center for social services research school of social welfare, uc berkeley safety and permanence in...

CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley

Safety and Permanence in Child Welfare

Second Canadian Roundtable on Child Welfare OutcomesOctober 8-9, 2009Montreal, Canada

Barbara Needell, MSW, PhDCenter for Social Services ResearchUniversity of California at Berkeley

The Performance Indicators Project is a collaboration of the California Department of Social Services and the University of California at Berkeley,

and is supported by the California Department of Social Services and the Stuart Foundation


counterbalancedindicators of system

performance

permanencythrough reunification,

adoption, orguardianship

lengthof stay

stability stability of careof care

rate of referrals/substantiated referrals

home-based services vs.

out of home care

positive attachments to family, friends, and neighbors

use of leastrestrictive

form of care

Source: Usher, C.L., Wildfire, J.B., Gogan, H.C. & Brown, E.L. (2002). Measuring Outcomes in Child Welfare. Chapel Hill: Jordan Institute for Families,

reentry to care

what can we measure?


three ways to measure

pointin time

exit cohorts

entry cohorts

data


the view matters…How long do children stay in foster care?

January 1, 2008 December 31, 2008July 1, 2008

Source: Aron Shlonsky, University of Toronto (formerly at CSSR)


18

31

21 22

86

27

22

29

16

5

34

2119

20

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

<1 yr 1-5 yrs 6-10 yrs 11-15 yrs 16-17 yrs

%

EntriesPoint in TimeExits

California Example: Age of Children in Foster Care

(2008 entries, July 1st 2008 caseload, 2008 exits)


public data:putting it all out there

pros: greater performance accountability community awareness and involvement, encourages public-private

partnerships ability to track improvement over time, identify areas where programmatic

adjustments are needed Province/Province and Province/National collaboration

cons:o potential for misuse, misinterpretation, and misrepresentation o available to those with agendas or looking to create a sensational headlineo misunderstood data can lead to the wrong policy decisionso “Torture numbers, and they’ll confess to anything”

Gregg Easterbrook


The California Experience

• University/Agency collaboration• Publicly available reports since 1994, online since 2000• Nationally mandated measures (CFSR)• State mandated measures (California Outcomes and Accountability

System—AB636 law since 2001)• Enhancements and additional measures• Dynamic, user defined drill down and breakout functionality• All tables refreshed quarterly• Data over time, for California and each of the 58 counties• Presentations, tools, etc.


how’s it working for us?

• All those “cons” WILL happen • State, county, and UCB are able to respond

quickly and thoroughly to data abuse/number torturing

• Publicly available data for child welfare has become business as usual

• Most outcome measures are improving over time


3.9%19.6%

12.3%23.7%

3.2%8.9%

23.8%

23.3%8.4%

15.1%28.3%

4.7%14.8%4B: PIT Placement (Group/Shelter) (-)

4B: PIT Placement (Relative) (+)4B: Entries First Placement (Group/Shelter) (-)

4B: Entries First Placement (Relative) (+)

4A: Siblings (Some or All) (+)4A: Siblings (All) (+)

2C: Timely Social Worker Visits (+)

2B: Timely Response (10 day) (+)2B: Timely Response (1 day) (+)

PR: In Care Rate (-)PR: Entry Rate (-)

PR: Substantiation Rate (-)PR: Referral Rate (-)

January 2004-July 2009

California CWS Outcomes System:AB636 Measures, % IMPROVEMENT

(+) or (–) indicates direction of desired change

Decline in Performance Improvement in Performance


3.0%-0.4%

12.1%7.5%

15.4%-1.1%

8.6%

24.5%15.1%

38.2%79.0%

12.7%

10.3%12.7%

-1.4%8.4%

4.0%4.1%

8.0%-14.8%C4.3: Placement Stability (24m+ In Care) (+)

C4.2: Placement Stability (12-24m In Care) (+)C4.1: Placement Stability (8d-12m In Care) (+)

**PLACEMENT STABILITY COMPOSITE (+)

C3.3: In Care 3+ Yrs (Emancipated/Age 18) (-)C3.2: Exits to Permanency (Legally Free) (+)C3.1: Exits to Permanency (24m In Care) (+)

