The work of child welfare is complex, ever changing, and critical to the wellbeing of children and families. The front-line workers who are engaged in these efforts often struggle with the demands of the job. The Arkansas Academic Partnership in Public Child Welfare has created a field training system to assist child welfare employees in navigating all aspects of their job, which in turn will lead to increased productivity, employee well-being, and employee retention. This Partnership includes eight university Social Work programs, as well as one Rehabilitation Science program. The number of university affiliates ensures that field training occurs in every child welfare office in the state of Arkansas. The typesof field training provided to prospective and current child welfare employees include new staff training, new supervisor training, advanced practice education, and field student training. Field training provides the worker with the foundational supports to conduct the everyday work of a child protection professional: prevention of child maltreatment, conducting child maltreatment investigations, client visitation, shepherding children and families through the foster care and adoption system, and providing support and encouragement to vulnerable children and families. There are 76 subject areas for training, including such topics as assessment, court reports, family strengths, mental health, parenting skills, trauma informed practice, and visitation. An analysis of field training data revealed that 5,819 training events were conducted for the time period of July 1, 2021 through May 31, 2022. The majority of the training events were dedicated to training new staff (89.52%) who were in their first year of employment. Training was conducted primarily through face-to- face interactions (88% of all contacts), notable given that COVID was still a factor in 2021. The most prevalent training topics were foster care (1,428), case management (1,244), and communication skills (772). Field Trainers accompanied Family Service Workers on 451 home visits, with an average duration of 1.18 hours. Family Service Worker self-efficacy showed a statistically significant increase from 5.74 to 6.97 on the Learning Path Self Efficacy Scale (ratings from 1-10). This indicates that the trainee rated their self-efficacy at the advanced level after receiving training for eight months. Topics identified by participants for continued focused learning were court reports, court preparation and participation, and court testimony. A new child welfare initiative, Safety Organized Practice (SOP) was implemented during this recording period. A total of 268 training sessions, known as Deep Dives, were conducted by field trainers with specific SOP knowledge and skills. Providing field training to child welfare front line employees and supervisors appears to result in enhanced knowledge, skills, and abilities for those workers who assist at risk children and families.

Authors: Debra Gage Hurd, Sara Collie

Published in: Ireland International Conference on Education (IICE-2023)

• Date of Conference: 24-26 October, 2023
• DOI: 10.20533/IICE.2023.10.0026
• ISBN: 978-1-913572-68-6
• Conference Location: Dún Laoghaire, Ireland