group (CWSG). ​“It presents a big idea — the agency’s vision for accom­plish­ing its mis­sion — and a frame­work for align­ing agency poli­cies and prac­tices. Both are crit­i­cal to the suc­cess of child wel­fare agen­cies work­ing to help keep a community’s chil­dren safe, thriv­ing and liv­ing in families.”

“The most effec­tive agen­cies have prac­tice mod­els that describe how they part­ner with fam­i­lies and the com­mu­ni­ty,” said Rod­ney Brit­ting­ham, CWSG’s asso­ciate direc­tor. ​“Suc­cess­ful prac­tice mod­els are wide­ly shared. They are ref­er­ences for deci­sion mak­ing and as new poli­cies and prac­tices are dis­cussed. They are used for joint train­ings with the courts, providers, advo­cates and oth­ers so every­one is on the same page.”

For more on prac­tice mod­els, see Prac­tice No. 5 of Casey’s child wel­fare desk guide.