	Family Preservation and Stabilization Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

FPS 6: Family-Focused Approach to Service Delivery

Families receive services that are flexible, accessible, and responsive to their particular needs and circumstances.

FPS 6.01

Families and providers establish respectful, family-centered relationships that facilitate collaborative and productive service planning and delivery.

Interpretation: To facilitate the development of supportive, trust-based relationships that empower families, services should be delivered by a single provider, or by a consistent set of providers who work together as a team.

Research Note: Literature emphasizes the importance of developing good relationships with families, and one study found that parents were more likely to report improvements in discipline and emotional care of their children when they viewed their relationships with providers as positive. The same study also found that encouraging open communication and making frequent visits were predictors of a positive relationship.

FPS 6.02

Service providers act as consultants and facilitators of change who empower family members and help them to:

identify strengths, competencies, resources, and options;
understand problems in new, more helpful ways; and
devise solutions to specific problems.

FPS 6.03

Services are provided in home and community settings.

FPS 6.04

Services are:

tailored to meet families’ unique needs;
designed to involve all family members, including extended family, children, youth, and adults, to the maximum extent possible and appropriate; and
available around-the-clock to ensure that families receive help when and where they need it.

FPS 6.05

Service frequency and intensity is based upon the initial and ongoing assessments of family functioning and determined by:

family needs; and
the level of concern for child and/or family safety.

Interpretation: The frequency and intensity of services should be modified to reflect any observed or measured changes in individual or family functioning, as referenced in FPS 3.06, FPS 4.06, and FPS 4.07.

FPS 6.06

Services are of limited duration and focused on resolving the pressing issues that precipitated the need for service.

Interpretation: Services are generally time-limited. However, it can also be appropriate to extend services when families are not ready for them to end. An organization should document and justify in the case record any extension of service beyond the limit it establishes.

Research Note: Although services reviewed under this section are traditionally of limited duration, some literature questions the extent to which short-term services can be expected to solve the problems of the families typically served, many of whom experience chronic and serious difficulties. This perspective points to the importance of linking families with more long-term supports and services, as referenced in FPS 7.01, FPS 7.03, FPS 7.04, and FPS 10.

QUICK JUMP TO


	PURPOSE: Family Preservation and Stabilization Services improve family functioning, increase child well-being, ensure child safety, reduce the need for placement in out-of-home care, and enable children in out-of-home care to return safely to their families.

RELATED FILES


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	OUT-OF-HOME CARE Services for persons living in environments outside of their usual households. Foster Care Services are considered to serve persons in out-of-home care.


	PLANNING The process of specifying objectives, evaluating the means for their achievement, and exercising deliberate decision making about appropriate courses of action.


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	CONSULTANT A person who provides specialized or technical advice or services to an organization for specific purposes on a contractual or fee basis, or who provides such services as a volunteer with an agreement to provide services on a pro bono basis.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	ASSESSMENT An evaluation, which utilizes professional expertise and skills in the collection and analysis of data to understand and describe the nature of service needs of an individual, family, or group. Assessment, as in needs assessment, is also used to determine priorities of program planning and service development for the organization as a whole. See also DIAGNOSIS.


	CASE RECORD A written compilation that describes the client and the services delivered. Records can be in hard copy and/or electronic format. The case record can be used as a source of information for quality improvement or other evaluation activities, for research purposes, or to demonstrate accountability to funding bodies.