ASFA TRAINING PROJECT PHONE POLL OF CHILD WELFARE AGENCIES

Alabama

1. How would you rate your agency's staff in terms of their understanding of ASFA requirements? We are particularly interested in the level of understanding of managers, supervisors and workers. Please rate their understanding on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being 'poor' and 5 being 'comprehensive'.

a. Managers:

b. Supervisors:

c. Workers:

Comments: We offered ASFA training to managers and supervisors but we have only begun to scratch the surface. Our design was to train the managers and supervisors and then have them train their staff so the staff have not had the same ASFA training opportunities as the supervisors and managers.

2. Based on your agency's experience to date, what skills do you think managers, supervisors and workers need to have to implement ASFA?

a. Managers?

• Modeling best practice
• Assessing families
• Planning with families, not for them
• Knowing how to gain agreements and set limits
  

b. Supervisors?

• Knowing how to support hard decisions
• Understanding how to initiate hard conversations with workers
  

c. Workers?

• Knowing how to join with the families where they are, how to partner with them and how to advocate for them

3. As part of your ASFA implementation has your agency undertaken any activities in the following areas:

• Agency structure? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  We currently are in the process of designing structural changes to support outcomes and best practice; it's too early in the process to completely define the changes.
• Internal communication? No Yes
  If yes, please describe
  We have shared our policies via word and in writing.
• Performance appraisals? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
• Job descriptions? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  Our job descriptions, particularly for managers, are starting to reference the ability to understand and use data in decision making.
• Staff recruitment? No Yes
  If yes, please describe.
  We are a family centered practice state and believe that if you are providing best practice, ASFA will, in effect, take care of its self. When we recruit, we say that we are good at working with families and thus are looking for people who are good working with families; we don't say we are looking for people who are familiar with the requirements of ASFA.

4. How do you handle staff training on ASFA?

a. Please describe the training.

Initially, the ASFA Workgroup, which is a multidisciplinary, multi-agency team of state administrative and managerial staff, offered teleconferences and regional training on ASFA. Special sessions were held at various locations throughout the state for judicial workers.

b. Who does the training?

The ASFA Workgroup and the trained county staff.

c. Is the training just on ASFA or is it incorporated into other training that you provide?

Just on ASFA. The Alabama Certified Training (ACT) focuses on our practice philosophy, not ASFA.

d. Have you done any training with or for the courts? No Yes
If yes, please describe.
For the past 2 ½ years the ASFA Workgroup has trained the courts on ASFA and our practice philosophy and participated in several Judicial conferences.

5. How well does your information system support the work of managers, supervisors and workers in implementing ASFA? Please rate the support provided by your system on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being 'poor' and 5 being 'outstanding'

a. Why did you give your system that rating?

Our current system is an outdated legacy system that can't now do what needs to be done to support ASFA.

b. If a rating of 1 or 2 is given, probe as to the status of the SACWIS system.

Parts of the Alabama ASSIST (Alabama Social Service Information System) are being piloted now.

6. What has worked best for you in terms of supporting staff as they implement the ASFA requirements?

The best way to support staff is to demystify ASFA and help staff see that ASFA is about what we want for families, not about the imposition of outside federal requirements.

Our on-going collaborative work with the Courts. We have an identified ASFA person in the Administrative Office of Courts, Bob Maddox, who is the Court's lead ASFA person. You need someone in the Courts who is on board with you.

7. What do you view as barriers to your agency's support for staff as they implement the requirements of ASFA?

We have some Courts that, despite our best efforts to join and engage with them, have not embraced training opportunities or taken the training content back home to cease certain activities and start others. Perhaps we have yet to learn how to deal with a forceful judge at the County level. On the other hand, in some cases, despite our encouragement, county directors do not regularly speak to their local judges about immediate practice and policy issues and concerns.

8. (For County based systems only.) To what extent does the fact that your state is county-based impact your ASFA implementation?
We have recognized that the counties hear best what they hear from their peers so we work with that as a communication approach.

9. Is there anything else that you want to tell us regarding the best way to support staff as they implement the requirements of ASFA?

Tease it into everything that staff is doing. We are confident that if we are working within the consent decree and following best practice, we are implementing ASFA.

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