Developing a Measurement of Child Welfare Policy and Practice: Local Supervisory Review Instrument

Abstract

As child welfare systems move toward evidence-based practice, one state implemented a statewide program to amass data on child welfare outcomes and child welfare workers' performance. This measurement tool, called the Local Supervisory Review Instrument (LSRI), was used on the individual level to provide feedback to case workers as well as on a county and statewide basis to monitor trends on select indicators of child safety, permanency and well-being. The purpose of this study is to review the design and development of the LSRI, including data from throughout the state and to examine a reliability analysis of the instrument. For the differing program areas of the LSRI, descriptive statistics were used to assess response rates and mean rating score. Cronbach's alpha (α) for internal consistency was used to assess the reliability of the LSRI. The results indicate that the reliability of the LSRI is moderate or high, although there are significant exceptions as well. With revisions of some items, the LSRI can contribute to building a model for other states to increase data driven outcomes and workers' assessments in the field of child welfare.

Evidence-Based Practice in Child Protection Services: Do We Have Time for This?

“…There is a belief that "in social work, as in many other disciplines that deal with human outcomes, there has been a change in recent years toward the use of evidenced-based practice (EBP) in selecting interventions and making practice decisions" (Lawson & Berrick, 2013: 323). This is supported by Ahn, Osteen, O'Connor and Shaw (2014), who report that as early as in 2008 there was a notable increase in child welfare organisations embracing evidenced-based practice. Additionally, Wells and Correia (2012) argue that evidencedbased practice interventions successfully minimise specific safety dangers and risks to families, and this should be taken into account by the child welfare agencies.…”

“…Additionally, Wells and Correia (2012) argue that evidencedbased practice interventions successfully minimise specific safety dangers and risks to families, and this should be taken into account by the child welfare agencies. Similarly, according to Ahn et al (2014), efforts to embrace and efficiently apply evidenced-based practice have increasingly been made by child welfare organisations to improve outcomes for children and families. This improvement may generally be aimed at the prevention or reoccurrence of maltreatment of the children after they have been reunited with their families.…”