The Core Components of Concurrent Planning |
Component #8: Committed collaboration between child welfare, the courts, and service providers:
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Cooperation and preparation of the judicial system is especially critical. More timely planning and casework services cannot be effective without the development and enforcement of judicial procedures that ensure smooth progress of cases through court.
Collaboration between foster parents and birth families can have a significant impact in the overall course of placement and/or treatment. When the relationship is respectful, nonjudgmental, and supportive, all parents are able to do a better job in meeting the children’s needs (Werth, 2008). Creating a teaming approach with planned contact between birth and foster parents have shown that children return home sooner, have more stable placements, experience better emotional development and are more successful in school.
Icebreaker meetings or visits represent the first step to integrating the birth family into their child’s life while in out of home care. They provide a structured, first informal meeting early in placement for both foster and birth families to create an atmosphere of “working together”. The concept of teaming is not new, but now it has become a formalized part of the services offered to families. This first meeting or “ice breaker” is a facilitated, child focused meeting held shortly after a child is placed (or replaced) in out-of-home care and lasting not more than thirty minutes. The meeting provides an opportunity for foster parents and birth families to meet each other and to share information about the needs of the child. Thus, the “ice breaker” is a starting point for establishing communication and building a relationship between families (Werth, 2008).
Siskiyou County California: A Committed Partnership between County Agencies and the Court. (begins on page 8)
Superior Court Judge William Davis called together all partners working with child welfare children and families in Siskiyou County to examine how these systems were doing at implementing concurrent planning. The day long convening combined expert-led presentations with smaller breakout sessions on specific topics like case planning, visitation, family finding, older youth permanency and resource families. The group began to lay out a framework and strategies for improving outcomes for children and families in their county.
New Mexico Concurrent Planning: A Guide for Judges, Attorneys, and Others Working with Children & Families (2005)
Designed for judges, attorneys, and others working with children and families in New Mexico, this guide explains concurrent planning in child welfare. It is a process that allows the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families (CYFD) to provide reunification services to the child and the family at the same time as CYFD works on an alternative plan, such as adoption, permanent guardianship, or placement with a fit and willing relative. It is explains why New Mexico adopted concurrent planning, operating principles of concurrent planning, how cases are selected for concurrent planning and how such homes are established, and the roles of judges, advocates, and youth service workers, in implementing concurrent planning.
Lutheran Community Services Northwest. Making Optimal Use of the Legal Process to Insure Early Permanence for Children. Helps social workers and legal practitioners to understand each other and their respective roles, enabling both to work more closely for the benefit of the child in need. This guidebook provides:
- A clear explanation of basic legal principles
- An outline of social work beliefs
- Different approaches of the two professions
- Recognition of the expertise each profession brings to case planning
- Sample court orders, contracts and written agreements to help in case planning
Available for order ($20.00) at: http://www.lcsnw.org/concurrentplanning/index.html
Additional Resources - Courts: |
Concurrent Planning Hearing Checklist. American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law.
This checklist was part of Mimi Laver’s, Director, Legal Education, ABA Center on Children and the Law presentation on the June 2, 2010 NRCPFC teleconference on concurrent planning.
The Role of the Court and Attorneys in Concurrent Planning. American Bar Association Permanency Barriers Project.
This checklist was part of Mimi Laver’s, Director, Legal Education, ABA Center on Children and the Law presentation on the June 2, 2010 NRCPFC teleconference on concurrent planning.
Implementing Concurrent Planning: A Handbook for Child Welfare Administrators (PDF - 115 KB) 2001.
This report from the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement looks at the experience of three jurisdictions in implementing concurrent planning. Based on their experience – as well as that of other individuals interviewed – this report also provides guidance for child welfare administrators who are moving into the concurrent planning environment: issues to tackle prior to getting started, changes in policy and practice, and resources to assist in the transition.
State Resources – Icebreaker Meetings |
The Bridge Program – Oklahoma – contact Margaret Linneman, Foster Care Programs Manager Margaret.Linneman@okdhs.org
The Bridge Program requires the fostering of a professional relationship between birth and foster parents, with the goal of best meeting the needs of the child. The Bridge program aims to do just what its name describes: create a bridge between children and their birth families and/or children and a permanent family. An initial meeting is planned within seven days of placement to allow foster and birth parents to meet and discuss the needs and preferences, of the child. The Bridge Resource Families and DHS staff work as a team. They assist in helping children have as many visits with their families as possible (including siblings, grandparents, etc.) as they understand the importance of a child’s relationship to their family.
Oklahoma has made a paradigm shift in the way they recruit and train families. They refer to families now as Bridge Resource Families. The Bridge Resource Homes are foster and/or adoptive homes.
Bridging the Gap: Families Working Together – A Northern Virginia Foster Care and Adoption Initiative – contact Claudia McDowell, LCSW
Program Manager, Foster Care & Adoption Program, Fairfax County Department of Family Services, (703) 324-7476
Bridging the Gap is the process of building and maintaining relationships and communication between the birth families involved in a youth’s life, or between the foster and adoptive families, with the goal of supporting family reunification or another permanency plan. This work started in 2006 and has been a process that evolved over time. The implementation of this best practice is a true collaboration between the private/public agencies in Northern Virginia.
Bridging the Gap is most often viewed in relation to the relationship and communication between birth parents and foster parents. The benefits of bridging can also be afforded to other families involved in the child’s life, such as between foster parents and extended formal and informal family members of origin, between relative caregivers and the child’s parents, and between foster parents and adoptive parents. In examining the rationale for bridging, these other relationships apply as well.
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