Advances in Child Welfare

              Contents
Phase II Best Practice
Begins Roll Out in
January - The second
phase of continuous
improvements for children
and families in Illinois
Best Practice: Valuing
Family Connectedness -
Best Practice focuses on
keeping family members
connected
POS Training Steering
Committee - Diane Yost
and Dave McClure help
facilitate POS involvement in
SACWIS
Coming to the Field,
SACWIS Increment
Model Office - The
SACWIS Project Team takes
Phase II out into the field for a
test drive
SACWIS Project Update -
SACWIS project status
N E W S O F B E S T P R A C T I C E / S A C W I S
Phase II Best
Practice Begins
Roll Out in January
Phase II of Best Practice is slated to roll
out to the field in January ’03 as part of
the Department’s on-going efforts to
provide the highest quality services
possible to our children and families. It’s
an effort that’s drawn expertise from our
own Department staff as well as from
nationally known child welfare experts
throughout the United States. It puts
Illinois in the forefront of cutting edge
child welfare practice but, most impor-tantly,
it will be a tremendous benefit to
the children and families we serve!
Best Practice will provide more consis-tency
in the way services are delivered
throughout the State and contains Core
Principals that will guide casework
practice including:
• Case Decision Making that is
consistent with a child’s sense of
time
• Respect for Family Connectedness
regardless of case outcome
• Ongoing, thorough Assessments
throughout the life of a case
• Full Disclosure to parents and
families about their case-related
situation
• Caseworkers as Change Agents for
the family
• Empowerment of Families to
participate in case decision making
January, 2003
Continued on Page 4
• Family Involvement in frequent
reviews
• Foster Parents as a support for
permanency
• Family behavior impacts safety
decisions
• Reasonable efforts by staff and
reasonable progress by parents
• One worker per family
• Responsiveness to diversity in
families
Fundamental practices will support these
Core Principals to insure that services
offered to children and families served
by the Department and by private
agencies are consistent, are of high
quality and are delivered as promptly as
possible.
Best Practice will begin with a series of
Orientation sessions for DCFS manage-ment
and staff in January and will
extend until the end of the month. The
Orientation will give everyone an
overview of Best Practice Core Princi-pals,
information about the SACWIS roll
out, and an opportunity for discussion
about how the upcoming changes with
Best Practice/SACWIS will impact the
field.
After Orientation, Best Practice Funda-mentals
Sessions will occur, emphasizing
basic knowledge and skills and will take
place over five days. The training is
designed to develop staff proficiency
with the core casework practices of