News

Effective Frontline Supervision Essential to Child Protection Services

Every day a child in the U.S. dies from child abuse and neglect.  In many instances, these horrific deaths could be prevented. Every day, public child welfare employees, many of whom are professional social workers, witness some of the most difficult challenges facing families. They are charged with investigating, and intervening, when children are exposed to drugs, sexual abuse, and countless other forms of family violence and neglect.

No two cases are the same, and no two workers are exactly alike. Yet policy makers and the public demand immediate and uniform corrective action when the unthinkable occurs; and supervisors are accountable.

To better understand the complex and crucial role supervisors play in the child welfare system, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Social Work Policy Institute (SWPI) has published its final report from the November 2010 national symposium, "Supervision: The Safety Net for Frontline Child Welfare Practice."

According to NASW, child welfare supervisors are expected to be the following:

* highly skilled practitioners who can implement ethical and culturally competent practices that result in improved outcomes for children and families;
* mentors to frontline workers, many of whom do not have formal social work training;
* actively involved in their communities;
* skilled at transmitting agency policies and evaluating performance; and
* exemplary leaders who help others cope with the stress and trauma of the work.

However, real world child welfare practice indicates that it is very difficult to be effective in each of these roles simultaneously, and nearly impossible to find all these attributes in one individual.

Experts from all areas of the child welfare system—federal, state and local leaders, public agencies, as well as private nonprofits—conclude in this report that the lack of program research, consistent tools, adequate workplace supports, and best practice models, coupled with repetitive experiences of trauma, service and resource gaps, and inconsistent hiring qualifications all contribute to troubling outcomes for children and overburdened foster care systems.

"We have reached an important crossroads in our country," says Joan Levy Zlotnik, PhD, ACSW, director of the NASW SWPI. "As a society, we have increasingly high expectations of the system but we do not invest in the very innovations needed to keep up with service demand."

Recent child death cases in New York, Florida, Oklahoma, and Ohio have made it clear that new commitments to ensure better training and high quality supervision in child welfare are worth larger national discussions.

— Source: National Association of Social Workers