Department of Children and Families - Essay Example

Department of Children and Families (DFC) al Affiliation) Department of children and families The aim of the paper is to conduct an overview of the policies and laws at the department of children and families. The paper will investigate how such policies and laws are often implemented at the department as well as the challenges and laws that often affect them. The paper will also summarize the policies, laws and programs that intent to evaluate the goals and outcome as well as the desires of the children and families department. The children and family departments in the United States are charged with the mandate of protecting neglect and abuse of children as well as strengthening of families. The department’s yearly budget targets protection of over a hundred thousand youths while at the same time strengthening families around the commonwealth (Working at the Department of Children and Families, 2011). The paper will also focus at the type of work done at the department with the employees who are family centered, child driven, community focused, strength based, commitment to continuous learning as well as being committed to cultural/diversity competences. The paper will also discuss the various national and state policies that aim at preventing mistreatment of the children and preserving their rights. The American citizen as well as professionals associated with child health believes that parents have the responsibility of caring and nurturing their children while protecting them from harm. However, the state may be allowed to intervene in cases where the parents have failed to honor their duties and in cases of abuse. Introduction The children and family department aims at ensuring that children thrive and grow in a home environment that is nurturing. The approach sometime often entails making challenging and difficult decisions in which children are removed from their home environment and placed in environment that are more stable. The department is able to deal with numerous problems that affect children and their families such as abandonment, neglect and suspected child abuse. Such issues have raised concerns and the authorities have taken measures to stop them from happening in the community. The children and family departments have put in place various legislations with the intention of ensuring that people who suspects abuse of children have a mandate to report through telephone or any mean so that the children may be rescued and transferred to a better environment. One of the goals of the department is to stop neglect and child abuse. The department receives numerous reports of neglect and abuse of children less than the age of 18 years (Florida, 2008). The department often receives information from members of the community and professionals who are concerned about the children that require protections from abuse. The children and family department has a goal of ensuring that children have a permanent, safe and nurturing home. Additionally, the department works closely with the family to strengthen and support families with risk of neglect and abuse. Family instability is the main cause of challenges that face a lot of children in the United States of America. Income loss, catastrophic illness, substance abuse, incarceration and divorce can result to disruption in the quality of life for numerous families. When disruption results to abuse, neglect of poverty, then studies clearly suggests that the best option that a child has of avoiding this challenges is through growing up with the family is the mother and father is a healthy and stable environment. Such children stay drug free, have better physical health, remain socially-emotionally healthy and have educational aspirations (Working at the Department of Children and Families, 2011). The department of children and family is committed to ensuring family wellbeing. Their responsibilities often encounter a wide range of factors and services that includes foster care, assistance of family reunions and staying together as well as youths and young adults transitions from foster care to adoption of independence. Child welfare program in the department often works in partnership with courts, communities and tribes to ensure the timely permanence, safety and wellbeing of the children. Individuals under such a department often administer, supervise or conduct programs for dependent children with their families. The goals of the department are aimed at preventing children from being separated from their families, preparation of young adults to be independent, fostering transition to self sufficiency, family re-unions and protection of children through provision of long term or emergency living arrangements (Florida, 2008). The childcare services in the department is tasked with ensuring that children are taken care of in a positive, healthy, safe and educational environment by qualified and trained child care staffs. Moreover, the department offers a variety of services to asylees, refugees and human trafficking victims with the aim of ensuring effective resettlement of the new arrivals is done. Literature review Parents play a crucial role in the lives of the children. However, parenting is often a challenging role to the parents. The department of children and families ensures that families are responsible for their children and offer assistance when necessary. Additionally, the department is also able to deal with issues that affect families and children in everyday lives. Such issues include abuse of children, neglect and other issues such as when children are denied rights such as rights to education. The department places high hopes on the family and considered parenting as one of the most essential jobs that parents are able to do. Children often considered parents as role models and the behaviors