NPCS Technical Assistance CY2024

ABSTRACT PROJECT: NPCS Technical Assistance, CY2024 Purpose The mission of the safety collaborative is to improve safety and prevent child maltreatment related fatalities by strengthening families and promoting innovations in child protection. Jurisdictions will receive technical assistance (TA) to collect and share data as well as implement a set of strategies informed by safety science and other innovations to build technical excellence for a 21st Century child protection system. Qualifications As the lead technical support to the National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS), the University of Kentucky’s Center for Innovation in Population Health (IPH) is uniquely positioned to elaborate on safety science and family-centered strategies and activities efficiently and effectively in use across the country. IPH is the leading academic partner in the nation for safety science and person-centered care-to-scale, and engages in both national and international collaborations. Drs. Cull and Lindsey are co-authors of the TeamFirst: Field Guide for Safe, Reliable and Effective Child Welfare Teams as well as the Safe Systems Improvement Tool, already in use by NPCS and in a number of self-selected congregate care provider agencies. IPH will provide technical assistance and support for the engagement and capacity of jurisdictions participating in the National Partnership for Child Safety (f/k/a Safety Collaborative) and other jurisdictions interested in joining the Safety Collaborative. Methods 1. Develop NPCS Infrastructure 1. Support the development of jurisdiction platforms to collect NPCS data dictionary and Critical Incident Report (CIR) data elements; support the NPCS data warehouse developed by Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI) 2. Develop a document process for providing leadership development, peer-to-peer learning, and technical assistance for NPCS participating jurisdictions 3. Develop and maintain a platform or the library/ies of Spaced Educational curricula. 4. Develop and document the process for the identification and sharing of NPCS jurisdiction Safety Notices 5. Develop and document the process for identifying strategic activities aimed at preventing child maltreatment fatalities. 6. Develop and document a vision for evaluation of the NPCS. 2. Jurisdiction Support and Development 1. Provide educational opportunities for local NPCS jurisdictions such as Safety Science training, CIR training, CIR training boosters, AWAKEN training (focus on how bias affected CIR), and other opportunities as identified. 2. Partner and provide coaching and direct support for local NPCS jurisdictions with implementation of the CIR process, CIR for high profile or especially challenging fatality and/or critical incident situations, the application of Safety Culture Survey findings, data analysis and finding development. 3. Support NPCS jurisdiction development and implementation plan for the Safety Culture Survey, the CIR process, data collection, and data analysis and reporting. 4. Support implementation of strategies from the Tool Kit to improve team safety, reliability and effectiveness. [Type here] 5. Provide ad-hoc consulting on safety science/safety culture, critical incident reviews, and other systems analysis, as requested by cFP and agreed to by the parties. 6. Support for quality improvement initiatives related to jurisdiction learning (e.g., prevention bundles, team-based strategies). 7. Provide CIR fidelity reviews; evaluation and survey tools for assessment. 3. NPCS Jurisdiction Planning 1. A platform for critical incident review reporting. 2. Comparative critical incident and team culture data. 3. Access to a library of Spaced Ed curricula. 4. Shared cross-jurisdictional safety notices. 5. Ongoing fidelity reviews and coaching to maintain data integrity. 6. Support for quality improvement initiatives related to jurisdiction learning (e.g., prevention bundles, team based strategies). 4. Reporting on Activities: 1. Quarterly Reports 2. End of Year Report (Final) Qualifications of Key Staff Principal Investigator (PI), Michael Cull, PhD is an Associate Director in the IPH Center, an Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy in the College of Public Health and he leads the Safe Systems team. Dr. Cull has specific expertise in applying safety science to improve safety, reliability, and effectiveness in organizations. His approach leverages tools like organizational assessment (i.e., workforce surveys) and root cause analysis of critical incidents, including deaths and near deaths, to build team culture and help systems improve. Under the direction and leadership of Dr. Cull, Tennessee Department of Children’s Services was the first public child welfare agency to integrate learnings from the field of safety science into their system. This initially led to a systems-theoretical critical incident review process focused on organizational learning rather than fault-finding investigations into the workforce. The Commission for Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities called Tennessee ‘Pioneers’ for their work. The Commission’s call for expanded use of safety science to reduce child maltreatment fatalities in its 2016 report Within Our Reach led to the establishment of the National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS). Dr. Cull, led the movement toward the implementation and translation of safety science to the child welfare space and was instrumental in creating the NPCS. NPCS is a constituent owned partnership among 33 state, county and tribal jurisdictions across the United States that support a person-centered approach to child death reviews in child welfare. Building from foundations in safety science, the Safe System team provides leadership and technical assistance to participating sites around learning how to do collaborative reviews and identify and learn from root causes. Co-Investigator, Tiffany Lindsey, EdD, LPC-MHSP. Dr. Lindsey is an Assistant Professor in the College of Public Health: Health Management and Policy and Safe Systems Practitioner at the Innovation in Population Health (IPH) Center at the University of Kentucky (UK). Her work focuses on quality improvement and system reform efforts in child welfare jurisdictions. Dr. Lindsey has specific expertise in applying safety science to improve the safety, reliability, and effectiveness of organizations. Her approach leverages tools like organizational assessment, team-based behavioral strategies, and systemic analysis of critical incidents, including deaths and near deaths, to help organizations learn and improve. Dr. Lindsey has 12+ years of experience in child welfare and is co-author of Safe Systems Improvement Tool [Type here] (SSIT) and TeamFirst: A Field Guide for Safe, Reliable, and Effective Child Welfare Teams which are part of the suite of Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management (TCOM) tools. Dr. Lindsey provides technical assistance and content expertise to the National Partnership for Child Safety—the first member-owned quality improvement collaborative in child welfare. As of March 2023, 34 public child welfare agencies are members within the Partnership, making it the largest known quality improvement collaborative in the history of public child welfare.