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Abstract
Over one million children per year come to the attention of child welfare authorities in the U.S. Social work researchers and practitioners have developed innovative, evidence-based practices to serve children and their families, but have found the child welfare bureaucracy frustratingly impervious to change. New empowering practices are rarely taken up to scale.
The intent of this study is to expand and elaborate on existing theories of the adoption of innovation as they might apply to child welfare. The researcher used qualitative methods to examine variables present in two urban child welfare offices in which an innovation called ‘Strengths/Needs Based Practice’ had been adopted.
Aspects of current theory illuminate both the challenge of, and pathways to, diffusion of innovation in public child welfare. Unique aspects of the world of child welfare must be taken into account, including the amount of pressure workers feel daily, and the related need for an innovation to provide immediate relief, an increase in the experience of competence and control, and a variety of concrete structural supports for staff.
Community context, both political and cultural, is much more important in public child welfare than previous innovations research would suggest. This leads to the need to articulate two new roles, community mobilizer and external advocate.
Middle adopters benefit more from coaching than training, and are often neglected in implementation. This highlights the importance of the role of the supervisor or other staff as coach for the innovation.
The structure of a bureaucracy, though daunting, can be powerfully mobilized behind the innovation. An innovation is more likely to be adopted when executives and managers create an authorizing environment, serve as champions, and exercise leadership in reshaping agency culture and community connections to align with the innovation. Agency structures such as paperwork, contracting, and budgets must be altered to align with the desired practice.
The dance of the adoption of innovation is a balanced choreography of support and accountability; steps are identified that a social worker can take at many points in the system to improve the likelihood a desired innovation will be taken up to scale.
