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Calgary Region Child and Family Services Overview of the Strategic Direction of Child and Family Child Intervention Services 2015/16
Calgary Region Child and Family
Services
Overview of the Strategic Direction
of
Child and Family Child Intervention Services
2015/16
Connecting the Dots
Over the past decade the evolution
of child intervention practice in
Alberta has reached a point where
there is a clear, focused and
connected model of practice which
is the Child Intervention Practice
Framework.
Connecting the Dots
This framework is based on
practice, evidence and research
which unites and guides Child and
Family Services to address safety,
wellbeing and permanency for
infants, children, youth and
families.
Connecting the Dots
Child and Family Services is focusing
on having organizational intent to
improve services and meet outcomes.
This approach is about clear
organizational values, specific
outcomes and models of practice using
research and evidence while using data
and information to insure safety,
wellbeing and permanency for infants,
children and youth.
Calgary Region Child and Family
Services
OUTLINE
Child Intervention Practice Framework
Early Intervention and Quality Child
Care
Aboriginal/Cultural Engagement
Foundations of Caregiver Support
Child Intervention Practice
Framework [CIPF]
The Child Intervention Practice
Framework [CIPF] sets the
principles/values, outcomes and
priorities for providing supports and
services to infants, children, youth and
families who are at risk of or in need of
intervention.
6,5,4 - CIPF
6 Practice Principles
5 Outcomes
4 Priorities
Practice Principles/Values
• The Framework has six principles
which guide the perspective of the
Child and Family Services as well as
describes our actions. The six
principles form our ethical foundation
for practice. These principles assist
Child and Family Services in
determining how to engage and work
with families, agencies, partners and
communities.
Practice Principles/Values
1. Aboriginal Experience
First Nations, Métis and Inuit people have always had
their own ways of ensuring that vulnerable members,
including children, are safe and protected. We honour
this by recognizing their expertise in matters concerning
their children, youth and families.
2. Connection
Children and youth are supported to maintain
relationships that are important to them, be connected to
their own culture, practice their religious beliefs and, for
those in care, have a plan for their care where they are
included in the decision-making process.
Practice Principles/Values
3. Collaboration
We are child-focused and family-centred. We collaborate
with families, community agencies, and other
stakeholders in building positive, respectful partnerships
across integrated multidisciplinary teams and providing
individualized, flexible and timely services to support
these efforts.
4. Continuous Improvement
We share and use information appropriately. Our
approach is outcome-oriented and evidence-based
therefore we support innovative practice, monitor our
performance and strive for continuous improvement.
Practice Principles/Values
5. Preserve Family
We believe children and youth should be safe, healthy and live
with their families, therefore we focus on preserving and
reuniting families and building on the capacity of extended
family and communities to support children, youth and families.
6. Strengths-based
Our approach is reflective, culturally responsive and strengths-
based. Because all families have strengths and resources, we
recognize and support the right and responsibility of parents to
share in the decision-making process for them and their
children.
Our Desired Outcomes
Our Outcomes are an explicit statement
of what we want to achieve. For Child
and Family Services outcomes are the
end state for children, youth and
families or in other words - something
that happens as a result of an activity or
process.
Our Desired Outcomes
1. Vulnerable children live successfully in their
community
2. Children in temporary care are reunited
quickly with family
3. Children in permanent care are placed in
permanent homes more quickly
4. Youth transition to adulthood successfully
5. Aboriginal children live in culturally
appropriate homes
[Cultural Connections]
Our Priorities
Priorities are statements of the focus of the organization. They articulate the areas the organization needs to concentrate on to achieve outcomes. Priorities are the foundations of the roadmap to fulfill our goals.
Priorities are actions, the overt things we do, so the organization can succeed. CFS has four broad priorities.
Our Priorities
– Early Intervention, ECD and Quality Child Care
– Enhance Child Intervention Practice
– Aboriginal/Cultural Engagement
– Caregiver Support
Early Intervention, ECD and
Child Care
Align our Early Intervention and Child
Care Services to reduce child
maltreatment and strengthen families
by:• building parenting capacity
• building community connections
• promoting child well-being
Building a strong quality child care
community to ensure there is access to
quality child development.
Early Intervention, ECD and
Child Care
Implementation of the Prevention and Early
Intervention Framework for Children, Youth
and Families. It focuses on the reduction of
child maltreatment.
Resources in the community to provide these
supports including Parent Link Centre, Home
Visitation, Family Resource Centres, Child
Care Centres, Family Day Homes, Inclusive
Child Care, Respite Child Care and Triple P
Parenting.
Practice EnhancementsResearch and Evidence to Improve Practice
• Alberta Incident Study
• 85/15
• Aboriginal Experience
• Cooperation
• Kinship Care
• Family Finding
• Collaborative Decision Making
• Signs of Safety
• 3,5,7 – Video Project
Practice Enhancements
• Implement the Child Intervention
Practice Framework
• Practice Enhancement Strategies
• Practice Strategies [Front End Enhancements, Collaborative
Decision Making, Kinship First, Family Finding]
• Signs of Safety
• Permanency Framework, 3,5,7 and the Video Project
• Specialized Services [Child Advocacy Centres, Placement
Resource Investigation Teams, Afterhours, YAT, PSECA]
• Outcome Based Service Delivery [OBSD]
• Assessment Referral Team [ART]
Practice Enhancements
Practice Strategies
• Front End Enhancements – Based on the Alberta
Incident Study and research around defining levels of
risk/harm – 85/15.
