Business Process Redesign
What the ACA Reveals about Re-creating the Child Care System
Quality, affordable child care holds the key to improved lives for all – better futures for children, greater economic opportunity for families, and increased workforce capacity for local and state economies. Unfortunately, today in the [...]
On the Outside Looking In: Reimagining Child Care Program and Policy Through a Cross-Pollination Lens
There are numerous challenges facing the child care industry today. Many of these challenges—such as limited staffing, lengthy licensing process, convoluted administrative processes, and outdated technology solutions—are not new. Despite this reality, we continue to [...]
Foster Care Awareness Month
April has been designated as National Child Abuse Prevention Month to create awareness about the importance of strengthening families and preventing child abuse and neglect.
Performance Improvement
From Safety Decision to Reunification: Crossing the reunification finish line to regain capacity and help more children and families
Permanency for kids, is one of the most risky and critical decisions made in all of government and getting to the finish line is a laborious process with thousands of factors that will influence the time it takes to get there. But when we are there, our research shows we don't run through the finish line, in fact, our system has a propensity to start walking or even crawling at this phase when in fact, we should be sprinting once a permanency decision has been made.
Digging to the Real Root Cause
We can make a difference, if we only stay focused on the root of the problems.
Management, Leadership and the Transformation Government Needs
What government does is noble and vital, but it can't deliver the value it should if we don't do a better job of making the work, work. The future of management is about more than technology and budgets.
Measurement
Changing Our Relationship with Data: Solving Our Capacity Crisis by Making Data Work for Us, Not the Other Way Around
The only way out of the capacity crisis is to serve our customers completely and immediately. And data can now help us do this, when used correctly and applied at the most opportune time.
Band of Brothers
Accountability systems rarely work as they affix blame instead of fix systems. They also produce devastating side effects including workers gaming the measurement system and increase fear. There is a better way.
Where are those outcomes I ordered?
It’s a little hard to remember what life was like before Amazon two-day shipping.
PHE Unwinding
Using data to help redetermine Medicaid Eligibility
Capacity is a central concern for Medicaid agencies across the country as they redetermine coverage. The first step towards addressing this is to reduce the workload through ex parte resolutions. However, to truly empower the agency's workforce, it is crucial to equip them with the right tools and eliminate the need to search through multiple systems. While various data options exist, the key lies in proper curation - how we utilize, serve, and refine the data. By doing so, we unlock the full capacity of our existing workforce.
Back to the Basics: Proven Approach to Identify, Tackle and Overcome Backlog
To effectively prepare for, navigate, and manage redetermination and associated program backlogs that will undoubtedly develop in the coming weeks and months as agencies unwind PHE, here are five critical steps agencies can take.
Changing Our Relationship with Data: Solving Our Capacity Crisis by Making Data Work for Us, Not the Other Way Around
The only way out of the capacity crisis is to serve our customers completely and immediately. And data can now help us do this, when used correctly and applied at the most opportune time.
Social Worker Staffing Shortages
How Will Your Child Welfare System Stack Up Against the Laws of Gravity
How Will Your Child Welfare System Stack Up Against the Laws of Gravity
By Sean Toole|May 2023|
Our child welfare systems can feel like we are in a game of Jenga. We are attempting to grow and expand our systems by moving pieces one by one - while stretching our limited capacity. But with each move, the entire system risks collapse, particularly with worker shortages.
You Can’t Hire Your Way Out of the Staff Turnover Crisis: Addressing the Realities of Staff Turnover Through Process
You Can’t Hire Your Way Out of the Staff Turnover Crisis: Addressing the Realities of Staff Turnover Through Process
By Sean Toole|May 2022|
Turnover is an unprecedented challenge that threatens the well-being of children. But staff is hard to find, harder to retain, and we are hiring back into the same systems that haven’t addressed fundamental challenges that have existed for decades. The only way to improve this reality to rethink our approach.