Enhanced Permanency Planning Meetings
Intended Audience
- Child Welfare Workers
- Social Services Non-child Welfare
- Court Personnel/Legal Professionals
- Caregivers and Potential Caregivers
- Youth
Targeted Age Group(s)
- 0-9
- 10-12
- 13-17
- 18 or older
QIC-EY Engagement Model Components (i) The engagement model components were identified through the QIC-EY Environmental Scan as critical to the support of youth engagement in the attainment of permanence.
- Engage Specialized Staff
- Prioritize Legal, Relational and Cultural Permanence
Description
Enhanced Permanency Planning Meetings (enhanced PPMs) are decision-making and planning forums held for dependent children and youth 30 days after their dependency fact-finding hearings and every 90 days thereafter until case closure. Enhanced PPMs support and empower each family throughout the life of the case while recognizing the family members as experts, improving child and youth safety and well-being, and achieving timely permanency.
The enhanced PPMs also aim to increase monthly visits between parents and caseworkers and between caregivers and caseworkers. This added frequency likely will increase timeliness to permanency, family connections and kinship placements while improving the alignment between child, youth and family needs and the services provided.
Each family participating in enhanced PPMs will be assigned a facilitator. In addition to facilitating PPMs, this professional will schedule, invite and engage with the parents, the child or youth, extended family members (kin), caregivers and other key stakeholders to have them participate in the enhanced PPM process. During PPM sessions, family members will be allotted time to develop the family’s own case plan. The facilitator will follow the case until permanency is achieved.
Implementation Considerations
Facilitators will be responsible for scheduling enhanced PPMs when key participants in the case are able to attend; this may include holding meetings outside of traditional business hours. The permanency outcome facilitators will ensure that all key participants are invited to and are included in enhanced PPMs. Key participants include parents, children and youth, caregivers, court appointed special advocates, guardians ad litem, tribal representatives, attorneys, extended kin, community support persons, service providers, etc. In advance of the meetings, the facilitators will contact the case participants — as well as any other support persons who also need to be invited — to explain how the meetings will work.
Each facilitator has a caseload capacity of approximately 50 families. The assigned facilitator will complete any additional shared planning meetings required by policy. Once a case is assigned, the facilitator will complete preliminary contacts with the assigned caseworker, the parents, the caregivers and the child or youth involved to schedule an enhanced PPM meeting time convenient for the family, to answer any questions and to ensure that these participants’ concerns or barriers are addressed during the enhanced PPM.
The Enhanced Permanency Planning Meetings program is being evaluated by The Kempe Center at the University of Colorado.