Utilizing Strategic Management and Planning to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes

This article should be treated as a tool for thinking about or rethinking how strategic management and planning can be used to achieve better outcomes for the children and families serviced by social service systems. The article summarizes some of the challenges facing the field of child welfare; identifies the benefits of utilizing strategic management and planning to improve outcomes, create accountability and achieve sustainable system reform; and explores relevant research on strategic management and planning for governmental agencies and non-profit organizations.

The child welfare system in the U.S. is complex. It includes not only public child welfare agencies (State, local and tribal), but also courts and the legal system, community and private service providers, foster and adoptive parents, many other stakeholders and, most importantly, the children and families served. Child welfare workers are called upon every day to make difficult decisions about the children and families they serve, and these ultimately could be life-or-death decisions.

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