Title: Understanding and Using CONCURRENT PLANNING To Achieve Permanency for Children and Youth
1Understanding and Using CONCURRENT PLANNING To
Achieve Permanency for Children and Youth
- ABA Conference
- Best Practices to Implement ASFA Creative
Strategies for Practitioners
2Major Changes in Foster Care in Past Decade
- Signing of Adoption and Safe Families
Legislation, 1997 - Creation of Child Family Service Review System
in States, 2001 - Movement Toward Dual Licensure, 1998
- Signing of Chaffee Legislation, 1999
- Focus on Permanency for Older Youth, 2002
- New Law 683- Fostering Connections, 2008
3Some National Statistics About Youth In Foster
Care
- AFCARS (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and
Reporting System) data, as of August, 2009,
indicates that there are - 496,000 children in care
- 130,000 awaiting adoptive placement
- 51,000 children/youth are adopted annually
- However these figures do not include the number
of children in LTFC/APPLA who are not in
permanent homes and for whom no one is seeking
permanency
4Some National Statistics About Youth In Foster
Care
- 293,000 children enter care annually
- 287,000 children exit care annually
- 60 of children adopted by their foster
parents - 25 by relatives
- Homes for the remaining 15 recruited at
state, local, and national level waiting
children
5Race/Ethnicity
-
- Nationally, 56 of the children and youth in
care are children and youth of color - 32 African American 19 Latino Indian
Children in many states are over-represented as
well, especially in South Dakota where 3 of the
population identify as Indian and 63 of the
children and youth in the foster care systems are
of Indian ancestry. -
-
-
6Permanency Planning Goals
- Reunification 53
- Adoption 17
- Relative care 11
-
- 9 or 26,517 youth had a goal of emancipation.
7Child Family Services Review
- The guiding principles of the CFSR are consistent
with A Systems of Care framework. - Child safety, permanency, and well-being are
closely tied to principles of service delivery
for effective practice including - prevention services
- family-focused and community-based services
- Flexible, accessible, and coordinated services
- culturally appropriate services
- strengths-based and individualized services.
8 Defining Permanency
- Permanence is not a philosophical process, a
plan, or a foster care placement, nor is it
intended to be a family relationship that lasts
only until the child turns age 18. -
-
9 Defining Permanency
-
- Permanence is about locating and supporting a
lifetime family. For young people in out-of home
placement, planning for permanence should begin
at entry into care, and be youth-driven,
family-focused, culturally competent, continuous,
and approached with the highest degree of
urgency.
10 Defining Permanency
- Child welfare agencies, in partnership with the
larger community, have a moral and professional
responsibility to find a permanent family
relationship for each child and young person in
foster care.
11 Defining Permanency
- Permanence should bring physical, legal and
emotional safety and security within the context
of a family relationship and allow multiple
relationships with a variety of caring adults. -
12 Defining Permanency
- Permanence is achieved with a family
relationship that offers safe, stable, and
committed parenting, unconditional love and
lifelong support, and legal family membership
status. -
13 Defining Permanency
- Permanence can be the result of preservation of
the family, reunification with birth family or
legal guardianship or adoption by kin, fictive
kin, or other caring and committed adults.
14Definition of Concurrent Planning
- To work towards family reunification while, at
the same time, developing an alternative
permanent plan. - Concurrent rather than sequential planning.
- It involves a mix of family centered casework and
legal strategies aimed at achieving timely
reunification, while at the same time
establishing a concurrent permanency plan if
reunification cannot be accomplished. - It is not a fast track to adoption, but to
permanency
15Pathways to Permanency for Youth
- Youth are reunified safely with their parents or
relatives - Youth are adopted by relatives or other families
- Youth permanently reside with relatives or other
families as legal guardians - Youth are connected to permanent resources via
fictive kinship or customary adoption networks - Youth are safely placed in another planned
alternative permanent living arrangement which is
closely reviewed for appropriateness every six
months
16Goals of Concurrent Planning
- promote safety, permanency, well-being of
children - achieve early permanency
- reduce of moves
- continue significant relationships
17Goals of Concurrent Planning
- To develop a network of foster parents (relatives
and non-relatives) who can work toward
reunification and also serve as permanency
resource families for children and youth - To engage families in early case planning, case
review, and decision-making about the array of
permanency options to meet children and youths
urgent need for stability and continuity in their
family relationships - To maintain continuity in children and Youths
family, siblings, and community relationships
18Why Concurrent Planning Now?
- Children are spending too much time in foster
care - Response to Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare
Act of 1980 PL 96-272 - Response to Adoption and Safe Families Act of
1997 - ASFA - Major strategy used for child welfare agencies to
meet National Outcomes and Performance Standards
(Children and Family Service Reviews)
19Success Redefined
- Permanency is the Goal.
