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Customer Satisfaction: A Tool for Communities to Improve the Quality and Delivery of Services to Residents Most in NeedThe Center for the Study of Social Policy has pioneered a new initiative called Customer Satisfaction, aimed at training residents to become empowered consumers who demand quality services, such as healthy food choices in grocery stores and quality child-care centers. A new accountability emerges: Residents are asked if they got what they needed and if it was effective and delivered with respect. They are asked what changes would improve service quality. Publicly reporting residents’ experiences holds public agencies and businesses accountable. In addition, residents are transformed. Instead of being resigned to accepting whatever they are offered, residents feel they deserve better services – and then request them.  The Framework:
Customer Satisfaction, Improving Quality and Access to Services and Supports in Vulnerable Neighborhoods. (38 pgs, 532 KB, 2/10)
Customer satisfaction drives successful private sector businesses. High-performing businesses have developed principles and strategies for achieving customer satisfaction. This paper presents a framework or set of ideas for using customer satisfaction principles and strategies to improve the quality, responsiveness, and accessibility of public sector and privately provided services in vulnerable communities.  The Research:
Customer Satisfaction, Improving Quality and Access to Services and Supports in Vulnerable Neighborhoods- What the Research Tells Us. (42 pgs, 495 KB, 2/10)
Business consultants, corporations and others have worked to identify the characteristics of organizations that consistently please their customers, to develop tools for monitoring customer satisfaction, and to build continuous, quality improvement systems that respond to consumer feedback.. Increasingly, federal, state and local government agencies are attempting to gauge their performance and the effect on those they directly serve Progress of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families Period VI Monitoring Report for Charlie and Nadine H. v. Corzine January1- June 30, 2009 (203 pgs, 837.4KB, 1/10)  The sixth monitoring report summarizes the progress made by the state of New Jersey in meeting the requirements of the Modified Settlement Agreement (MSA) in the period between January 1 and June 30, 2009. For the first time, the Monitor’s report includes data on the State’s performance on Phase II outcome requirements of the Modified Settlement Agreement. The Monitor found that New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) continued to make substantial progress toward meeting the requirements of the MSA, including progress in important areas such as maintaining lower caseloads, training caseworkers, recruiting and retaining resource families, and reducing of the number of New Jersey children placed out-of-state for behavioral health treatment. The State also met expectations for several outcomes measured during this period including reducing repeat maltreatment and the rates of abuse and neglect in foster care, placing sibling groups together and placing children in family settings. Despite the significant improvements cited in the Report, much work remains to be done in the periods ahead to fully implement New Jersey’s Case Practice Model designed to keep families safely together, safely reunify children when appropriate and find permanent homes for children when they cannot safely return home. The State still has a distance to go before the child and family outcomes required by the MSA are consistently achieved but is moving forward purposefully. Appended to the report in a Supplemental Monitoring Report: An Assessment of Provision of Health Care Services for Children in DYFS Custody which assesses the health care experience of children entering out-of-home placement. This supplemental report is based on a case record review conducted by the Monitor with the assistance of the New Jersey Office of the Child Advocate and nurses employed by the Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center located within the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey who are contracted to work in DYFS Child Health Units.
Reflecting
on the Adoption and Safe
Families Act
CSSP in collaboration with
the Urban Institute
commissioned a series of
papers to analyze the
implementation and effects
of the Adoption and Safe
Families Act (ASFA). Intentions
and Results: A Look Back at
the Adoption and Safe
Families Act
begins with a framework
piece that provides an
overview of the ASFA
legislation, and analyzes
state implementation
efforts, the effects on
service delivery and agency
culture, and trends in
outcomes for children and
families since ASFA’s
inception. Five
perspective papers follow
which capture the
experiences from parents and
youth directly affected by
the legislation; the point
of view from one of the
original drafters of the
law; a child welfare leader
who has experienced these
reform efforts firsthand;
and, a judge charged with
enforcing the law. The
series include seven policy
briefs by researchers,
advocates, and policy
analysts who examined the
implications of ASFA for
specific populations, such
as parents who have a mental
health or substance abuse
illness. The series
concludes with a set of
recommendations from the
Center for the Study of
Social Policy. This
paper series offers a
thoughtful analysis of ASFA
that is both is provocative
and research-data based. We
hope this series will elicit
discussion of the current
policies that influence
decision-making and the next
steps for improving outcomes
for children and families
involved in the child
welfare system.
Assessment of the District
of Columbia’s Child Welfare
System: Practice to Support
Children Who Enter,
To better understand the experiences of children experiencing a new placement into foster care or a replacement into a new foster home, CSSP conducted a telephone survey of foster parents. Additionally, CSSP reviewed the FACES case record of each child to determine the frequency of documented social worker visits to children in initial or new placements. The Monitor’s overall recommendation is that CFSA devote significant quality improvement resources to better understand the experiences of foster parents and children during the placement process and in the first 30 to 60 days of a new placement or re-placement. Efforts should be made to identify the barriers social workers experience to fulfilling the case management requirements of the first 30 to 60 days of a new placement.
