Overview

Public child welfare agencies need a clear, well-understood and action-oriented plan and related methods for improving the lives of the children, youth, and families they serve. They must know how to develop such a plan, make it happen, and condition their agency to work on a range of improvements every day, at all levels, and in all functions. They must link all priorities for change and improvement to their desired practice model, reinforcing that model at every turn. They must avoid having major obstacles and points of chronic resistance stall their progress, resolve related debates and tensions, avoid reactive or limited responses to the challenges they face, and instill a sense of hope and forward progress among the staff.

While there are always differences between what an agency aspires to do and what it actually does at a particular point in its development, effective plans and efforts to change and improve approach current limits in budgets, technology, programs, policies and research as a “two way street.” Agencies must be both working within their current environmental limits as well as influencing these limits to move in a positive, evolutionary direction over time.

Agencies that are evolving in this way will experience a pattern of change that over time resembles an “upward spiral,” moving from more reform-oriented change and improvement to more innovative and progressive change, at times interrupted or delayed by temporary setbacks, disruptions and plateaus:

Incremental progress forward, meeting basic expectations such as mandates, non-negotiable expectations and limited budgetary requirements
Initial feedback from the environment, connected to direct experiences with agency services
Rallying of support, commitment and participation from staff and stakeholders through related communication and relationship-building efforts
Renewed or improved resources and decisions to provide a greater level of empowerment to the agency based on its growing credibility
Further incremental progress, often through redesigning or revamping programs and processes to either streamline them or eliminate low value-added activities
Further confidence within the environment that the agency uses resources wisely and a growing desire to listen to the agency’s ideas and recommendations
Further incremental steps forward, often through integrating programs and processes to be more child youth and family-centric, meeting more strategic environmental needs that move closer and closer to realizing desired outcomes for those served
Broader environmental influence; being regarded as a vital political “player” even in regards to somewhat non-related environmental priorities
Further incremental steps forward, at times even serving field-wide needs and objectives by creatively resolving general tensions within the field that typically result in “false choices”

As mentioned above, a critical breakthrough occurs as agencies change, improve and evolve from either a program or a staff-focused culture to one that focuses on the children, youth and families it serves. In a program-focused culture, the primary interests of the agency strategy and leadership are program compliance and the level of output by the agency in comparison to program-specific output goals (e.g., accuracy and timeliness of program delivery). In a staff-focused culture, the primary interests are staff satisfaction with leadership and with the benefits of working for the agency (e.g., a lucrative pension program, or strong union and HR protection of marginal performers). In a culture that is focused on who it serves, programs and staff interests are shaped in the service of the most effective practice model for improving the lives of children, youth and families (e.g., changing program policies and job requirements to support the innovation of a child and family-focused practice).

This guidance is intended to provide a pathway to this evolving reality: everyone in an agency using methods and techniques for continuous improvement and innovation that lead to ever-improving performance and capacity for helping to improve the lives of children youth and families.

This Guidance Provides Answers to These and Other Questions:

What is change management, why is it important, and how does it impact those we serve?
How do frontline practice effectiveness and innovation and an agency’s general approach to change management mutually reinforce each other?
What set of plan-based elements comprise an effective road map for change?
How do agencies ensure that their plans lead to desired changes at all levels?
What constitutes the capacity and readiness of an agency to make ambitious changes?
How do disparity and disproportionality-related improvement efforts fit within broader change efforts?
What general stages of development and evolution do agencies go through to reach their highest potential? And what are learning organizations, and how do they learn?
What specific process should teams use for continuous improvement and innovation?
What are the roles of leaders, managers and others in making change happen? How should leaders handle resistance to change?
How do quality assurance efforts relate to continuous improvement in general?

Why Is This Critical Area Important to the Field of Public Child Welfare?

Well-respected and credible fields are proactive and transparent about the improvements and innovations they choose to make, in accord with their overall strategy and values and in partnership with their stakeholders. Doing so results in approaches to change that are flexible and adaptable, maintain strategic focus, strengthen staff and program performance accountability, establish cultures of continuous improvement, and enjoy greater staff and stakeholder buy-in.
There is strong public support for efforts that result in safer, more secure, healthier and better-adjusted children. The public child welfare field must be clear and persuasive that agencies are able to continuously improve and innovate in order to make this happen. Effective agencies do this in large part through listening to feedback from the public and enlisting the community, including the families and youth they serve, to become part of the improvement process. This is crucial to building public trust and enhancing the perceived value of our field’s work.
In the absence of effective change management practices, an agency is likely to react to crises or follow idiosyncratic direction of leadership as its primary way of doing business and making changes, or to have change mandated or directed from their broader environment. This typically leads to unsustainable “flavor of the month,” or non-strategic change. This “change for change’s sake” can be highly dysfunctional and debilitating to agencies.
Effective change management is, in accord with the agency’s practice model, the foundation for all the other PPCWG domains, providing overarching and tangible guidance for how an agency can improve both itself and the lives of children, youth and families over time. Other PPCWG domains provide guidance on key components of change management in support of the practice model, including strategic clarity and focus, leadership influence, workforce readiness, supportive community partnerships, and the necessary communication, financial and information services tools and techniques.

How Will Outcomes Be Achieved For and With Children, Youth and Families?

Effective change management provides the developmental principles and key processes of improvement and innovation for agency programs, staff and stakeholders to advance outcomes related to the children, youth and families served. These principles and processes must keep improvedoutcomes for children and families central to their purpose, and provide an analogous or parallel approach to effective frontline practice, which is essentially a change management activity at its core.
Effective change management establishes the decision-making ground rules and boundaries from which staff may operate with greater discretion, resulting in an organization that knows how to make improvements and drive innovation at all levels. This leads to stronger and better-aligned program and staff values and accountability, a greater degree of internal and external collaboration, and greater service flexibility and innovation.
Improvement monitoring and quality assurance processes need to be guided and supported by the right data and analysis tools and methods. Otherwise, the agency risks making changes that do not result in the desired outcomes, or fails to capture lessons learned that make it easier to achieve desired outcomes over time.

Ken Deibert, Retired Child Welfare Director of Arizona, shares why the guidance needed to be created and also, the importance for guidance on managing changes, especially within public child welfare agencies.