Adapting Practice During a Public Health Crisis: Guidelines for Public Child Welfare: Intake Assessment and CPS Initial Family Assessment Pre-Commencement

During a Public Health Crisis, circumstances may change rapidly. As the crisis has significantly changed our social environments, caused by social distancing and isolation policies to control the spread of infectious disease, public child welfare agencies remain steadfast in working to ensure child safety. In practical terms, with respect to being responsive in day-to-day service delivery, social distancing requires public child welfare agencies to critically think about how to maintain the highest standard for assessing and managing child safety, while accounting for caseworker and community safety.

Public child welfare agencies, operating in the current climate of uncertainty, are compelled to consider the distinction between essential and non-essential functions. Child welfare professionals, child protective service workers and supervisors, have been identified as essential personnel in a large majority of the country. This guide provides a resource for intake/hotline information collection and pre-commencement considerations to inform initial contact with children and families. During this period of heightened social distancing, these guides are intended to assist caseworkers/investigators/case managers in sufficiently assessing and planning for initial contacts with children and families during COVID-19; while ensuring their personal safety.

Please access the webinar Handout:
Adapting Practice During a Public Health Crisis: Guidelines for Public Child Welfare: Intake Assessment and CPS Initial Family Assessment Pre-Commencement Information Collection Standards and Decision Making

Link to Handout
https://action4cp.org/our-services/virtual-learning/

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