Supervisors Core

Days 3-4 Charting a Course: Maintaining Your Bearings

Charting a Course: Maintaining Your Bearings: Improved Outcomes and Key Activities that Correlate with Them

Level: Core Practice – Supervisor

Credits: 12 (6 hours per day)

Intended Audience: New Supervisors 0-2 years

Intended Objectives:

• Identify key concepts and terminology for outcome measurement (e.g. median, point in time, cohort, rolling year etc.)
• Recognize outcome measures for quarterly county specific reports created as part of the C-CFSR process.
• Discuss the interrelated nature of the outcomes tracked on the quarterly county specific outcome report.
• Identify the definition and criteria of evidence based practice vs. promising practice.
• Review promising and emerging evidence based practice for achieving:
  • Timely reunification
  • Preventing re-entry into foster care
  • Timely Adoption
  • Minimizing placement disruption
  • Increased safety in out of home care
  • Reduced recidivism
  • Transition to adulthood
  • Improved fair treatment of all populations and equitable access to services
    (fairness and equity)
• Recognize various funding streams, fiscal implications, linkage to program activities and the supervisor’s role in insuring revenue maximization for child welfare services.
• Recognize how understanding funding streams and fiscal implications will enhance his or her ability to effectively supervise staff
• Identify how the time study process drives both the funding and the allocations.
• Illustrate how to develop a unit climate that supports high performance that is consistent with the department’s mission.
• Be able to develop specific unit level performance indicators tied to key outcomes and the means to track them.
• Demonstrate ability to analyze (from a policy/practice standpoint) key trends associated with C-CFSR outcome measures.
•  Practice a review of a time study including educating staff as to the most accurate coding and the implications for funding.
• Demonstrate management/leadership skills in articulating key unit/program expectations for staff and their linkage with core outcomes.
• Develop a specific plan to track key indicators and improve monitoring ability.
• Demonstrate how to deliver a policy in a unit meeting setting.
• Practice creating a unit level mission consistent with the vision/mission of the agency.
• Develop performance criteria for unit and individual performance, the means to monitor the performance criteria, and provide support/feedback when performance criteria are below standard.
• Value the importance of accuracy in time study activities.
• Value the integration of best practices in working with supervisees.
• Value the importance of developing behaviorally specific performance criteria for staff.
• Value the importance of developing monitoring processes in order to track performance.
• Value strength based strategies when addressing gaps in worker’s performance.

Topics Include:

• Data Informed Practice
• Discussion of the Cycle of Experience in Child Welfare
• Definitions: Means and Medians
• Point in Time VS Entry Cohorts
• Rolling Years in Data Collection
• UC Berkeley Child Welfare Dynamic Report System
• CCFSR Reports
• Outcomes Based Management
• Fiscal Essentials
• Communicating Policy and Procedure to Staff
• Creating a Unit Level Mission
• Evaluating a Unit’s Performance
• Linking with the Organization’s Priority Outcomes
• Performance Tracking
• Defining Expectations and Setting Standards
• Monitoring Job Performance
• Application: Standards for Assessment and Case Planning

Competencies Addressed:

AS1. Communicates agency mission, vision, and philosophy.

AS2. Develops awareness of one’s own attitudes, needs, and behavior and their effect on relationships within the agency. They may be similar or different than the organization’s.

AS3. Applies organizational and management approaches and philosophies to self
and the agency for maximum management effectiveness.

AS5. Creatively and effectively advocates for clients and staff within and outside the agency.

AS6. Has an awareness of and utilizes strategies that can facilitate introduction and management of changes in the workplace.

AS7. Applies a system for ensuring accountability to stakeholders for agency performance.

AS8. Appropriately uses data for decision-making and planning to ensure the proper
focus on outcomes.

AS10. Assess employee performance issues and recommend intervention.

AS11. Able to effectively manage the unit.

AS12. Utilizes leadership skills to effect employee performance.

ES1. Understands and values diversity and different styles of perceiving, learning,
communicating, and operating.

ES2. Understands the value of a developmental approach to supervision and can
adapt supervision style to worker’s stage of development.

ES3. Knows how to improve the transfer of learning from the classroom to the field.

ES5. Knows, can model, and teach necessary elements of statutes, rules, policies,
assessment, decision making, case planning, and case process to staff to
facilitate the best possible case outcomes.

SS2. Knows how to motivate staff.

SS5. Able to assess and improve team functioning.