Determining the right people to be involved, as well as who will serve as the leader, is a key component of any policy initiative. While one individual—generally, a top administrator—may initiate an internal policy effort and direct the identification and recruitment of partners, another individual may emerge to oversee the policy planning or implementation processes.
Establishing Leadership
Effective leadership is crucial to a successful policy initiative. An administrator will typically lead internal policy development or delegate the leadership responsibility to another individual within the organization. If that role is going to be delegated to someone else, or if a group of staff charged with developing policy must determine the leader for the process, the following are important considerations for making the selection:
- Does the proposed leader have a good working relationship with the organization's administrators?
- Does the proposed leader have a background in developing and influencing policy?
- Does existing organizational policy dictate how decisions will be made during this process? If not, how will decisions be made in the group?
Resources
The Center for Community Leadership
The Community Toolbox
University of Kansas, Work Group for Community Health and Development
See Part E for information about leadership, management, and group facilitation.
Leadership in the Improving Child Welfare Outcomes through Systems of Care Initiative (PDF - 572 KB)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau
Developing and Sustaining Leadership
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Systems of Care Infrastructure Toolkit: Governance
National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center for Systems of Care
Identifying Partners
When developing or revising an internal policy, you may want to establish a workgroup composed of staff who have content expertise, strategic and analytical thinking skills, and an interest in the issue. It is valuable to have a group that brings diverse perspectives of the organization and how the new policy will affect practices, procedures, and outcomes. You should also consider involving external partners, such as service recipients or other service providers, who may be affected by the new policy. Workgroup members should be able to commit sufficient time to the policy development process.
Important considerations for choosing appropriate partners and workgroup members include:
- Who are the decisionmakers and subject matter experts in the organization that need to be involved in this process?
- Which internal stakeholders (e.g., frontline workers, supervisors, managers) will be required to implement or oversee practices or procedures directed by the proposed policy? How will representatives of these stakeholder groups be involved as partners?
- Which external stakeholders, such as service recipients (e.g., youth, family members) and other organizations or service providers will benefit from or be affected by the proposed policy? How will representatives of these stakeholder groups be involved as partners?
- Have you considered identifying and engaging groups that could oppose your efforts in order to help overcome future barriers?
- What resources, if any, are needed for the policy initiative? What are the resources that each partner can provide (e.g., expertise, staff time)? Where are there gaps? What needs to be done to engage additional partners that can fill gaps by providing needed resources or assistance?
- Has anyone tried to address this issue in the past? Should they be included in this effort?
- How do potential partners work together? Is there a history of collaboration?
- Are there any constraints (e.g., competing demands) that might limit the potential partners' ability to contribute?
Resources
Building and Sustaining Child Welfare Partnerships (PDF - 595 KB)
National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center for Systems of Care
Collaboration
National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement
Community Partnerships: Improving the Response to Child Maltreatment
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect
Chapter 3 describes how to build and sustain community partnerships, including selecting partners.
The Community Toolbox
University of Kansas, Work Group for Community Health and Development
See Chapter 9 for information about establishing a team to create and run your initiative.
Interagency and Cross System Collaboration
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Interagency Collaboration
National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center for Systems of Care
Promising Practices: Building Collaboration in Systems of Care (PDF - 372 KB)
University of South Florida, Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, Research and Training Center for Children's Mental Health
2007 CFSR Toolkit for Youth Involvement: Engaging Youth in the Child and Family Services Review (PDF - 3,119 KB)
National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement and the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Youth Development