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Safety Resources and Kinship Care Volume 20, Number 1 In August 2014 the NC Division of Social This interest isn’t hard December 2014 Services surveyed NC’s county DSS child to understand. Though welfare professionals about what they’d like they are common, there This publication for child welfare professionals is to learn more about through publications or seems to be some incon- produced by the North webinars. The response was strong—nearly a sistency in how agencies Carolina Division of Social third of the estimated 3,000 county DSS child define and use safety Services and the Family welfare professionals in the state responded. resources and kinship and Children’s Resource Survey respondents rated their interest in care. This can give rise to Program, part of the Jordan 20 topics related to child welfare practice. questions and confusion. Institute for Families within This issue of Practice Notes seeks to the School of Social Work “Safety Resources and Kinship Care: Best at the University of North Practice” was among the top choices for DSS provide clarity and useful suggestions for Carolina at Chapel Hill. directors, program managers and adminis- the appropriate, successful use of safety trators, supervisors, and line staff. resources and kinship placements in NC. u In summarizing research, we try to give you new ideas for Safety Resources: Definition, Benefits, and Challenges refining your practice. How- Use of safety resources is a strategy that can are needed when a child ever, this publication is not A safety intended to replace child help North Carolina’s child welfare system is found unsafe during a resource is welfare training, regular su- achieve safety, permanence, and well-being CPS assessment or during really any CPS pervision, or peer consulta- for children and their families. However, in-home services. Their intervention tion—only to enhance them. some in the field have questions about this use is intended to address to address practice: What exactly are safety resources? immediate safety issues— immediate When should we use them? For how long significant, clearly observ- safety Let us hear from you! concerns. To comment about some- should we use them? able threats to the child. thing that appears in Prac- Safety resources are discussed in North Safety resources can take many forms. tice Notes, please contact: Carolina’s child welfare policy (see Chapter Examples include providing priority day care John McMahon 8, Section 1408, item F), but the questions to enable a parent to get an assessment, or Jordan Institute for Families above aren’t answered there. During 2015 having a neighbor stop in daily to help a School of Social Work the NC Division of Social Services will parent or child take a needed medication. UNC–Chapel Hill begin working with county DSS agencies Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3550 Temporary Safety Placements [email protected] through the In-Home Services Workgroup One of the most common forms of safety to make policy on safety resources more resource in North Carolina is the temporary Newsletter Staff comprehensive. Mellicent Blythe safety placement provider. This is someone, In the meantime, this article seeks to Sarah Marsh usually a relative, that parents ask to tempo- John McMahon answer common questions about safety rarily care for their children to ensure their Laura Phipps resources, based on conversations with rep- safety during a CPS assessment or during resentatives from the Division and county the delivery of CPS in-home services. Visit Our Website DSS agencies. Some people use “safety resource” and www.practicenotes.org Definition “kinship care” interchangeably. This is incor- In the broadest sense, a safety resource is rect, though it’s easy to see why this mistake any intervention to address specific, imme- occurs. Both involve placement with rela- diate child safety concerns during the deliv- tives, and in both the agency checks criminal ery of child protective services. Typically they history and uses the “Kinship Care cont. page 2 Safety Resources continued from the previous page Initial Assessment” (DSS-5203) and the “Kinship Care Comprehensive Should I Use a Safety Resource with this Family? Assessment“ (DSS-5204) to assess the This issue of Practice Notes tries to make it easier to decide when prospective caregiver. it is appropriate to use safety resource placements. But when you work with people, gray areas inevitably arise. What should you do There are important differences if you’re uncertain a safety resource placement is needed? between safety resources and kinship Kevin Kelley, Chief of Child Welfare Services in North Carolina, care, however. Chief among them is suggests a good first step is to look back to the purpose and phi- court involvement. Strictly speaking, in losophy of CPS as outlined in policy (Chapter VIII, Section 1400). As this policy our state the term kinship care is prop- explains, children should be placed outside their homes only when their safety can- erly applied only to a court-ordered not be assured in the home. As policy states, deciding whether to remove a child placement of children with their rela- “should be based on an analysis of the risk of harm balanced with implementing reasonable efforts to ensure safety within the family.” tives. Courts do not oversee county We must engage families in decisions related to child safety, while at the same DSS agencies’ use of safety resources. time being transparent and executing our authority only when needed. Other differences between safety resource placements and kinship were clear, however, that in their expe- consuming. Safety resource place- placements include the following: rience there are both benefits and ments can give CPS the extra time it Custody. With kinship placements, challenges connected with the use of sometimes needs to adequately assess the court has typically given custody of temporary safety resource placements. safety. This can help avoid unneces- the children to the county DSS agency. Benefits sary foster care placements. As Robby With safety resource placements, par- May increase child safety. Tem- Hall, director of Richmond County ents retain custody and full access porary safety placements are likely DSS put it, temporary safety place- to their children. For example, with to reduce the child’s exposure to the ments can “give you time to evaluate a temporary safety placement, DSS safety concern. the needs of the family without taking cannot require supervised visitation. Keeps children with family. Safety drastic steps.” Duration. Kinship placements last resource placement providers are The box below provides an exam- months and sometimes years. Safety family or family-like individuals. This ple of the appropriate, effective use of resource placements, on the other is consistent with law and policy, a safety resource placement. hand, should be very short, lasting which are clear: relatives should be Challenges only as long as it takes to gather the the first ones considered as alterna- Parents can feel coerced. Although information needed to reach a decision tive caregivers. technically the use of a safety resource about whether the immediate safety Gives CPS “space” to work. CPS provider is up to the birth family, in concern can be adequately addressed assessments can be complex and time reality the presence and power of CPS and the children returned home. Policy continued next page is not specific on this point, but the NC Division of Social Services suggests this Example: Successful Use of a Temporary Safety Placement might reasonably range from several A mother of three children under age efforts to identify and resolve the risk days to as long as 60 days. 6 has been involved with DSS on multi- related to the injurious environment If the agency is uncomfortable ple occasions due to domestic violence. (domestic violence, substance use, returning the children home after a There have been three prior reports and criminal activity). the environment has deteriorated—the The grandparents provided alter- reasonably brief period, it should con- mother now says she has begun to use native housing for the mother and the sider petitioning the court for custody. drugs frequently in the presence of the children to ensure the boyfriend no Prevalence children. longer had access to the family. Conversations with staff from county Recently the Sheriff arrested the Placement with the grandparents mother’s boyfriend for using her home was needed for only a few weeks to DSS agencies suggest the use of safety to make and sell methamphetamine. allow the mother the opportunity to resource providers is common. Unfor- The mother was also arrested. set up treatment services, re-establish tunately, specific information about DSS was contacted and responded a safe home for her and the children, this practice is seldom—if ever—sys- to the scene. The mother identified and demonstrate effective use of the tematically tracked at the county level. her parents as possible safety resource safety plans. caretakers for the children. DSS com- The grandparents and other family There is no state-level data about the pleted the appropriate Kinship Care members assisted with finances and use of this practice. This makes it dif- Assessment tools and background care of the children while the mother ficult to talk about patterns or link the checks and approved the grandparents completed treatment. There was no use of safety resources to child and as a temporary safety placement. need for child welfare-related court After several weeks the mother was intervention or further intervention family outcomes. released on bond and complied with from the DSS. The professionals we spoke with 2 Safety Resources continued from the previous page make it possible (some would say likely) parents feel they are making The Use of Safety Resources and Title IV-E Funding this decision under duress.

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