No matter how many hours of training or experience a caregiver has, it's a different experience once a child or youth is placed in their home. Kin caregivers may be especially impacted because they may have had no notice before placement.
Provide frequent check-ins during first placements and ongoing support for all caregivers. This allows you to identify issues early, provide effective support, and prevent placement disruptions.
How to do this
Check in frequently during first placements. Update your practices to include regular check-ins with caregivers after they take their first placement. Use a consistent person for check-ins (the specific person may vary by agency). Check in at key milestones like the first night, right before important meetings, the first day a child attends school, and at least once a week for the first month.
Maintain ongoing check-ins with all caregivers. Don't assume that no news is good news with existing caregivers. Regular check-ins can help you spot issues before they cause you to lose caregivers altogether. Check in with caregivers at least quarterly and at other key milestones, especially after removals or reunifications.
Make check-ins meaningful and accessible. Use personal interactions to get richer information and higher response rates. Work around caregivers' schedules, provide childcare, and offer different meeting options like in-person visits, video chats, or phone calls. Incorporate check-ins with existing meetings when workers are already doing home visits.
Make it a practice for workers to talk to the caregiver privately about how they're doing and whether they have questions or unmet needs. Ask open-ended questions: How's it going? Do they need anything? Do they have any questions? This helps identify additional supports that may be needed and get them in place proactively.
Use the information you gather. Workers should capture what they learn in structured forms for analysis and reporting. There should be clear steps for follow-up. Evaluate all check-in information quarterly or every 6 months to look for trends that may indicate the need for new programs or supports.
Sort information by area and by worker if you are in a larger system. You don't need a data scientist to spot problems. Provide caregivers an anonymous way to share additional feedback.
This strategy in action
Frederick County, MD checks in frequently with new caregivers after their first placement and joins new caregivers in many of their new experiences, such as agency meetings and court hearings, to help them get comfortable with the process.
Washington State conducts an annual caregiver survey and has a team that pays close attention to the responses.
Rhode Island surveys caregivers after they complete training and after their initial placement.