Evaluation of the Improving Child Welfare Outcome through Systems of Care Grant Program - Stakeholder Interviews

Stakeholder Interview Protocol

Interview Guidelines:

Purpose: To gather information regarding their activities and outputs of their local SOC.

• Convey to each interview participant our confidentiality policy: 1) the interview is voluntary; 2) they can decline to answer any questions, or they can stop the interview at any time; 3) the information will be held in confidence; and 4) only evaluation staff will have access to the interview tape and interview data.

• Please remember to ask permission to tape record the interview. They can decline.

• Ask if they have any questions for you before you begin.

Background

21. What is your involvement with [NAME OF SOC PROJECT] – for instance, do you participate on a steering committee? If so, do you represent a specific agency, organization, or group of people?

** Interviewer: if interviewee represents family members probe to determine which groups of family members - foster, adoptive, children, birth.

Collaborative Partnership

21. What is the structure of your SOC partnership? Are there subcommittees or teams charged with specific tasks? How has the structure and responsibilities of the steering committee changed since the beginning of this initiative (or since your involvement?)?

** How many people usually attend meetings?

21. Would you say that the right organizations and right people are active and engaged in your SOC partnership? In your subcommittees?

1. Are family members represented? To what degree, which family member populations, and in what roles?

2. What efforts have been made to recruit those who are missing?

21. Have you revisited your objectives and goals (strategic plan) in the last year? What, if any, changes have you made? Why? Is there a process in place for incorporating data and evaluation findings into future planning?

21. Is the collaborative effective in getting things accomplished? Are the conversations productive and do they lead to clear action steps?

1. Do members have meaningful input into decisions made and activities undertaken?

21. Are there formal or informal linkages between your SOC efforts and legislative or advocacy representatives in your community/state/tribe?

1. If so, what effect have these linkages had? If not, are there plans to establish such linkages?

21. Are resources shared between the various public agencies involved in your SOC?

1. If so, what agencies are involved and how are resources divided (get concrete examples/specifics)?

2. Do the partners feel that the resources are shared equitably or does it seem like one or two agencies provide all of the resources?

3. If not, what barriers have kept your community from blending funds or sharing resources to support your target population?

Implementation Activities around SoC Principles & Sustainability Plans

** For the next set of questions, I am going to ask you two things about your activities and plans regarding each of the SoC principles. First, I want to know about activities your SoC has implemented over the past year. Second, I want to talk about your plans for the future. That is, what plans do you have regarding sustaining work around these principles).

12. Over the past year, what activities has your SOC planned or implemented to increase collaboration between the various public service agencies?

Implementation

a. Have interagency agreements been put into place/updated (Get approximate #)? If so, to do what? Have these agreements facilitated collaboration?

b. Are there any agencies with whom agreements need to be in place but are not? Any with whom the agreements are not working? What are you plans for addressing this in the final year of the grant?

c. Is there a process through which information is shared across agencies at the management and supervisory level (e.g., cross-agency training, interagency case consultation or review at the supervisory or management level)?

d. If so, is there a method by which issues identified by this group can lead to changes in agency policies, procedures, and practices?

Sustainability

• Over the past year (or more), how has your SOC planned on sustaining your collaborative efforts and activities?

1. For instance, are you going to continue meeting as a collaborative body? Or, is your collaborative merging with a related systems change collaborative body?

2. Do you have MOUs for the upcoming year? What type(s) of agreements are in place (e.g., what are partner agencies promising to do around collaboration)?

12. Over the past year, what activities has your SOC planned or implemented to increase family involvement in CW?

** Prompt: For family involvement and the rest of the principles we cover, please also highlight any activities that have also occurred within your OWN agency due to SoC.

Implementation

1. Collaborative – How involved have family members been on the collaborative? Are they in leadership roles overall or in subcommittees/workgroups? Do they work on SoC activities outside of the meetings?

2. Policy – Have family members been involved in any efforts to influence policy internally (e.g., meeting with CW director), locally (meeting with local politicians, County board), regionally, statewide? Have family members been involved in any CFSR, PIP or related activities?

3. CW Agency – Have family members been involved in training CW staff or other activities directed at the child welfare agency as a whole? Partner agencies?

4. Practice - Do you have a Parent Navigator/Partner/Mentor Program? If so, how did you develop your program (successes/challenges)? How may parents are involved? Did you collect any performance measures? Hhow effective do you think the program been?

Sustainability

• Over the past year (or more), how has your SOC planned on sustaining family involvement?

1. At the collaborative level?

2. At the policy level?

3. At the child welfare agency level (training, etc.)?

d. At the case/practice level?

12. Over the past year, what activities has your SOC planned or implemented to increase accountability in CW? Again, please highlight any activities that have also occurred within your own agency due to SoC.

Implementation

1. Have you tracked progress toward your strategic plan’s goals and objectives?

2. Are individuals held accountable when collaborative tasks are not accomplished on time?

3. Do you know if the child welfare agency has used data to track progress on target population goals?

4. Do you know if the child welfare system has used data to inform changes to policies, procedures, and practices?

Sustainability

• Over the past year (or more), how has your SoC planned on sustaining a focus on accountability?

1. Do you plan on continuing tracking progress toward your strategic plan’s goals and objectives?

2. Are there plans within child welfare to continue to use data collection efforts to inform changes to policies, procedures, and practices?

12. Over the past year, what activities has your SOC planned or implemented to increase individualized and strengths-based care in CW? Again, please highlight any activities that have also occurred within your own agency due to SoC.

Implementation

Sustainability

• Over the past year (or more), how has your SoC planned on sustaining a focus on individualized and strengths-based care?

12. Over the past year, what activities has your SoC planned or implemented to increase cultural competence in CW?

Implementation

1. Do staff speak relevant languages; are services provided in a way that are respectful of culture?

2. In the past year, has there been any trainings on culturally competent practices for child welfare staff? For partner agency staff?

3. Have you conducted any assessments of child welfare workers on culturally competent practices?

Sustainability

• Over the past year (or more), how has your SOC planned on sustaining a focus on cultural competence?

12. Over the past year, what activities has your SOC planned or implemented to increase community-based resources and services in CW?

Implementation

Sustainability

• Over the past year (or more), how has your SoC planned on sustaining a focus on community-based resources and care?

18. Outside of these principle-based questions, are there any other SoC and related

activities that were implemented over the past year that we have not discussed,

particularly those around your target population?

12. If so, how do you plan on sustaining these efforts and activities once federal funding

ends?

20. What would you say are the two greatest facilitators in your community to your

[SOC NAME] efforts? The two greatest barriers?

Technical Assistance

21. Over the course of the SOC initiative, to your knowledge, has your site received any technical assistance – either from the National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center (Caliber/ICF and project consultants) or from other sources? If so,

1. What technical assistance was received?

2. Who from your site benefited from/participated in the technical assistance?

3. Was the technical assistance useful? Why or why not?

21. Over the course of the SOC initiative, were there any technical assistance needs that were not met? Or, looking back, was there any technical assistance you now wish you had? If so, please describe.

21. What technical assistance needs do you anticipate at your sites once federal funding is over?

6