CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT USER MANUAL SERIES

1 CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT user MANUAL SERIES Depanment of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children's Bureau Office on CHILD ABUSE and NEGLECT Supervising CHILD Protective Services Caseworkers Marsha K. Salus 2004 Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children s Bureau Office on CHILD ABUSE and NEGLECT This page is intentionally left blanki PREFACE ..1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..3 1. PURPOSE AND OVERVIEW ..5 2. THE NATURE OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES SUPERVISION ..7 Building and Maintaining the Foundation for Unit Functioning ..7 Developing and Maintaining Individual Staff Capacity ..8 Developing an Effective Relationship with Upper Management.

2 8 The Components of Supervisory Supportive Supervisory Practices ..10 3. MAKING THE TRANSITION FROM CASEWORKER TO SUPERVISOR ..13 Issues Related to Making the Transition to Supervisor ..13 Critical First Steps ..15 4. BUILDING THE FOUNDATION FOR EFFECTIVE UNIT PERFORMANCE ..19 Creating and Communicating a Vision for the Unit ..19 Establishing a Positive Work Creating the Structure for the Successful Operation of the Unit ..21 Developing an Effective Work Team ..21 Worker Safety ..24 Relationships with the Public and the Protecting the Agency Against Liability ..27 Supervising CHILD Protective Services Caseworkers Table of Contents 5. BUILDING STAFF CAPACITY AND ACHIEVING QUALITY PERFORMANCE ..29 Performance Expectations and Standards ..29 Stages of Caseworker Development.

3 31 Orientation ..36 Methods for Building Staff Capacity ..38 Dealing with Performance Problems ..44 Dealing with Caseworker Resistance ..46 6. SUPERVISORY FEEDBACK AND PERFORMANCE RECOGNITION ..49 Types of Feedback ..49 Criteria for Effective Conditions for Effective Feedback ..50 Supervisory Effectiveness in Providing Feedback ..50 Recognizing 7. RESULTS-ORIENTED MANAGEMENT ..53 Levels and Purposes for Creating Methods to Track Data ..54 Creating Systems for Organizing and Tracking Data ..57 Monitoring the Qualitative Aspects of Casework Practice ..58 8. CLINICAL SUPERVISION ..61 Group Individual Supervision ..61 Building Self-awareness ..62 Case Consultation ..65 9. RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION ..67 Recruiting a Competent Workforce ..67 Secondary Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, and Burnout.

4 68 Lack of Job Satisfaction ..70 Promoting Staff Retention ..70 ii Table of Contents 10. MANAGING FROM THE MIDDLE ..73 Communicating Policies, Procedures, and Directives Effectively ..73 Managing Up to Be Effective on the Job ..74 11. TAKING CARE OF ONESELF AND THE Training ..77 Stress Management ..78 Time Conclusion ..79 ENDNOTES ..81 APPENDICES: APPENDIX A GLOSSARY OF TERMS ..85 APPENDIX B RESOURCE LISTINGS OF SELECTED NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CONCERNED WITH CHILD APPENDIX C STATE TOLL-FREE TELEPHONE NUMBERS FOR REPORTING CHILD ABUSE ..97 APPENDIX D AN OVERVIEW OF THE CHILD PROTECTION PROCESS APPENDIX E THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ..99 SOCIAL WORKERS CODE OF ETHICS ..101 APPENDIX F THE CHILD PROTECTION PYRAMID ..103 Supervising CHILD Protective Services Caseworkers iii This page is intentionally left blank1 Each day, the safety and well-being of children across the Nation are threatened by CHILD ABUSE and NEGLECT .

5 Intervening effectively in the lives of these children and their troubled families does not rest with any single agency or professional group, but rather is a shared community concern. The CHILD ABUSE and NEGLECT user MANUAL SERIES has provided guidance on CHILD protection to hundreds of thousands of multidisciplinary professionals and concerned community members since the late1970s. The user MANUAL SERIES offers a foundation for understanding CHILD maltreatment and the roles and responsibilities of various practitioners in its prevention, identification, investigation, andtreatment. Through the years, the manuals have served as valuable resources for building knowledge, promoting effective practices, and enhancingcommunity collaboration.

