Child Welfare Workforce
Changing Context & Implications
Resulting from Privatization &
Performance-Based Contracting
Kansas Workforce Kick-Off & Excellence in Supervision Conference
September 23rd, 2009
Karl Ensign, Director
Evaluation for Children, Youth, and Families
Planning and Learning Technologies, Inc.
Arlington, VA
Information sources
• Qualitative information: External Evaluation of
the Kansas Child Welfare System
• Six topical papers: Assistant Secretary for
Planning and Evaluation, US Department of
Health and Human Services
• Two topical papers: Quality Improvement Center
on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services
What hasn’t changed…
• Adequate pre- and in-service training
• High stress and low pay
• Limited career advancement opportunities
• Adequate placements in close proximity
• Adequate availability of community
services
What is changing…
• Payment linked to performance
• Public/private partnerships
• Data driven decision making
• Evolving roles & responsibilities
Payment linked to performance
• Increasingly, contracts specify expected outcomes and
link payment or contract renewal to achieving these
• May be more traditional process outcomes (paperwork
filed on time), longer-term outcomes (permanency,
safety, well-being), or both
• As a result, tracking and QA must occur at multiple levels
within and between agencies
 Benefits — healthy competition can result, desired
outcomes made explicit, payment for performance can
build public support
 Workforce implications — job becomes more complex,
data collection & reporting expands, desired outcomes
can clash, priorities must be set
Public/private partnerships
• The more the role of the private sector grows in service
delivery, the more the public sector becomes dependent
on private sector performance
• As a result, accountability, trust, and partnership can
develop
 Benefits — combined resources, abilities, and functions
can improve service delivery
 Workforce implications — job becomes more complex,
requiring collaborative problem-solving skills, avoiding
blame-shifting, and building solid foundations of trust
that can withstand crises
Data driven decision making
• Outcome focus of service delivery combined with
improvements in data systems and technology impacts
decision making at multiple levels
• As a result, underlying issues become apparent
 Benefits — can help set priorities and focus
 Workforce implications — job becomes more complex,
requiring technical skills in addition to people skills. Can
run counter to what are often perceived to be traditional
social work skills (Is it science or art? Perhaps both?)
Evolving roles & responsibilities
• Each of the forgoing areas continues to
evolve as systems mature, new challenges
emerge, tools become more sophisticated
and knowledge develops
Workforce implications — job functions
are not static, requiring flexibility and
adaptability
Position description — “the ideal
candidate will:
• Work with your clients in a family-centered manner so that they
complete the requirements specified in their case plan in a timely
and complete manner
• Collect and report large amounts of data for everyone on everything
you do and do not do
• Juggle too many cases receiving inadequate pay in compensation
• Work as a team to achieve objectives, while meeting your own
performance goals
• Make decisions in a timely manner based partly on experience, data,
and your gut, and defend your decisions in court
• Reach out to your counterparts in other agencies, accept blame
even when it could cost you your job and work helpfully and
proactively with others at all times
• Remain flexible and adaptable — anything can and will change
• Engage in other duties as assigned and needed”
What we want…
what we can get…
and what we need to continue to do
 Build strong agency infrastructure to give staff at all
levels the skills and tools they need to do what they are
best at
 Provide the necessary support to minimize their stress
For more information please visit
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/CWPI/
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Assessing Site Readiness: Considerations about Transitioning to a Privatized Child
Welfare System. Key issues about transitioning to a privatized system of service delivery-assessing “site readiness” to undertake systems reform.
Program and Fiscal Design Elements of Child Welfare Privatization Initiatives. A
range of program and contracting models currently used by sites across the country, how
these models have evolved over time, and their challenges and benefits.
Evolving Roles of Public and Private Agencies in Privatized Child Welfare
Systems. Challenges and lessons learned about transitioning from publicly to privately
delivered services--examples of how states have divided roles and responsibilities across
systems once privatization occurs.
Evaluating Privatized Child Welfare Programs: A Guide for Program Managers. A
“how to” guide for evaluating the effectiveness of reforms--establishing appropriate policy
relevant research questions, determining appropriate short and long term outcomes,
identifying appropriate data, and selecting the best outcome evaluation design.
Preparing Effective Contracts in Child Welfare Systems. What the field has learned
about developing contracts in child welfare and related social services--writing clear
expectations about services provision and performance standards, billing and payment
arrangements, and standards for reporting.
Ensuring Quality in Contracted Child Welfare Services. Key responsibilities and
challenges that public agencies often face in effectively monitoring the organizations with
which they contract--primary responsibility for different areas of contract monitoring,
information system needs, commonly used performance measures, and agency appeal and
grievance processes.
And still more information
• Quality Improvement Center on the
Privatization of Child Welfare Services
http://www.uky.edu/SocialWork/qicpcw/
• Karl Ensign
kensign@pal-tech.com
(703) 908-8866