Delivering Public Service for the FutureHuman Services

The Accenture Family Case Management System: A modern vision for Child Welfare case worker support

Transforming child welfare systemsState-wide Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) requirements have triggered the development of a variety of case management tools for tracking child welfare services in the United States. SACWIS tracks a wealth of information about children and families. However, all too often, current implementations are outdated, outcomes are unchanged, and case workers, supervisors, and their state office personnel need more support.

Now, driven by new technology and new insights into improving outcomes for children, child welfare systems are poised for transformation in North America. Many states experience more than 20 percent annual turnover of their social worker staff due to stress and lack of support. To increase worker engagement and build upon Accenture’s experience in delivering SACWIS systems, we are investing in a long-term strategy to improve child welfare software support.

“Families need things reflected about themselves and their culture that would make it feel like the plan was really about them. Individualize it for them.”

To support this initiative, Accenture conducted market research with case worker focus groups to help design a new child welfare portal. Our research team met with over 40 case workers, social workers and supervisors in multiple states to understand what is missing from current solutions and what inhibits use and optimization. Our study indicated that case workers believe a case management tool that is easy to use, gives timely, actionable information, and provides feedback about their efforts will help improve their engagement and reduce work stress. The research identified some common themes:

• Case workers need easy access to information, in an easily navigated system

• Case workers should be able to reduce data entry by providing data sharing across screens, intertwined cases and person information.

Figure 1: Family Case Management

“I need the system to create something to help me get my job done, not just a court report.”

• Data needs to be presented to the worker throughout the case lifecycle so that it is useful, and helps with compliance and predictive monitoring

• Current case management tracking systems do not provide easy case monitoring capabilities. For years, case workers have fed data into systems for compliance with little worker benefit.

• SACWIS systems should aim to correct the imbalance of case work versus data entry by delivering useful information, enabling case workers to spend less time managing paper, and more time working with families, ultimately helping to drive better outcomes

• Case workers need to collaborate in real-time with their supervisors, other case workers and eligibility workers to provide integrated family case services

The Accenture Family Case Management SystemThe Accenture Family Case Management System (AFCMS) incorporates key functionality from proven SACWIS solutions successfully implemented in Texas and Georgia alongside innovative upgrades for case worker support. AFCMS drives improved outcomes, including relationship mapping, navigation improvements and planning tools to make case workers more productive. The new system also provides information in a “Case Person Visualization,” showing linkage of case members and caregivers to the case, providing case workers an instant view of the case dynamics. Important features include:

Case worker & Supervisor Dashboards Upon logon, each caseworker and supervisor has a customizable home screen purpose built for their needs. Caseworkers have access to their calendar, a map of their cases and most important locations, listing of work, alerts and actions, and important analytics informing them of their progress. Supervisors have access to all of this data along with status and analytics of the unit for which they are responsible. This one stop place for all of the most important data is critical to case worker and supervisor success.

Extensive capabilitiesAFCMS offers the best, most flexible data structure with comprehensive industry specific functionality and open architecture. AFCMS is an innovative family case management solution that combines SACWIS compliance and case worker productivity. Our system provides extensive capabilities, including: intake,

investigation, placement, foster care eligibility determination, reunification, adoption, financial management, and resource management and reporting.

Supervisors are able to track and monitor workers’ progress at all levels, including: individual worker, unit, region, and county. Tracking metrics give supervisors and state office a feeling of control over cases, and enable them to identify problem areas over time.

A truly innovative solutionOur child welfare solution is unique in many ways:

High interoperability with other human services systems

• AFCMS provides convergence across Accenture’s human services applications.

• The solution integrates with child support and eligibility systems.

• It has the ability to leverage auxiliary third-party services and applications.

Flexible alignment with multiple practice models

• AFCMS provides flexible alignment with evolving practice models, thus speeding implementation, and helping achieve the expectations of practice models sooner.

• The solution includes support for differential response protocols.

Game-changing benefitsAccenture has a long history of innovative SACWIS implementations. We have built child welfare systems in Texas, New York, Wyoming, Nebraska and Georgia. Our child welfare systems are currently operational

in Texas, New York and Georgia, and are currently managing more active cases than any other vendor.

AFCMS enhances case quality and reduces stress on workers. It can efficiently provide the following benefits:

1. Improved outcomesThe existing case management tracking systems have not consistently provided expected improved outcomes. AFCMS is an innovative solution that provides robust, accurate and easy access to case plans, histories, notes and actions. Availability of summarized analytics makes management of daily workload and caseload more efficient.

2. Improved teamworkAFCMS facilitates a collaborative case management approach, which brings multiple case workers, families and providers together. New case workers have more support and are encouraged to build relationships. This results in increased worker retention and less staff turnover.

3. Improved job satisfaction and accountability to children and community partnersBy providing management visibility for case status and online approval of critical case actions, the solution provides accountability to children and community partners. Improved reporting and tracking capabilities offer greater accuracy, transparency and oversight of the child welfare system. Integration across related programs is strengthened through automated interfaces for payment, eligibility and court systems.

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About AccentureAccenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 319,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

ContactFor more information, please contact:

Debora Morris North America Lead for Integrated Social Services +1 512 699 4545 debora.morris@accenture.com

Sean D. Toole Accenture Human Services +1 678 983 7939 sean.d.toole@accenture.com