Focusing on Results in Promise
Neighborhoods: Recommendations
for the Federal Initiative
Outcomes and Indicators for
Children An Analysis to Inform
Discussions about Promise
Neighborhoods
Striking a Balance: Targeting Families Based on Race, Ethnicity Culture, and Language in the Context of Providing Universal Services. (48pgs, 1.66MB, 11/25)
In order to better understand how local community service organizations and initiatives “strike a balance” between their aims to provide universal services to all children and families in their geographic area and their need (and practice) to target specific populations, the Center for the Study of Social Policy completed a study on behalf of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The study, as documented in this final report, was designed to learn more about the strategies and techniques that comprehensive universal service initiatives use to target special populations based upon such factors as race, ethnicity, culture or language. Through both surveys and follow-up interviews, the study sought to determine if and how local leaders and their provider organizations grapple with the issue of intentionally targeting services to specific populations. Overall, the study found that place-based initiatives that provide comprehensive services in neighborhoods and communities across the country are comfortably balancing their missions to improve the lives of children, families and the community with targeting of services and supports to special groups. Read more here…
This letter and the included report were provided to update the DC Federal District Court on the progress of the District of Columbia in meeting the requirements of the Stipulated Order dated October 6, 2008 regarding LaShawn A. v. Fenty. The stipulation outlined a series of actions the District of Columbia would complete between October 15 and December 31, 2008 to stabilize the operations of the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA/the Agency) and move toward compliance with LaShawn A. v. Fenty. The report includes information received and verified by the Monitor as of December 31, 2008.
A Children's Services Corps: Lessons
from Teach for America for Building
the Child Welfare Workforce
(58 pgs, 414 KB 7/09)
CSSP has just launched PolicyForResult.org
This is a web-based initiative to help policy makers govern more effectively by providing the up-to-the-minute, high quality research and evidence they need to enact policies that measurably improve the lives of children and families. Tough economic times call for policies that keep all children healthy and on track to succeed in school, support families’ economic success, and pay special attention to the most vulnerable young people and families, such as those in contact with the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The website gives governors, state legislators, agency administrators, and those who advise them clear examples of why a certain policy direction is important for children and families (based on evidence of effectiveness); what policies are succeeding in other states; and how to tailor policy to their own state’s conditions. PolicyforResults.org also connects policymakers to “two-generation” approaches that lift up children and their parents at the same time, with an emphasis on policies that close gaps and achieve equitable outcomes for all families.
LaShawn A. v. Fenty
An Assessment of the District of
Columbia’s Child Welfare System (As of
January 31, 2009).
An Analysis of Progress in Meeting Select
LaShawn A. v. Fenty Amended Implementation
Plan Requirements
Progress of the New Jersey - Department of
Children and Families Period V Monitoring Report
for Charlie and Nadine H. v. Corzine
(119 pgs, 684KB 4/09)
A Guide to Opportunities to Assure Children are
Healthy and Prepared to Succeed in School for
Making Connections Communities ,
A Guide to Entry Level Jobs and Training and
Education In a bold step to examine racial disproportionality and disparity, the state of Michigan’s Department of Human Services initiated an intensive review of their policies, procedures and case practice with a team of national experts, local leaders, and stakeholders. This team, led by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, designed and implemented a qualitative Race Equity Review to examine the research question: "How does it come about that, after substantiation of child abuse or neglect, African American children are more likely to be removed from their homes?" The findings of the review and this report identify specific policies and practices that directly negatively impact African American children and families. In addition, there are institutional features of Michigan’s child welfare system that negatively impact all families, but have even more severe consequences for African American families. Broad themes identified include a lack of belief in the ability of African American families and communities to care for children; limited case and community advocacy for African American families; the failure to build an infrastructure of policy, practice and resources that contributes to an environment which supports fair outcomes for African American children and families, and the lack of accountability for results. The report presents the Review methodology, specific findings of institutional features that contribute to racial disproportionality and disparity, and recommendations for change.
Scale of Change: Creating and Sustaining
Collaborative Child Welfare Reform across Cities
and States This report highlights the
efforts made by three very different public
systems - California, Washington D.C. and Iowa –
each of which exemplifies the road to reform
through the guiding principles of
strength-based, family centered practice,
community partnership, and parent engagement and
leadership. All three have resolutely surpassed
the “pilot stage” to touch thousands of families
each year; have given rise to meaningful policy
and practice changes within public agencies; as
well as, embedded a stronger sense of
responsibility and accountability for the
well-being of children and families among
multiple stakeholders. The case studies recount
the challenges faced in trying to infuse
collaborative values and practices within public
child welfare systems, while citing key factors
that contributed to sustainable, measurable
positive results. Public agency workers,
community representatives, family advocates, and
families will also discover the successful
journey of leveraging public and private
resources, engaging sometimes unlikely partners,
and productively confronting old assumptions
about the power of communities and parents for
the improvement of family outcomes.
Realizing President Obama’s Promise to Scale Up
What Works to Fight Urban Poverty
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and Practice and Systemic Challenges from
Cases Reviewed in 2008 
in meeting the requirements of the Modified
Settlement Agreement (MSA). The MSA structures
the State’s commitments into two phases of work.
Phase I (July 2006 -December 2008) is primarily
directed at establishing a strong infrastructure
within the Department of Children and Families
(DCF) to ensure children are healthy and safe;
children achieve permanency and stability; and
resource and service delivery systems meet
children’s health, mental health, educational,
and developmental needs. The Monitor found that,
over the course of Phase I, DCF created the
necessary infrastructure to create lasting
reform, added important services to support
children and families, and there were beginning
improvements in outcomes for children and
families who come into contact with the child
welfare system. This report provides more
specific information on DCF’s activities and
progress made in the last six months of Phase I
(July - December 2008). The Monitor found that
DCF met the majority of requirements for this
time period. Subsequent monitoring reports will
examine Phase II requirements which measure
safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for
children.
of the Center for the Study of Social Policy 