The following resources have been developed by the technical assistance team of the National Partnership for Child Safety to support partner jurisdictions in their efforts to integrate safety science in efforts to improve child welfare systems. They also include background and related resources that reflect innovations in child welfare.
Reframing Childhood Adversity Toolkit >
The Reframing Childhood Adversity toolkit was created by Social Current and Prevent Child Abuse America and is based on the framing belief from the Frameworks Institute on “Reframing Childhood Adversity; Identifying Upstream Approaches.” On the website, you will find resources and assets to enable child welfare professionals to reframe childhood adversity as a public issue, a preventable issue and a solvable issue.
TeamFirst Assessment of Safety Culture >
The TeamFirst Assessment of Safety Culture is an organizational assessment used to support consensus, collaboration and action to create and sustain workplace cultures centered in safe, reliable and effective care.
TeamFirst Field Guide >
The TeamFirst Field Guide is a curation of strategies from other safety critical, high impact fields, like healthcare. Intended to offer practical guidance for healthy, coordinated teaming habits, the TeamFirst Field Guide supports an all-agency culture of safety organizing and psychological safety.
The Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities >
The Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities published its final report in 2016, highlighting the potential of safety science to advance child welfare systems. That commitment to adopting a public health approach, grounded in safety science, ultimately led to the formation of the National Partnership for Child Safety.
Child Welfare Workforce Turnover: Impact and Retention Strategies >
For decades, high rates of staff turnover have plagued child protection agencies and retaining a highly qualified workforce has become even more difficult in recent years. Knowledgeable, engaged and committed child welfare professionals are invaluable to the supports children and families need in order to thrive. This Casey Family Programs Knowledge Brief describes turnover, its impact to children and families and highlights effective retention strategies.
Within Our Reach Policy, Education, and Communications Toolkit >
Since the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities’ final report, national demonstration initiatives have shown a preventive public health approach requires an emphasis on protective factors and family-strengthening policies. This toolkit offers human service leaders, policy makers and communicators tools to support building a 21st-century child welfare system.
Child Maltreatment Fatality Reviews: Learning Together to Improve Systems That Protect Children and Prevent Maltreatment >
Developed by The National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention in partnership with Within Our Reach at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, this guide provides guidance on conducting high-quality case reviews of child maltreatment fatalities. It outlines effective review processes, provides tools and strategies to gain deeper insights into each case, and highlights how these reviews can drive meaningful system improvements to prevent future tragedies.
POLICY AND PRACTICE BRIEFS
When Definitions Meet Reality: Why Stronger Child Maltreatment Fatality Decisions Require More Than Clearer Policy >
This brief examines how child welfare professionals across 30 jurisdictions screen and respond to child fatalities and uncovers gaps between what policies say and how they’re actually applied. Through our Policy-to-Practice methodology, we studied how professionals handle the same fatality scenarios and discovered some differences that can’t be explained by policy alone. If you’re responsible for child safety decisions, designing systems that support them, or working to improve consistency across jurisdictions, this Policy Brief details some of the factors that really drive decision-making — and what actually needs to change.
Safely to Their First Birthday Practice and Policy Brief >
NPCS developed the Safely to Their First Birthday Practice and Policy Brief to provide considerations for child welfare agencies in both preventing and responding to Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID). Based on a human factors approach consistent with safety science, the guidance can help keep infants safe with their families.
Child Welfare Communications Policy Brief >
In public child welfare’s transformation to an increasingly supportive family and child well-being system, communication is essential. This brief describes ways to reframe the narratives towards a preventative, population health approach that advances safety culture and evidence-based family-preserving practices.
Data Sharing Policy Brief >
By analyzing NPCS members’ shared critical incident reviews, the NPCS is able to identify and respond to systemic trends to best support child and family safety.
Mindful Organizing Policy Brief >
Employing mindful organizing with child welfare teams advances a culture of safety. In particular, the use of two strategies – huddles and debriefs – provide opportunities for teams to engage in mindful organizing both to anticipate and respond to risk.
Psychological Safety Policy Brief >
In workplaces characterized by complex systems and high consequence decisions, psychological safety is essential to create a culture of safety, innovation, and learning.
Safe Systems Improvement Tool Policy Brief >
The Safe Systems Improvement Tool (SSIT) is a critical incident review tool designed to support a family-centered, non-punitive, systems-focused approach to understanding and learning from adverse or sentinel events.
Safety Culture Policy Brief >
In the context of child welfare, safety cultures strive to balance individual accountability with system accountability and value open communication, feedback, and continuous learning and improvement.
TeamFirst Assessment of Safety Culture Policy Brief (TASC) >
The TeamFirst Assessment of Safety Culture (TASC) is an organizational survey tool used by NPCS member jurisdictions as part of their internal quality improvement efforts to better understand employees’ perceptions of safety culture within the agency and to track change over time.
Workforce Connectedness Policy Brief >
Child Welfare professionals with higher levels of workplace connectedness report higher levels of psychological safety. Psychologically safe professionals describe a higher intent to remain with their agencies, lower levels of emotional exhaustion, and better teamwork with mindful organizing skills, all of which are elements intended to improve casework practice.
The Center for the Helping Professions heads the technical assistance team, led by Drs. Michael Cull, Tiffany Lindsey, and Elizabeth Riley. The Center for Innovation in Population Health at the University of Kentucky as well as The National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention at the Michigan Public Health Institute additionally provide technical assistance.