Samples Mark, Carnochan Sarah, Austin Michael J
Bay Area Social Services Consortium, School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-7400, USA.
J Evid Based Soc Work. 2013;10(3):254-64. doi: 10.1080/15433714.2013.788954.
The federal child welfare performance measurement system exerts a profound influence over the design, delivery, and evaluation of child welfare services at the local level, with funding contingent upon participation in the federally mandated Child and Family Services Review. In this exploratory study the authors focus on local efforts to respond to and comply with the federal child welfare performance measurement system in 11 northern California counties. The authors review the System Improvement Plans of each county and the findings from focus groups with child welfare staff conducted in five of the counties that included the limitations of federal performance measures, the difficulty using these measures to inform decision making, and the continuing struggle to achieve the major child welfare goals of safety, permanency, and well-being. The implications include the need for: flexibility in the federal performance measurement system, opportunities to integrate local values and priorities, and child well-being measures so that timeliness does not take on more significance than well-being or the quality of relationships among local stakeholders in the child welfare system.
联邦儿童福利绩效评估系统对地方层面儿童福利服务的设计、提供和评估产生深远影响，资金提供取决于是否参与联邦政府规定的儿童与家庭服务审查。在这项探索性研究中，作者聚焦于加利福尼亚州北部11个县为响应并遵守联邦儿童福利绩效评估系统所做的地方努力。作者审查了每个县的系统改进计划，以及在其中5个县与儿童福利工作人员进行焦点小组讨论得出的结果，这些结果包括联邦绩效衡量标准的局限性、利用这些标准为决策提供信息的困难，以及在实现安全、永久性和福祉等主要儿童福利目标方面持续面临的困难。其影响包括需要：联邦绩效评估系统具备灵活性、有机会整合地方价值观和优先事项，以及制定儿童福祉衡量标准，以使及时性不会比福祉或儿童福利系统中地方利益相关者之间关系的质量更重要。