• Supervisor Consultations - Use of appreciative
enquiry to create time and space to probe and
challenge assumptions and aligned to our practice
principles.
• In Care Consultations - To ensure that all options are
considered, discussed and weighed prior to a
child/youth being brought into care.
• Family/Natural Support Meetings – To ensure
parents/guardians are engaged early in the
assessment process.
Practice Enhancements
Practice Strategies - Continued
Immediate Kinship Placement - Based on the
research that children youth have better outcomes in
kinship care [less moves, more permanency
placements].
• Family Time - Spending time with family for children in
care provides opportunities to foster healthy
connections, bonds and attachments.
• Family Finding - offers methods and strategies to
locate and engage relatives of children currently living
in out-of-home care. The goal of Family Finding is to
connect each child with a family, so that every child
may benefit from the lifelong connections that only a
family provides.
Practice Enhancements
Signs of Safety was developed by Child Intervention staff to enhance
child safety,
uses professional social work concepts such as
strengths-based and solution-focused methods and
integrates them with the family’s expertise and cultural
knowledge,
encourages a balanced and rigorous exploration of
danger or harm as well as indicators of safety, and
focuses on risk assessment and safety planning.
Practice Enhancements
• Permanency Framework [Youth]
• Every child and youth has a fundamental right to
belong securely to a family that honors their familial
ties, culture and community connections. All children
and youth will grow up as valued, wanted and legal
members of a lifelong family.
• The Region’s Framework redefines permanency to
included family preservation, family reunification,
importance of maintaining relationships, adoption and
private guardianship. Two practice approaches are
being used to assist in the implementation of the
framework - 3,5,7 and the Video Project.
Practice Enhancements
• Specialized Services
• Specialized services are child intervention
services which have unique or special
requirements and/or highly specialized skills
and knowledge. The provision of these
services are provided by employees that
have enhanced training and support.
– Afterhours Support
– Placement Resource Investigations
– Child Advocacy Centre
– PSECA, YAT (Youth Assessment Team)
– Family Violence
Practice Enhancements
• Outcome Based Service Delivery
• OBSD is collaborative partnership with lead
agencies to provide services to infants,
children, youth and families.
• Wood’s Homes
• Mahmawi-atoskiwin
Aboriginal/Cultural Engagement
Aboriginal Practice Framework– All aboriginal children will be safe and secure and
have a sense of belonging founded in family,
community, and culture.
– Families will be respected and supported
– Families and communities will have a strong voice in
the planning for children
• Treaty 7 Table
• Band Designate
• Aboriginal OBSD
• Elders
• Aboriginal/Cultural Engagement
• Ensure immigrant families and
children have access to appropriate
cultural responsive services including
placements.
• Language Line 1-866-874-3972
• Cultural Brokerage Program – 11
brokers
• Cultural Kinship Recruitment
Caregiver Support
Foundations for Caregiver Support
Provide all caregivers with the supports required to
meet the daily care needs of infant, children and youth
and contribute to improving their well-being and
permanency.
Caregiver Support based on child and adolescent
development, trauma, grief and loss.
Caregiver Support
Provides support to three types of care
Community Based Care
Family Based Care
Congregate Care [Group, Residential,
Secure]
– Infant Mental Health Promotion
– Neurosequential Model of Treatment
– Multi-Dimensional Family Based Care
– Pediatrics Kids in Care [PKIC]
– Brief Intervention and Caregiver Support
[BICS]
Achievements to Date
Focus on Relational Practice
Reduction of Overall Caseload
Fewer Aboriginal Child and Youth in
Care
More Placements in Kinship
Lower Recurrence
Less Court
Increased Permanency
More Support to Youth
Caseload Trends
2012-2015
Calgary Region
Child and Family Services
Intakes Started by Quarter
2012-15
Investigations Started by Quarter
2012-15
Front-End Opening to Child Intervention
Status 2012-15
Front-End Opening to Child Intervention
Status 2012-15
Child Intervention Caseload
2012-15
Post-Child Intervention Caseload
2012-15
Post-Child Intervention Caseload
2012-15
Supervision Orders
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Avg
2012/13 488 461 491 499 517 524 535 504 523 526 497 503 506
2013/14 485 487 476 434 417 388 357 321 278 252 212 176 357
2014/15 155 133 146 147 127 119 112 121 107 91 74 76 117
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Supervision Order Caseload2012/13 to 2014/15
Recurrence(Intervention files opening where there had been previous
intervention open services within < 1 year)
Calgary Region
Intervention StartsPrevious Intervention Services
within < 12 months Recurrence Rate
2012-13 2,230 234 10.5%
2013-14 1,564 194 12.4%
2014-15 1,505 172 11.4%
Aboriginal Services Office
Intervention StartsPrevious Intervention Services
within < 12 months Recurrence Rate
2012-13 403 75 18.6%
2013-14 209 42 20.1%
2014-15 311 39 12.5%
Wrap Up
Thank You
Questions
