In an effort to improve child safety and realign child welfare toward a more preventative child and family well-being system, DCYF has joined child welfare leaders representing 26 state, county and tribal child and family serving agencies to form the National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS).
The mission of NPCS is to improve child safety and prevent child maltreatment and fatalities by strengthening families and promoting innovations in child protection. Supported by Casey Family Programs, NPCS is a quality improvement collaborative formed to further key recommendations and findings of the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, which highlighted the importance and impact of safety science and data sharing to system change and reform.
“Just as transportation industries apply safety science as a tool to better understand and prevent injury and fatalities, child welfare leaders are dedicated to working collaboratively to develop approaches and share information that will help prevent child abuse and fatalities and support more families in keeping children safe and thriving in their own homes,” said Jodi Hill-Lilly, executive committee co-chair of the National Partnership for Child Safety.
The collaboration currently encompasses agencies that serve an estimated 807,000 children who are subjects of an investigation by child protection services each year across the country.
“Better data and data sharing across jurisdictions are critical steps to developing approaches to address children who are most at risk,” said Chip Spinning, executive committee co-chair of the National Partnership for Child Safety. “Working together, we can build the knowledge base of evidence-based practices that can reduce harm and prevent fatalities, before they occur.”
To strengthen accountability, promote collaboration and improve child safety outcomes, members of this partnership will share data and apply a set of strategies, including implementing a standardized platform for critical incident review and reporting of data, comparing critical incident and team culture data, sharing cross-jurisdictional safety notices and more.