Strategy

Driving Administrative Work from Vision, Values and Practice Model

The vision and values of public child welfare are well articulated and need to inform and permeate not only the work with children, youth and families but also the work and interactions in and among the administrative functions. A focus on the children, youth and families and agency outcomes transforms the way administrative tasks are framed and executed. Both program and administrative staff within the public child welfare agency must be equally conversant about and driven by the vision and values and be able to continuously educate those values to outside support professionals on which the agency depends.

When administrative functions are executed by a centralized Human Services Department:

• The vision and mission of public child welfare must be articulated in a compelling and relevant way to the central administrative staff.
• The vision and mission of the public child welfare agency must be articulated in a way that clearly aligns with the overall human services mission.
• Strategic partnerships with other human services leaders served by these administrative staff, as well as with the Human Services Division Director, are critical.
• When all of the agencies supported by a central administrative team are articulating similar values and needs, it will be more likely the administrative functions, processes and policies will serve the outcomes of children, youth and families.

In addition to vision and values, it is important that administrative staff be educated about the practice model and the philosophy that drives it. For example, the importance of biological families, the role of permanence in a child’s life, the rights of parents to make mistakes and be given an opportunity to change are all significant tenets that cannot be assumed to be understood by administrative professionals not trained specifically in public child welfare. Moreover, many administrative staff members (e.g. those in legal services or finance) may support multiple agencies and may not be focused on or even well educated about what the principles in the public child welfare practice model mean for the administrative approach, decision-making or strategy.
All staff should be expected to be able to articulate and implement practice model values while completing the work in their respective key areas. Administrative staff may need to be educated about these values and given opportunity to talk about how the work they do on a daily basis embodies or differs from those values. The leaders in administrative areas must encourage, support and model adherence to those values and to furthering the mission.

At a minimum, an effective strategy for aligning administrative staff and functions with the practice model would include:

• Performance expectations for the administrative leaders that clearly call for alignment with the practice model.
• Understanding, using and adhering to administrative procedures and practices by program managers and staff through sound internal controls.
• Open and regular conversation among senior leaders and middle managers about how administrative functions are or are not supporting outcomes.
• Continuous feedback loops, with broad input from program staff members that evaluate and lead to process improvements in day-to-day administrative practices.
• Consistent effort to engage administrative staff in the “stories” of the children, youth and families being served.
• Recognition for administrative staff who demonstrate the desired alignment to the practice model in day-to-day operations.
• Clear expectations that program staff will invest in improving procedures and simplifying processes rather than resenting and ignoring them.

At its core, the work of public child welfare is child and family focused. This message can be consistently and effectively articulated by all staff in the day-to-day operations of the agency. For administrative staff to understand how to carry out their functions in a way that is child and family focused, they must be provided feedback regarding the impact of policies and procedures on families and on the staff serving those families.

Maintaining a focus on children and families throughout administrative practices also means that the issue of disparity and disproportionality must be a concern to administrative leaders. Even though administrative practices may at times seem distant from children, youth and families, when executed with awareness and commitment to practice values, they can positively affect the agency’s efforts to reduce disparity and disproportionality. For example, when contracting with vendors or hiring staff, cultural competence must be judged to be equally as important as other selection criteria. Contractors seeking to serve ethnic minority communities may not understand the communities well. In some instances, it may be more beneficial for public child welfare agencies to give leverage to contracting agencies that have experience working with various minority communities. Those who represent the agency in any capacity, including vendors, must be capable of demonstrating a family focus and capable of helping to meet the agency’s goals to reduce disparity and disproportionality.

Building External Collaboration

There are many structures within which a public child welfare agency operates, depending on the way a state has organized its human services. Regardless of the setting, however, collaboration with external entities with which the agency interfaces is critical. Myriad of administrative functions must be accomplished with the support of, and perhaps funding from, these outside entities. For example, an agency is not likely to be able to launch a significant information technology initiative without the support of the state/local information technology office, financial needs are not easily met without the understanding and support of a state/local budget office and significant human resources decisions are likely to be far more difficult to execute if the state/local human resources office and the agency are not aligned in their approach to personnel management.

Building collaboration with external agencies requires an administrative plan that outlines how the agency will work with the other large entities, reconciling the needs of the agency with the needs of those who fund or provide critical support. It is the job of administrative leaders, in conjunction with the public child welfare agency leadership, to create that vital understanding. Unfortunately, it is all too common to hear agency staff complain that the larger entities “don’t understand us” without recognizing that a lack of understanding by the larger entities indicates that more work (or a better plan) is needed on the part of the agency. The agency’s goals, priorities and outcomes need to be well-understood and there needs to be explicit recognition that external collaboration is ongoing work.

Building Internal Collaboration

In many agencies, both public and private, there is a tendency for those who feel responsible for “results” to be at odds with those who feel responsible for “controls and accountability”. It is the job of leadership at all levels, beginning with the Executive Team, to mitigate this natural tension. A strategy that aligns all parties to the mission and that values the contributions of all staff toward that mission is critical. While it may seem benign for an Executive or the Executive Team to tolerate tensions around leadership philosophy and management of tasks between those in administrative leadership and those in program leadership, it is, in fact, not benign. Collaboration between the divisions and functions of the agency is essential if outcomes are to be effectively and efficiently achieved. Establishing and maintaining an effective spirit of collaboration between all departments is the responsibility of both administrative and program managers.