of parents often impacts more to the child upbringing. The department of children and families offers a range of services to the parents and families that are focused at protecting the children from various types of harm in the society. The children and family department is often focused on increasing the capacity to deliver family support services, child protection and provision of out of home care to many of children that are homeless. The main role of the department entails improving and supporting the wellbeing of children, protection of children in the community from harm, provision of family support and parenting to help families strengthen capacities and minimize harm. In addition, the department partners with communities, families and agencies with the intention of caring and protection the children. The department collaborates with agencies, carers and services to help promote child wellbeing and safety (Fording, Soss & Schram, 2007). The department utilizes the act that targets protection and care of children to help achieve its mandate. Moreover, it provides initiatives aimed at delivering intensive reunification and family preservation for the children that are considered vulnerable as well as families that have been subjected to investigation that are related to child protection initiatives. The department is often concerned with the provision of protection and care to various communities that are located in the United States of America. Each state may possess their own regulation and policies aims at protection of children from harm. The department aims at preventing harm to young people and children, promotion of wellbeing and safety of the children as well as strengthening of families through parenting training and offering of advices that targets the need for better parenting initiatives (Massachusetts, 2008).. The department often intervenes in situations where children face a lot of challenges such as neglect and abuse by the people who are responsible in caring for them. The department often focuses on recognizable behavioral and physical indicators of child abuse and neglect in the community. Physical and sexual abuse is both targeted. The department believes that parents have a mandate of ensuring the family is highly protected at all costs. Children protection laws in the United States of America protect children from neglect, abuse, violence and exploitation. This is done through provision of services that aims at identifying children that are being abused or neglected and then intervening to help them out (Rome, 2010). The programs initiated by the department of children and families ail at promoting the wellbeing and safety of all the children by mostly identifying the vulnerable groups. The department often works closely with international institutions, governments and local community partners to create lasting change with the improvement in services and policies that aims at protection of children in conflicts, development and natural disaster prevention settings. The children and the family department is also concerned with all the types of child abuse that includes emotional abuse, neglect, sexual abuse and physical abuse. Abuse can be a single or a number of different incidents that targets the children. Such cases are dealt with by basing on the children protection act. Harm is often defined as a detrimental consequence of an important nature on the child’s emotional, psychological and physical wellbeing (Perry, 2006). The human resource theory that is associated with the child protection aims at ensuring effective procedures and policies are put in place to help protect the children while at the same time ensuring enough work forces is recruited to take care of the children. The staffs working at the department of children and family are committed towards protection of the children from harm as well as identifying children who are abused in the community. Most of these staffs are family centered, child driven, committed to continuous learning as well as being committed to cultural and diverse competence. Human resource management is core to the achievement of the organization goals. A commitment to cultural and diversity competence is central to the organizational changes of the agency. Human resource management theories such as theory X is often utilized to motivate the staffs with the intention ensuring that the ultimate goals of the department are achieved. The department hopes to achieve a community that respects the rights of a child through community empowerment. The human resource theories enable the management of the organization to motivate the workers and ensure that they are able to work towards achievement of the goals of the organization (Plotnick, 2005). For the community to be able to report the cases of neglect and abuse as well as for the parents to understand how responsible they ought to be towards the children, it calls for the staffs working at the department to partner with members of the community through discussions and forum with an intention of education the people about the child protection acts. Theories of motivation are important in ensuring that the workers are motivated and not forced to do their duties as per the laws set. The human resource theories have a goal of achieving more effective and efficient job performance as well as increasing commitment and work performance. According to Henry Fayol, workers are able to work more efficiently in situations where the management of the organization is more efficient in implementing the policies that targets the protection of children under the department concerned with children and families (Plotnick & American Public Human Services Association, 2009). Conclusion The children and family department has worked hard to create a strong system with the mandate of children and family protection across