Colloborating within the Child Welfare System
by Linda Saling
I am so excited to be here and I want to take this opportunity to talk about my focus for this blog. I have been working in a private non-profit social service agency focused on foster care and adoption for the past fourteen years. Prior to that I worked for twelve years within the public state child protective services (CPS) system providing similar types of services. I have discovered that it is more difficult to adequately serve foster children and their families in the private non-profit social service arena without the colloboration with the CPS system, which functions as the legal guardian for these children. I am interested in forging better collaboration between the CPS system and the private social service agencies who are basically serving the same purpose: providing substitute care for abused and neglected children, keeping them safe from harm, helping them heal from abuse and neglect, and moving them towards permanency.
I have worked hard to develop strong working relationships with the CPS system believing that relationships are the key to working more effectively together. I am having more difficulty navigating successfully within the Texas Department and Family Services system than I had working with their counterpart system in New Mexico. I am certain that the difference in size between the two states has something to do with the additional challenges. One of the key ingredients for successful collaboration is good communication. This seems to be missing between the private not-profit sector and CPS, leaving the private non-profit sector struggling to get basic information about the foster child that they have been charged to care for in one of their licensed foster homes. For example: What is the plan for visitation with the family? When is the child going home? Why was the child placed into care to begin with? What is the child’s medical and educational needs? This is a common disconnect experienced by both foster parents and agency staff who work within private non-profit agencies focused on foster care and adoption. It seems difficult to request the information necessary to provide adequate services without creating conflict with the state’s CPS workers. While in New Mexico, I was successful in forging good colloboration with the public child welfare system and I desire to do so again here in Texas. My dream is to support a child welfare system that collaborates with the private provider community in order to develop resources and solutions for children and their families.