Two-way, consistent communication between administrative staff and program staff is critical if administrative practices are to be effective and aligned with the mission. Administrative staff must have an understanding of all the programs of the agency and program staff must have an understanding of the challenges administrative staff face and the constraints that govern good administration. As an example, administrative staff must be conversant about the values, vision and practice model and have the opportunity to talk about them. While it may seem reasonable that day-to-day business would enable this mutual understanding, this often is not the case. Intentional effort and structured forums are necessary for conversations that facilitate collaboration and cooperation between staff. Ideally, such conversations happen at routine intervals rather than simply in response to a crisis or new policy direction.

 

Creating a Climate and Culture for Administrative Excellence¹

Agency climate and culture have been demonstrated to have the power to influence and affect the behavior, attitudes and health of individuals working within agencies.^2,3 Consequently, the effectiveness of administrative staff is linked, in part, to the climate and culture they experience within the agency. The working environment of effective public child welfare agencies must be supportive, emphasize personal accomplishment and use the unique skills and abilities of each individual in the agency, including those in administrative roles.

The following table provides an overview of key aspects of positive agency climate and some suggestions on practical behaviors that would encourage a culture where administrative staff are engaged and experience themselves as essential to the mission.



Another critical strategy for creating a culture of administrative excellence is to consistently include leaders and functional managers of administrative staff in the significant conversations of the agency. These conversations may or may not be directly about administrative concerns. Although there may be some resistance from both program and administrative staff for the additional time required to attend both and create a common knowledge base about the issues, it is time well spent. In short-term and long-term decision-making and operational execution, the agency will get a better product if administrative leaders and staff, when appropriate, are included in significant agency conversations. It is the job of program leaders and the Executive Team to make sure that this occurs.

The rationale for including administrative staff early and often in significant agency conversations is:

• Understanding the complexities involved in responding to a crisis, in dealing with difficult interagency dynamics or in managing community perception ultimately helps administrative leaders and staff offer better solutions to both day-to-day and longer-term challenges.
• Conversely, understanding the administrative perspective on significant issues can increase the operational effectiveness of service delivery leaders and staff.
• Administrative functions can provide a sense of “checks and balances” (e.g. legal counsel can flag a report loaded with a caseworker’s opinions and biases, rather than facts)
• Those closest to the work are in the best position to prevent unnecessary glitches and barriers when processes are being initiated or problems solved. Administrative line staff may be able to offer more efficient administrative suggestions than others who do not execute the relevant administrative functions.
• Information technology staff often have knowledge and tools that can streamline or tighten up processes but may not know when or how to get that information to the key players.

Not all administrative staff may appreciate the impact of certain administrative processes on program work and, therefore, may not be striving for administrative process improvement unless they have the opportunity to participate in significant conversations.

Becoming Data Informed and Data Driven

Data is a powerful tool to improve outcomes for children, youth and families. It can inform all aspects of the agency in areas of performance. It is important that data be used to educate and train for the purpose of quality improvement rather than to punish or as a tool for blame. When data are used in the latter manner, staff throughout the agency will resist and subvert its use. Of course, data can be and should be used to strengthen accountability once staff have been trained and have been given time to make changes in response to the feedback data provides. When used to improve practice, over time, program staff and administrative staff will embrace and improve the data collection and interpretation process.

Because people tend to focus on and improve what is measured, the agency should have a leadership-driven strategy for the use of data rather than a haphazard or fragmented approach. What is measured, how it is measured, how it is interpreted, what is communicated about it -- all of this has the power to drive the program and administrative practices of the agency. If the data have credibility and are used well by supervisors and managers, staff behavior is positively shaped by it.

Keys for success in the use of data to improve agency functioning and service delivery include:

• Measure the outcomes identified in the practice model.
• Identify a smaller number rather than a larger number of indicators to measure in designated areas.
• Collaborate with stakeholders of that particular data to be certain that the collection of the data has integrity and accurately reflects what it is intended to measure.
• Educate end users about the value and purpose of the data collection and reporting.
• Use the data to inspire and create a positive, achievement-oriented spirit in the agency
• Provide all staff, especially those less well versed in the use of data, with ongoing training and support in the interpretation of reports
• Make data as accessible as possible, preferably on demand, for managers and supervisors
• Create a data dashboard for and in collaboration with leadership to track important key indicators.
• Publicly publish data within the agency and to key stakeholders.
• Use data to track both administrative performance as well as service delivery.
• Streamline methods for capturing information and technology to enable efficiency (e.g., tablet PC’s used by field staff)
• Consistently remind all staff that data are not simply statistics but represent the agency’s impact on real lives.

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¹ Agency climate is the shared perceptions that employees have of the psychological impact that their work environment has on those who work there. Agency culture is defined as a property of the collective social system and is comprised of the norms and values of that social system that drive the way things are done in the agency (i.e., how employees interact, how work is approached, what work behaviors are emphasized in the agency through rewards and sanctions). Culture describes the social context and patterns of interaction within the work environment; climate describes the psychological impact of the work environment and the personal meaning individual workers give those interactions³