By Randy Maluchnik

Elected public leaders must promote an environment of innovation for public employees when delivering local government services.  It is vitally important to improve to government services making them more efficient and more effective thereby adding value to your tax dollar.  When a child protection report call is made to Community Social Services, there might be a surprising response.  The usual questions about possible injuries or needed care are the first concern, then callers are asked questions about the reported family’s strengths—what do they  like about the family they are reporting about, are there example of when they saw good care being provided, and who do the parents turn to for help and support in meeting their children's needs?  

When the child protection worker visits, they have already started a list of some good things about the reported family to balance some of the safety concerns that were reported.   These strengths build energy for the hard work of doing something meaningful about the safety concerns. In the past families were often told what to do by the child protection worker and told what would happen if they didn't do it.  

Carver County child protection workers have been learning to do a better job of describing the things that have happened in the past that have or might have hurt the children, and the specific things the agency is worried might happen to the children in the future if something isn't done.  Instead of making decisions on their own about whether children are safe or not,  child protection workers have learned to ask parents more questions, including questions about what the parents have already done to make their children safer, how safe the parents and other people who know the children think the children are now, and what ideas the parents might have for more safety.

   If the child protection worker believes the children are in too much danger to stay in the home as things are, the worker will see if the parents have ideas to make the home safe enough for the children to stay.   Sometimes parents have been able to call in a relative or friend who is willing to come and stay at the house and to take responsibility for insuring the children's safety.   Other times the parents have agreed to have the children stay with a relative until a safety plan can be made.  Sometimes when parents want help in developing an immediate safety plan the child protection worker has been able to call more social workers or in-home therapists to come to the home right away to help put together a plan to make the children safer so they can stay. 

Most of the time the safety plans will include a network of relatives, friends, and neighbors who are  called on by the parents and who make an agreement with the agency to do specific things to help watch out for the children's safety.  And when children do need to go to a foster home, these same things are still being done to help get the children home safely and more quickly than in the past.  

As a result of these changes in the way Carver County child protection workers do their jobs, there aren't as many times when parents get really angry about what the agency has done.  More parents are doing more things in less time to make a safer home for their children, the agency is taking fewer families to court, fewer children are having their parent’s rights terminated by the court, and there are not as many children who are court ordered to stay in foster care until they reach adulthood. 

If you would like more information about how Community Social Services is using this approach call Dan Koziolek, Child and Family Manager at (952) 361-1640, send him an e-mail at dkoziole@co.carver.mn.us or check out the “Signs of Safety” web site at www.signsofsafety.net. 

 Carver County Commissioner Randy Maluchnik represents the 3^rd District. His column appears on the second Thursday of each month in the Victoria Town Square pages, and can be found online at www.victoriatownsquare.com. Maluchnik can be contacted at  rmaluchnik@co.carver.mn.us