**LONG TERM CARE COMPOSITE (+)

C2.5: Adoption w/in 12m (Legally Free) (+)C2.4: Legally Free w/in 6m (17m In Care) (+)

C2.3: Adoption w/in 12m (17m In Care) (+)C2.2: Median Time to Adoption (-)

C2.1: Adoption w/in 24m (+)**ADOPTION COMPOSITE (+)

C1.4: Reentry Following Reunification (-)C1.3: Reunification w/in 12m (Entry Cohort) (+)

C1.2: Median Time to Reunification (-)C1.1: Reunification w/in 12m (Exit Cohort) (+)

**REUNIFICATION COMPOSITE (+)

S2.1: No Maltreatment in Foster Care (+)S1.1: No Recurrence of Maltreatment (+)

January 2004-July 2009

California CWS Outcomes System:Federal Measures, % IMPROVEMENT

(+) or (–) indicates direction of desired change

Decline in Performance Improvement in Performance

///110.4%


policy

"Our collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley on the Child Welfare Dynamic Report System allows the State of California to make data accessible for analysis by the general public, stakeholders, and policy-makers. The availability of this information permits us to make informed public policy to improve outcomes for children and youth in foster care."

John WagnerDirector California Department of Social Services


legislation“As a county administrator, I am fully in support of public access to county level child welfare data for many reasons. One in particular that has been most effective for me in my role as a legislative advocate is to be able to cite data on the CSSR when arguing for or against a particular bill impacting child welfare. The fact that we can drill down to a particular population the bill addresses and help inform the debate on both policy and fiscal impacts results in data driven legislation; data that all the stakeholders can view and understand leads to consensus on the facts. This is a major breakthrough in the legislative process that before had to operate on inaccessible data or data embedded in paper reports at the local level that were a challenge to gather and analyze.”

Kathy WatkinsLegislative Program Manager/Legislation and Research UnitSan Bernardino County Human Services System


training

“The publicly available data provided by CSSR/CDSS is invaluable for the training system. All of the statewide and regional training systems can integrate actual data into their curricula - this brings training alive for the participants, and reinforces practice that is informed by outcomes.”

Barrett JohnsonDirectorChild Welfare In-Service Training ProjectCalifornia Social Work Education Center

(CalSWEC)

“As a trainer in child welfare, the accessible public data base provides current information to support many of the topics we offer in our Regional Training Academy. We refer to it frequently and are grateful for the gifted folks who created this resource and made it open to those of us who are peripheral but important to supporting good child welfare practice.”

Liz QuinnettProgram CoordinatorPublic Child Welfare Training Academy

(PCWTA)


program evaluation

“I use the data from the UCB/CDSS site almost every week in my job as principal analyst in the Program Evaluation & Research unit. The data is invaluable for analysis of trends over time, answering specific questions posed by Children & Family Services managers, and for routine program monitoring reports. I frequently respond to requests for ad-hoc analyses by working directly with the staff person and showing them how to create reports from the website -following the principle of ‘teach them how to fish’. I also refer staff from community based agencies who ask for data for grant proposals to the website and often show them how to extract data.

Tom ClancyProgram Evaluation & ResearchAlameda County Social Services Agency


irresistible information

"We commend Dr. Needell and the work of her staff at UCB/CDSS in creating and refining the child welfare services data posted on the public website. From an administrative perspective, the information has been instrumental in identifying trends, program adjustments and training needs. Being available to the public, the data has supported our efforts in program transparency as well as serving to educate the community on client needs and agency services."

Ken JensenDeputy Director Santa Barbara County Dept. of Social Services


CSSR.BERKELEY.EDU/UCB_CHILDWELFARENeedell, B., Webster, D., Armijo, M., Lee, S., Dawson, W., Magruder, J., Exel, M., Glasser, T., Williams, D., Zimmerman, K., Simon, V., Putnam-Hornstein, E., Frerer, K., Cuccaro-Alamin, S., Winn, A., Lou, C., & Peng, C. (2009). Child Welfare Services Reports for California. Retrieved July 1, 2009, from University of California at Berkeley Center for Social Services Research website. URL: <http://cssr.berkeley.edu/ucb_childwelfare>

Barbara [email protected]

Presentation Developed by Emily Putnam-Hornstein and Christine Wei-Mien Lou

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