- Reunification is a primary but only
- one of several acceptable permanency
- goals.
20Core Components of Concurrent Planning
- Success redefined
- Differential assessment and prognostic case
review - Full disclosure
- Frequent child-family visitation
- Crises and time limits as opportunity
- Early search for absent parents (including
fathers) and relatives (including paternal
resources)
21Core Components of Concurrent Planning (continued)
- Plan A and Plan B Placement with a permanency
planning resource families - Written Agreements, scrupulous documentation and
timely case review - Collaboration between social work and legal
service providers
22Legal Strategies
- Indian Child Welfare Act - 1978
- Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act 1980
PL96-272 - Adoption and Safe Families Act 1997 (ASFA)
- Multi-Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA) and
Inter-Ethnic Placement Provisions (IEP) 1994
Amended in 1996 to remove barriers - The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Act 1996
23Response to Legal Strategies
- Family-Centered and Strengths-Based Practice
Models - Community-Based Service Delivery
- Cultural Responsive Practice Models
- Open and Inclusive Practice
- Non-Adversarial Approaches Solution-Focused
- Concurrent rather than Sequential Consideration
of all Permanency Options
24Principles of Strengths/Needs Based Practice
- Children belong in families, and need nurturing
relationship with adults - Children should be helped to stay with (or return
to) their families - People can change with the right services,
education and supports - Families (biological, foster and adoptive) should
be viewed as partners - Foster care and other placements used for family
support
25Principles of Strengths/Needs Based Practice
- Childs attachment needs can be addressed through
strengthening family resources - Comprehensive and individualized services focused
on family empowerment considering family
strengths and underlying needs in developing
individualized family service plans - Culturally responsive services
26Differential Assessment
- Is a Process of
- Individualizing our understanding of the
individual, family, or group in the context of
their present circumstances, past experiences,
and potential for future functioning - Deepening our family-centered understanding of
the child in the context of their family,
culture, and community - Strengthening our understanding of the personal,
interpersonal, and environmental context in which
children and families live and interact.
27Differential Assessment (continued)
- Engaging families in culturally competent, early
comprehensive assessments, case planning and
services needed to achieve timely permanency
reunification or an alternative plan b - Engaging in a Differential Prognostic
Assessment process to identify family situations
in which a concurrent permanency plan/placement
with a resource family is needed.
28Differential Assessment (continued)
- Using the crisis of placement as a motivator to
engage families in case planning and to make
behavioral changes. - Increasing birth and foster parent partnerships
in case planning
29Differential Assessment (continued)
- Recruiting, training, and supporting permanency
planning resource families in addition to other
types of foster families. - Engaging in discussions with foster families
about the need for a concurrent permanency plan
and their interest in serving as a back-up
permanency resource for children who may not
return to their birth parents.
30Differential Assessment (continued)
- Identifying relatives and tribal resources who
can be placement/permanency resources early on in
the case planning process. - Respectfully using full disclosure with birth
families and foster/adoptive families throughout
the life of the case.
31Differential Assessment (continued)
- Collaborating with courts, attorneys, and service
providers to better serve children and families. - Determining when to pursue the alternative
permanency plan such as adoption or guardianship
when it is clear the parent(s) can not or will
not care for their children.
32Benefits
- To the child
- Reduced placements
- Earlier permanency through reunification or other
permanency option
- To the Parent
- Creates sense of urgency
- Parent benefits from early accessible services
outcome is determined by parent. - When outcome is not reunification, lays the
groundwork for openness with permanent caregiver
33Current Challenges
- Decision-Making when child is placed early and
attached to non related caregiver and relative
requests placement - Foster Parents intervening when reunification
planning occurs - Continued training needsstaff turnover
34Reflections
- Consider and normalize the language in concurrent
planning,i.e. assessment, backup plan, resource
foster families - Collaborating with courts, attorneys, and service
providers to better serve children and families - Determining when to pursue the alternative
permanency plan such as adoption or guardianship
when it is clear the parent(s) can not or will
not care for their children. - Early Potentially Permanent Kinship Placements
- Use concurrent planning for all forms of
permanency, not only adoption
35- Gerald P. Mallon, DSW
- Professor and Executive Director
- National Resource Center for Family Centered
Practice and Permanency Planningat the Hunter
College School of Social WorkA Service of the
Childrens Bureau\ACF\DHHS - 129 East 79th Street, Suite 801New York, New
York 10075 - (212) 452-7043 Private line
- (212) 452-7051 - faxgmallon_at_hunter.cuny.edu -
Emailwww.nrcfcppp.org