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CHANGE #05-2008
June 2008
Chapter Eight: Child Protective Services begins with the identification of the mission, vision and values for the child welfare system in North Carolina. By adopting a common mission, vision and values, the state Division of Social Services and 100 county Departments of Social Services share a commitment to excellence.
The mission makes our purpose clear and tells everyone who we are. Ensuring safe, permanent, nurturing families for children is our charge, whether we work in Intensive Family Preservation, Child Protective Services, CPS In-Home Services, Foster Care, or Adoptions. The vision is a clear statement of what we believe the child welfare system should look like. It is the ideal; it is what we want the system to look like through the eyes of the families and children whom we serve. A common vision keeps us focused and challenged to always find ways to improve system performance, despite the very real considerations of resource limitations and other constraints. The values are what we promise to do, the link between our agencies and the public. They provide a guide for service delivery and staff behavior. Collectively, the mission, vision and values are a strong statement of our advocacy for families and children who come in contact with the child welfare system.
Mission
The Division of Social Services, Family Support and Child Welfare Services Section is committed to provide family- centered services to children and families to achieve well-being through ensuring self-sufficiency, support, safety, and permanence.
Vision
The vision of the Division is that all programs administered by the Division of Social Services will embrace family centered practice principles and provide services that promote secutiry and safety for all. This means that every child in North Carolina will grow up in a safe, permanent, self-sufficient family where well-being needs of all are met.
Values
The Division believes that the family is the fundamental resource for the nurturing of children and that children have a right to their own families and that parents should be supported in their efforts to care for their children in ways that assure the safety and well being of the child. We support parents by respecting each family’s cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious heritage in their interactions with the family and our mutual establishment of goals. We support and require the involvement of children and families throughout their involvement with child welfare. Child and Family Team meetings focus on the family’s strengths and recognize that families are our partners in the process of service planning and delivery. Judgments about families are often based on incomplete information, and can wait. A crisis can be an opportunity for change; inappropriate intervention can do harm. It is our job to instill hope because even families who feel hopeless can grow and change. This means that we as an agency arrange our schedules to accommodate the child and his/her family, that the family’s ideas and resources are given the same legitimacy as those proposed by professionals, and that mutual agreement in decision making is a primary goal. For youth and families whose supports may exist outside the family unit, this means allowing and encouraging them to invite those whom they wish to attend Child and Family Team Meetings. Shared parenting meetings, which encourage interaction between caregivers and birth families, continue the partnership to enable families to best parent their children.
Service delivery does not exist in a vacuum. In order to best serve the needs of children and families, all agencies that work with the family should work cooperatively in ways that maximize service delivery and resources. To the fullest extent possible, service providers should be within the family’s community, convenient for the family and child.
It is important to note the foundational philosophy of the NC Multiple Response System (hereinafter MRS) is family-centered practice delivered within a System of Care framework. The six family-centered principles of partnership are:
• Everyone desires respect
• Everyone needs to be heard
• Everyone has strengths
• Judgments can wait
• Partners share power
• Partnership is a process
The foundational philosophy of the NC System of Care (hereinafter SOC) is family- centered practice. The six SOC Principles are:
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For questions or clarification on any of the policy contained in these manuals, please contact your local county office. |
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