Title: DCFS NET: Design and Development of an Intranet Prototype for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
Completed by: Jeff Kuhlman
Time of Completion: April 2002
Introduction:
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is the agency responsible for ensuring the safety, well-being, and permanency for children and families in the State of Illinois. The Department recognizes the goal of permanency as finding suitable, long term care for children where they can thrive without having to remain a ward of the state during their childhood years. Established in 1964, the Department’s primary focus is receiving reports of abuse and neglect, conducting investigations, and to taking action, when necessary, to ensure that children are protected. With over 30,000 children currently under the care of the organization, DCFS is not only one of the largest State agencies in Illinois, but one of the largest child welfare agencies in the nation.
The Department has recently undertaken a statewide project called the Best Practice initiative that serves to standardize practice across the State and dramatically alter the way social work is done throughout the State of Illinois. With this initiative, the Department seeks to significantly change how current and future workers do their jobs. Specifically, Best Practice is a multi-year, intensive effort to develop and a practice model which emphasizes child safety, permanency, and well-being from intake to case closure. In addition, Best Practice conceptually includes:
- Consistent investigative and casework practice statewide
- A constant focus on risk and safety, permanency and well-being
- Permanency achieved for children through skilled use of concurrent planning, use of comprehensive assessments and treatment paths, purposeful child and family team meetings, and frequent supervisory conferences
- Interventions from Day 1 to case closure clearly tied to a family’s safety and risk issues; and
- Foster parents involved as more than substitute caregivers – also viewed as critical part of the child welfare team.
Finally, Best Practice incorporates all of the requirements of the federal Adoption and Safety Families Act, the Illinois Permanency Initiative, OIG recommendations, business standards, laws and regulations, consent decrees, accreditation requirements, and principles of sound child welfare practice. Increasingly, the Department is using the new practice model to guise organization change, including all policy development and training as well as implementation.