The Child and Family Services Community Stakeholder Advisory Group began in 2001. The group assists the Department for Community Based Services (Department) in its efforts to qualify for major child welfare funding streams (45 C.F.R. 1357.15 and 45 C.F.R 1355.34) and, more importantly, plan, implement, and evaluate Kentucky’s child welfare continuum.
This group has been instrumental in Kentucky’s Title IV-B Child and Family Services Plan for Fiscal Years 2003-2004 revisions, the Federal Title IV-B and Title IV-E Child and Family Services Review and related Program Improvement Plan, the Title IV-B Child and Family Services Plan for Fiscal Years 2005-2009, related annual federal reporting and ongoing consultation and coordination to ensure quality and accessible services to children and families.
In January 2006, the department’s commissioner recognized the Community Stakeholders Advisory Group as a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) group.
The CQI process is a standard approach utilized by the department at all levels of the agency to resolve issues, specifically larger systemic issues. It promotes the creativity and problem-solving of staff, consumers, and community partners on a level consistent with the issue at hand and illustrates how valuable such input can be to the efficiency and quality of child and family services.
Documentation of the CQI process facilitates action planning; the involvement of departmental administrative, managerial or leadership staff(s) in the resolution of an issue or pursuit of a recommendation, as needed; and progress reports from action planning and designated departmental staff.
As a CQI group, the Community Stakeholders Advisory Group continues to meet regularly, quarterly through each State Fiscal Year, to the extent funding is available. The co-chairs of the Community Stakeholders Advisory Group work in tandem with departmental staff to coordinate meeting logistics and establish an agenda. Presenters and informational materials during the meeting are secured based on the expressed needs of the group and their availability. During each meeting, time is allotted for small group discussions and activities.
Three small groups have been formed around the Federal child welfare outcomes (i.e., safety, permanency, and well being). The elected chairs of the small groups present the small groups’ suggestions, recommendations, and proposals for the larger group’s consideration, action, and possible submission to departmental staff and leadership for further attention and/or resolution.
Departmental staff assigned to the Community Stakeholders Advisory Group continue to assist in the development of meeting documentation, its submission to appropriate entities, and presentation of feedback from departmental staff and leadership. Separate workgroups have been formed to all for follow-through on various initiatives outlined by the group, as the quarterly meetings may not allow adequate time for such initiatives.
Most recently, the Community Stakeholders Advisory Group has been assisting with Kentucky’s Child and Family Services Review, a federal review of Kentucky’s compliance with Titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act. The review is scheduled for June 2008.
Since January 2007, the Community Stakeholders Advisory Group has been instrumental in the development of Kentucky’s statewide assessment, a self-assessment of the state’s outcomes since the last federal review.
In 2008, the group will also be engaged in the on-site federal review and development of the state’s program improvement plan, a plan to resolve negative findings of the federal review.