commonwealth. Recent strategies have entailed recruitment of more employees as well as distribution of iPad to social workers to help them access and report information on children and their families more efficiently by utilizing the available technology. The department has been at the forefront is gaining support through partnership with other related organizations such as the child welfare league. The department is mostly charged with prevention of abuse, protection of children as well as strengthening families. This has been made possible through implementation of set policies and laws that protects the rights of the children (Pynes, 2004). The mission of the department has been to ensure that children as well as families are able to thrive and grow in a home environment that is well nurtured. The department has been forced to deal with hard situation that has entails removing children from their home environment and transferring them to other set up with more stable environment. Children are often considered to be in placement in situation where they are in the custody of the department. The 1st placement that the department considers is allowing the child to stay with their extended family members. Other placement that the department has chosen in the past entails the foster homes, congregate care, intensive foster care and residential placement (Rogowski, 2015).The department has recently expanded the number of placement strategies in order to help more children. The family is later reunited with their children after period of time. the laws targeting protection of children gives power to community members to reports any case of child neglect to the relevant authority or institutions that deals with such cases. The type of mistreatment defined under the law entails neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse. The law also offers immunity and protection to any individual who reports cases of mistreatment and neglect to the relevant authority. In addition, the law may prosecute an individual who has witnessed cases of mistreatment and fails to report to the relevant authorities. The child protection laws and policies also offer direction on how the department may respond to cases that affect the children. The issues addressed under the laws include timeframe of completing the investigation, screening reports, investigation procedures as well as classification of the investigative findings. Special procedures that targets drug exposed children and child fatalities are also taken into consideration by the department. The child protection laws imposes fines, penalties or jail time on individuals who fails to report cases of abuse or neglect as required by the laws (Sharief, 2014). State laws may also impose fines on individual who make false report about child abuse or neglects. The child protection laws also focus on protecting children who may be witnessing the acts of domestic violence. The issue may be examined under the law with the people committing domestic violence in presence of child fined. Most American citizens and professionals believe that parents are the best people to protect, care and nurture the need of their children. Even though most parents have the capability of meeting such needs, the authority has the mandate of intervening in situations where children are mistreated or neglected. A number of US Supreme Court cases have offered direction on when it is necessary to intervene in cases that target family life. Even though the court has offered parents enough latitude in the education and upbringing of their children, it has to some extend held that the rights to parenthood and the family can be regulated in the public interests (Plotnick & American Public Human Services Association, 2009). The state can only intervene in cases where the family fails to respect the rights of the children such as the right to protected from harm as well as right to education. When the rights of the children have been violated or when their basic needs have not been met as in the case of mistreatment, the state posses an obligation to help the individuals or the children that have been affected. References Florida. (2008). OPPAGA: DCF takes action to improve implementation of states community- based care initiatives. Tallahassee, Fla: Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Fording, R. C., Soss, J., & Schram, S. F. (2007). Devolution, discretion, and the effect of local political values on TANF sanctioning. Social Service Review, 81(2), 285-316. Massachusetts. (2008). DCF case practice policy & procedures manual. Boston, Mass.: Dept. of Children and Families. Perry, R. E. (2006). Do Social Workers Make Better Child Welfare Workers Than Non–Social Workers?Research on Social Work Practice, 16(4), 392-405. Plotnick, A. J., (2005). 2006 public human services directory. Washington, D.C: American Public Human Services Association. Plotnick, A. J., & American Public Human Services Association. (2009). Public Human Services Directory, 2009. Washington, D.C: American Public Human Services Association. Pynes, J. (2004). Human resources management for public and nonprofit organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Rogowski, S. (2015). From Child Welfare to Child Protection/Safeguarding: A Critical Practitioner’s View of Changing Conceptions, Policies and Practice. Practice, 27(2), 97-112. doi:10.1080/09503153.2015.1014337 Rome, S. (2010). Promoting Family Integrity: The Child Citizen Protection Act and its Implications for Public Child Welfare. Journal Of Public Child Welfare, 4(3), 245-262. doi:10.1080/15548732.2010.496078 Sharief, F. (2014). Children with Special Need: Care and Family Support. IOSRJHSS, 19(10), 36-41. doi:10.9790/0837-191083641 Working at the Department of Children and Families. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dcf/employment.html Read More