Establish a dedicated family-finding responsibility

About this recommendation

The old adage that “when it’s everybody’s job, it’s nobody’s job” rings especially true in kin-finding. While every team member can play a valuable role in identifying, reaching out to, and maintaining kin connections, it also needs to be somebody’s formal responsibility at the end of the day. Whose responsibility may vary based on your agency; a small team may thrive when the child’s case worker is also responsible for kin-finding, while another agency may need a focused kin-finding team.

How to do this

• Determine the right place for kin-finding responsibility in your agency. If unsure, conduct a pilot to try out multiple arrangements, with feedback from employees.
• Make a process map of the kin-finding process and all its expected steps. Confirm that the responsibilities and resources are assigned correctly, and that no steps are skipped in the transition.
• Ask a variety of employees for their feedback. One team may be happy with a status quo, while another team may be frustrated that they regularly find available kin far into a child’s case.
• Detail metrics for success. New metrics should be rolled out slowly and with ample feedback. An example metric is % of initial kin placements (out of all placements).
• Empower team members who are ultimately responsible for kin-finding with the ability to make changes in other areas of the agency in support of kin–finding.
• Once determined, update position descriptions, performance reviews, and other collateral to make responsibilities clear.
• If you have a separate kin-finding team, require that they work with the child, the parents, and the child’s worker. Kin-finding cannot be done in isolation or without talking to the child and their parent(s) (if available).

Anticipated costs and benefits