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Vol.
27, No. 1
January 2024
Engagement Begins at Intake
The five primary goals of engagement are informing, consulting, involving, collaborating, and empowering-all vital components of client-social worker relationships in child welfare (Bassier et al., 2008). Child welfare staff consciously strive to establish better relationships and cooperation with families and community partners. Engagement begins at intake. Intake workers build rapport, focus on child safety, and draw out important details to determine if there is a risk of harm to a child that needs to be assessed.
For this article, Practice Notes spoke with North Carolina Division of Social Services (NC DSS) Policy Consultants Amanda Hubbard and Jadie Baldwin-Hamm. Acknowledging that a reporter's knowledge of the family varies is important to keep in mind, Baldwin-Hamm reminds us. For example, one reporter may have recently developed a relationship with the family while another may have years of connection with the family. Intake workers should inform reporters of the child welfare reporting and follow-up process. They consult with the reporter to screen a report in or out and provide the potential assessor with the details needed to conduct an in-depth assessment. The object of intake is to ask the necessary questions. The intake report is lengthy. Not every question needs to be asked for every report. The Division of Social Services wants intake workers to use their professional judgment when using the intake tool to ask questions that pertain to the main safety issue described. "We want the intake worker to focus on behaviorally specific language to ensure that once a report is screened in, the assessment worker can go out and let the family know precisely what the concerns are, why we are engaging with them, and if something needs to be changed, what that change needs to be," Baldwin-Hamm explained.
Intake is considered the front door of child protective services. Cases only enter child welfare through intake or foster home licensing. Therefore, engagement with an intake worker often sets the tone for how community members see child protective services. Establishing rapport over the phone is complex and critical. No matter how many calls are coming in and how hard the day has been, the intake worker must greet the reporter with a pleasant, professional voice. After informing the reporter that their name and contact information are needed so that any assessor assigned can follow up regarding the concerns, it is best practice to explain the intake process and how long the report will take. Baldwin-Hamm said intake workers must understand statutes and policy well to ask good follow-up questions. Intake workers ensure that screening decisions are made with the best information possible and empower the agency to make strong screening decisions. Hubbard added that the intake worker needs to have a "very high level of professional curiosity" and the ability to dig in. Intake workers should ask themselves questions such as What am I missing? What haven't you told me? and encourage the reporter to share more details with statements such as Tell me more about that.
Hubbard shared that a narrative interview style promotes consulting, collaboration, and involvement between the intake worker and the reporter. If feasible, it is always important to identify the family's strengths. Most of the time, asking about the strengths may be based on the reporter's connection or relationship with the family, especially with reporters who have a longer-term relationship with the family. The more information gathered, the more it helps assessors engage families and identify an effective safety plan and next steps with the family.
A New Intake Process
A new intake process rolling out in the coming months will help with gathering information from a reporter as well as supporting consistency with intake reports received across the state. Counties are implementing a new electronic case management system, the Child Welfare Information System (CWIS). Hubbard shared that the rollout will occur in phases to provide support to the counties as they implement it, making sure they have adequate training and technical assistance. There will be a set of training sessions before each county goes live in the new system, along with support from county regional specialists, the NC DSS intake team, and Evident Change consultants who helped our state develop the new intake structured decision-making tool. Implementation phases are assigned based on a readiness assessment and counties' willingness to implement the new electronic system.
The Safety Design Team, whose members include county child welfare staff, community partners, families with lived experience, and NC DSS staff, provided input on the new intake policy and tool. NC Assistant Attorneys General also helped develop the intake tool to ensure it was clear and aligned with statutory definitions. The changes intend to create a more straightforward intake policy that translates well within the new technology. CWIS links the policy to technology, which will lead to more consistent intake decisions. With CWIS, in some instances, the screening process is automatic. For example, if an intake worker selects "physical abuse," CWIS assigns the report to the investigative assessment track and only allows a 24-hour or immediate response timeframe.
Baldwin-Hamm pointed out areas where the system ensures the worker is asking about relatives or kin or other support for the family. Asking about relationships identifies those safety networks to build on from the beginning and leads to more family engagement. Another important piece is helping the intake worker focus on what specific caretaker behavior is of concern and what the potential impact on the child might be. If a safety issue requires a child welfare response, the assessment process is set up for success to address the behavioral changes needed to ensure the safety and well-being of children.
An evaluation found the previous intake tool to be lengthy and redundant. According to Hubbard, the new intake process has eliminated some mandatory questions and focuses more on engagement. An intake worker will ask the questions needed to make a sound screening decision. The new tool should be more efficient for reporters-particularly for professionals-because they can give the information they have without having to be asked several questions unrelated to their work and exposure to the family. The new intake tool questions are related to the policy criteria, helping intake workers determine screening and jurisdiction (including federal requirements), and ensuring all laws are followed. Baldwin-Hamm pointed out that the new tool allows direct access to definitions and criteria. There is no longer a lengthy decision tree to consult when determining whether to accept the report, which will help with the engagement of reporters. There is now a new, structured decision-making intake policy manual that has been designed to help with the CWIS intake process. The manual has an embedded link in the intake tool so workers can refer to it as needed. This tool will help workers inform, consult, and collaborate with reporters, address reporter questions and concerns, and comply with child welfare policies and procedures.
Baldwin-Hamm stated that one of the challenges for intake work has always been workers taking the time to explore protective factors and statutory definitions as they communicate with reporters. The reporters may need additional education about why these intake questions and information are necessary. Intake workers must have skills including professional curiosity, good narrative interviewing skills, and a willingness to educate and support the community about the agency's role and where child welfare can intervene according to policy and law. Engagement at intake carries over throughout the life of the case. When good information, including about family strengths, is gathered during intake, the assessment worker has information they can draw from when they meet with that family. Thorough intake information helps assessors to engage families with effective safety planning, and in building rapport with the family. For example, if it is reported that the family is in crisis, the assessment worker will know what additional information to provide the family on the first visit.
Engagement is vital in every aspect of child welfare; however, engagement with the reporter in intake sets the tone across every function in child welfare. Baldwin-Hamm described engagement at intake as ideally reflecting principles of child welfare work with families and stakeholders which should include equity, consistency, utility, and accuracy. The new intake tool and electronic system are designed to do just that.
Frequently asked questions about the new intake tool can be found HERE