Supervisor Core

The Statewide Supervisor Core Curricula for Child Welfare Supervisors

California’s Supervisor Core Curricula for Child Welfare Supervisors is anchored in the statewide Integrated Core Practice Model (ICPM). With the ICPM as its foundation, the Supervisor Core enables child welfare supervisors to carry forth the mission of transforming the culture and methods of child welfare practice to better serve California’s children and families.

Content

The Statewide Supervisor Core Curricula (and other mandated, statewide curricula) are accessible via the CACWT (California Child Welfare Training) system

(link is external)

. If you are a trainer affiliated with a Regional Training Academy, please contact the academy for trainer access. If you are not affiliated with a Regional Training Academy, please email cacwt@touchpointprodigy.com

(link sends e-mail)

for assistance.

Day 1: Leading in Child Welfare: The Role of the Supervisor

Day 2: Leading in Child Welfare: The Role of the Supervisor (continued)

Day 3: Creating an Organizational Learning Environment

Day 4: Creating an Organizational Learning Environment (continued)

Day 5: Leading in Child Welfare: Data-Informed Supervision

Day 6: Supervising for Accountability

Day 7: Case Consultation and Critical Thinking: Teaming for Success

Day 8: Case Consultation and Critical Thinking: Teaming for Success (continued)

Day 9: Supporting Individual and Team Development

Day 10: Ongoing Development as a Leader

Curriculum Design

The Supervisor Core is designed to build the competencies of new supervisors in 10 fundamental skills by drawing on the leadership and practice behaviors of the ICPM. In addition, the curriculum emphasizes the centrality of ongoing professional development of supervisors and their staff.

Each of the 10 training days in the series concentrates on one skill learning objective and several knowledge and values learning objectives that support the development of the day’s principal skill. The curriculum prominently features practical applications of the learning objectives in the day-to-day work of supervisors and evokes the life and work experiences of the trainer and training participants to enhance learning acquisition.

The curriculum adopts the perspectives of new supervisors to meet their need to transition successfully into a leadership role, both in their self-identities and behaviors. Guidance is provided to help supervisors promote a resilient and optimistic agency culture. The curriculum addresses such questions as:

How do I lead?
How do I set expectations for my staff?
How do I measure and track progress?
How do I coach?
How do I provide case consultation?
How do I mobilize my team and instill confidence in their capacity to practice competently?

Curriculum Components

The curriculum is comprised of Trainer’s Guides, Trainee’s Guides, Training Operations Assistant Guides for Virtual Deliveries, and PowerPoints. Trainee’s Guides provide reference materials and worksheets that will be used during the 10 days of Supervisor Core. Their content includes ICPM Practice and Leadership Behaviors and materials that supervisors can use to reflect on their current skills to craft their own ongoing professional development plans.

Evaluation

All evaluation materials for trainers and trainees should be accessed through the California Child Welfare Training (CACWT) system website

(link is external)

. Detailed instructions for trainers on how to administer these evaluations are located in the Evaluation Guide, which can be found in the trainer materials section in CACWT.

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC), in collaboration with California’s four Regional Training Academies (RTAs) and the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (LA DCFS), maintain the process of evaluating the Statewide Core Curricula for Child Welfare Supervisors. The curriculum series employs a pre- and post-evaluation evaluation design. The entire pre-evaluation is administered before training begins on Day 1, while post-evaluations are administered in increments on Days 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10, based on the training content of the respective two prior training days. The evaluation design also includes a Demographic Survey administered on Day 1 and the Statewide Satisfaction Survey administered on Days 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10.

The purpose of the evaluations is multidimensional and designed to:

provide evaluative feedback regarding the curriculum design and its effectiveness to
1. help inform workforce development needs,
2. understand how to best to support trainee learning, and
3. foster a deeper level of learning for future trainees;
explore knowledge acquisition at the aggregate level; and
establish a standard method of evaluating training effectiveness in response to federal requirements in the Program Improvement Plan (PIP) for California.

A high level of statewide standardization and consistency is required – with fidelity both to the curriculum and to delivery standards – to collect reliable data to serve the purposes described above. Consequently, trainers must follow the curriculum as it is written and include all training activities.

Feedback

If you train Supervisor Core or are a member of the workforce development staff of the Regional Training Academies or the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, we would like to hear from you about how the curriculum can be refined. To provide your comments, please follow these instructions:

1. Visit the California Child Welfare Training (CACWT) website

(link is external)

2. Toggle to your Instructor Role.

3. Click "Go to LMS" from the Instructor Dashboard.

4. Next, click "Trainer Resource Community" from the Quick Access card.

5. Once in the Trainer Resource Community, select “Providing Feedback.”

6. Then, select “Supervisor Core Feedback Form.”

Trainer Forum

If you are a trainer for the Statewide Supervisor Core Curricula, we invite you to participate in an online Trainer Forum to share ideas, training tips, questions, challenges, and solutions. Your thoughts are especially valued during the current early implementation phase in virtual or classroom training environments.