6 Since the last update of the user MANUAL SERIES in the early 1990s, a number of changes have occurred that dramatically affect each community s response to CHILD maltreatment. The changing landscapereflects increased recognition of the complexity of issues facing children and families, new legislation, practice innovations, and systems reform advances in research have helped shape new directions for interventions, while ongoingevaluations help the field to know what works. In addition, recent research in management andleadership effectiveness and trends and innovations in the management field will help CHILD protection agencies provide high-quality services to children and families. The Office on CHILD ABUSE and NEGLECT (OCAN) within the Children s Bureau of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), has developed this third edition of the user MANUAL SERIES to reflect the increased knowledge and the evolving state of practice on CHILD protection.

7 The updated and new manuals are comprehensive in scope while also succinct in presentation and easy to follow, and they address trends and concerns relevant to today s professional. This MANUAL , Supervising CHILD Protective Services Caseworkers, provides the foundation for effective supervisory practice in CHILD protective services (CPS). It describes the roles and responsibilities of the CPS supervisor, and it provides practice-oriented advice on how to carry out supervisory responsibilities effectively. Best practices and critical issues in supervisory practice are underscored throughout. While the MANUAL is designed primarily for CPS supervisors and administrators and reflects state-of-the-art management research and practices tailored to CPS, it also is relevant to all CHILD welfare supervisors.

8 In addition, it may be useful to CHILD welfare agency staff who train supervisory personnel and to schools of social work as they prepare new social workers for the CHILD welfare field. In addition to this MANUAL , CPS supervisors also are encouraged to read two other publications in the user MANUAL SERIES CHILD Protective Services: A Guide for Caseworkers and A Coordinated Response to CHILD ABUSE and NEGLECT : The Foundation for Practice. Supervising CHILD Protective Services Caseworkers Preface user MANUAL SERIES This MANUAL along with the entire CHILD ABUSE and NEGLECT user MANUAL SERIES is available from the National Clearinghouse on CHILD ABUSE and NEGLECT Information. Contact the Clearinghouse for a full list of available manuals and ordering information: National Clearinghouse on CHILD ABUSE and NEGLECT Information 330 C Street, SW Washington, DC 20447 Phone: (800) FYI-3366 or (703) 385-7565 Fax: (703) 385-3206 E-mail: The manuals also are available online at Preface2 3 AUTHOR Marsha K.

9 Salus, , is a social work consultant. She has worked in the CHILD welfare field for 28 years. She began her career as a CPS caseworker, and then became a CPS supervisor. She has developed several national curricula for CHILD welfare workers and supervisors, including a number of preservice and inservice training programs for CHILD welfare workers and supervisors in a variety of States. Ms. Salus also has developed a 12-day core supervisory training program entitled Mastering the Art of CHILD Welfare Supervision, which she has delivered throughout the country. In addition, she has provided training on all aspects of family violence to multidisciplinary audiences around the country. Ms. Salus has assisted State and local CPS agencies in program development and evaluation, and she has worked with several States to establish standards of practice for CHILD welfare supervision.

10 ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PRIOR EDITIONS The Office of CHILD ABUSE and Neglectacknowledges the contribution of Thomas and Marsha K. Salus, who coauthoredSupervising CHILD Protective Caseworkers in 1994,and Julius R. Balew, Marsha K. Salus, and SheilaWinett, who authored Supervising CHILD Protective Workers in 1979. REVIEWERS Kathy Pinto Howard County, Maryland, Department of Social Services Sarah Webster Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (retired) Denise Pintello, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug ABUSE Jodi Hill Connecticut Department of Children and Families TECHNICAL ADVISORY PANEL The following were members of the January 2001 Technical Advisory Panel for the user MANUAL SERIES contract.