One year ago Michigan launched its first performance-based, case
rate funding model through a five-year pilot project run by West Michigan Partnership
for Children (WMPC). The goal of the project
is to improve outcomes for children in foster care and their families.
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| West Michigan Partnership for Children celebrated the launch of its new case rate foster care funding model pilot by holding a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Downtown Market Grand Rapids with its partner agencies |
“WMPC
is a groundbreaking and pushing-the-envelope opportunity to get child welfare
to rethink how it does business and provide better decisions for child well being
and family healing and restoration,” said Judge Patricia Gardner of
the Kent County Circuit Court - Family Division. “It gives us the hope to work better and
smarter for kids. Performance-based funding speeds the case
assessment and waiting time for service referral approvals, and it allows for a
faster response to the case barriers while allowing better tracking of outcomes.”
Since launching on October 1,
2017, WMPC has led and empowered a collaborative consortium of five private-licensed
child-placing agencies that provide foster care in Kent County, Michigan: Bethany Christian
Services, Catholic Charities West Michigan,
D.A.
Blodgett-St. Johns, Samaritas,
and Wellspring Lutheran Services.
“The flexibility and front-loaded funding the model provides puts
us in a unique position to
be able to introduce new services to positively impact the almost 900 children
WMPC is serving in foster care throughout Kent County,” said Sonia Noorman, the
chief operating officer of WMPC.
Evaluating the Needs of the Current
System
There are an estimated 13,000
children in foster care in Michigan according to the Michigan
Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). In Kent County, WMPC is serving almost 900 children in foster care, and
the average stay is 2.4 years, or almost 29 months.
“When examining this length of stay, we found that 12 percent of
children in foster care were placed in residential settings - a setting that
can prolong a child’s path to permanency,” said Beth Caldwell, WMPC director of
care coordination. “We knew we needed to
develop a solution that increased community-based, trauma-informed placement
options in family-like settings that meet the needs of these foster youth.”
Creation of Enhanced Foster Care to
Address Needs
In order to reduce placement of
foster youth in residential settings, and increase placement in
least-restrictive, community-based settings, WMPC launched a new service called
Enhanced Foster Care.
One of the goals of Enhanced
Foster Care is to reduce the placement of Kent County children in residential
settings by providing the right level of training and support to caregivers. WMPC is already seeing a dramatic reduction in
residential placements. As of August 24,
2018, eight percent of youth are placed in residential settings—a four percent
decrease.
Many local officials believe in
the benefits of Enhanced Foster Care and hope it will send a ripple effect
throughout the state of Michigan.
“The best thing about Enhanced Foster Care is the ability to save
placements,” said Judge Gardner. “Judges across the state know that one of the
hardest issues is multiple placements for kids who are in the system, and we
often hear about changes in foster homes or residential placements being very
difficult on children. This program
allows for immediate support for relatives or Enhanced Foster Care homes to
prevent a placement break by offering additional counseling, education, respite,
and support. It swiftly brings to the table what the caretaker and child needs
to reduce/eliminate placement breaks and overall has been a tremendous
success.”
This level of support is possible because MDHHS pays WMPC a
semi-annual case rate that allows WMPC to be innovative in creating services
that meet the needs of children and families. The case rate amount decreases the longer a
child remains in care, thus incentivizing safety, permanency, and placement
stability. Most other traditional child
welfare funding models pay contracted agencies for how many days the agency
provides services to children and families.
The case rate funding model reinforces positive outcomes in
various ways, including:
- Finding children a permanent home more quickly through reunification with their families or adoption if it is not safe for them to return home
- Higher levels of family reunification
- Better child functioning in all domains
- Stronger family connections
In order to create a program
that would support both children in foster care and foster families, WMPC
researched foster care models nationwide and elicited feedback from its
community on the benefits and challenges of different models.
“We learned many foster parents feel they don’t have the capacity
and support needed to care for children with complex needs—adding stress to
both the children in foster care and foster parent,” said Caldwell.
Therefore, WMPC designed Enhanced
Foster Care to follow the child and grow the capacity of caregivers by
increasing their knowledge and skills to effectively nurture a child with
trauma-induced behavioral and emotional needs.
“Enhanced Foster Care stabilizes children with high level trauma
and allows for further assessment and treatment with laser focus,” said Judge
Gardner.“ It is similar to a child
welfare emergency room that is able to diagnose and treat immediate problems
offering support to the primary caseworker. It works.”
Children in foster care and
caregivers receive Enhanced Foster Care services in their current foster care
placement. Services are tailored to the
child and based on a three-level system. Children with the highest intensity of needs are provided with level
three services, while children stepping down from Enhanced Foster Care services
are deemed a level one.
Through Enhanced Foster Care,
foster parents and other caregivers are provided the right level of training
and support by clinical case managers and behavioral specialists at the moment
it is needed. This could include individualized training for the
caregiver, development and implementation of behavior plans, and regular
support from both a clinical case manager and a behavioral specialist. Parents and caregivers are also provided an
additional daily rate to support their efforts. An Individual Service Agreement, outlining the
specific needs of the child and interventions required by the foster parent, is
developed between the foster care agency and the foster parent that identifies
what the foster parents will do as part of the Enhanced Foster Care treatment
team.
From the time Enhanced Foster Care was launched on January 1, 2018 --
August 20, 2018, WMPC has enrolled 66 children in Enhanced Foster Care. Of those enrolled, WMPC was able to divert 38
children from placement breaks in their foster home and return 13 children back
into the community from residential placements. Many of the children receiving Enhanced Foster
Care services have already experienced multiple disruptions in placement since
their time in care. Enhanced Foster Care
aims to stabilize and equip the current caregivers to prevent this from
occurring again.
For more information on
WMPC’s Enhanced Foster Care programming, visit: wmpc.care.
Kristyn Peck
moved to Michigan from Washington, D.C. to help launch West Michigan
Partnership for Children (WMPC), a new Kent County organization piloting a
performance-based funding model to improve foster care outcomes for families
and children. As Chief Executive Officer, she provides strategic leadership for
WMPC’s organizational vision, mission, goals, strategies, and plans. She is
chief motivator for a high-performing team of 14 who oversee the placement and
care of more than 800 children in foster care in Kent County, in partnership
with more than 40 sub-recipient private agency providers of child welfare
services.
Ms. Peck most
recently served as Associate Director of Children’s Services for the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops’ department of Migration and Refugee Services.
In that capacity, she oversaw residential, foster care, and family
reunification services for unaccompanied children in collaboration with a
national network of more than 225 community-based sub-recipient agencies. She
also served as the Chair of the Vulnerable Minors Working Group of Refugee
Council USA; presented on best practices for serving refugee and immigrant
children at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) annual
meetings in Geneva, Switzerland; and developed child protection policies for a
program that served Burmese refugees in Malaysia. Ms. Peck earned an M.S.W.
from the University of Maryland-Baltimore and a B.A. in Journalism from the
University of Maryland-College Park.