Teaming In Child Welfare: Findings from Key Stakeholder Focus Groups

Background & Purpose: Collaboration in the child welfare system is crucial to support positive outcomes for children and families who have been engaged by the system. Teaming occurs at various levels across the system, including within child welfare agencies, with community partners, with the court system, and with the children, families, and resource parents most impacted by the system.

Methods: This study uses qualitative data collected as part of a mid-Atlantic state’s Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) process to examine teaming within the state’s child welfare system. Focus groups were conducted across a four-week period in August and September 2025. In total, 27 focus groups and six individual interviews were held with 120 participants from across the child welfare system. Key participants included: child welfare agency directors/assistant directors, caseworkers, supervisors, judges/magistrates, attorneys, community service providers, youth, biological parents, and resource parents.

Results: Themes identified several factors that are important in supporting effective collaboration across all levels of the child welfare system. These factors include developing and maintaining relationships, having a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities, scheduling routine formal opportunities for teaming, and sharing information. Findings show that the child welfare system’s ability to function is further impacted by negative perceptions of the child welfare system, limiting teaming across the various domains. Findings also suggest that further work is needed to improve teaming across all levels of the child welfare system. Although collaboration is viewed and occurs differently at each level of the system, many of the barriers and issues experienced by key stakeholders are echoed throughout the various groups.

Conclusion & Implications: The findings of this study provide concrete suggestions for strategies that could support improved teaming and collaboration within the child welfare system, such as cross-training to support shared understanding of roles and responsibilities and encourage relationship building, having regularly scheduled inter-disciplinary meetings to promote collaborative efforts, and reviewing and adjusting policies, as needed, to limit barriers to information sharing across domains. As programs begin to implement targeted strategies for improving collaboration, future research should continue to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies as collaboration is a crucial tool that can promote more positive outcomes for all those involved in the system. Further, additional research is needed to better understand how the complex interconnectedness of the various systems and groups may further impact ability to team effectively.