Safety Assessment and Management Process

Flashcards for key vocabulary and concepts from the Safety Assessment and Management Process Reference Manual.

Safety Assessment and Management Process

The ongoing method of assuring child safety, involving assessment, analysis, decision-making, and planning, applicable both in-home and out-of-home.

Safety Management

Actions used to control Present and Impending Danger to a child, which can be in-home, out-of-home, or a combination.

In-Home Safety Assessment

The continuous process of collecting information related to child safety in six domains to identify threats and Protective Capacities.

Safety Threats

Conditions or actions within the child’s own home that represent the likelihood of imminent serious harm to the child.

Present Danger

An immediate, significant, and clearly observable family condition occurring to a child/youth in the present.

Impending Danger

Threatening conditions that are not immediately obvious or currently active but are out of control and likely to cause serious harm to a child in the near future.

Safety Threshold

The point when a caregiver’s behaviors, attitudes, emotions, intent, or situations are manifested in such a way that they are beyond being risk influences and have become an imminent threat to child safety.

Protective Capacity

Specific and explicit strengths that manage and control Safety Threats.

In-Home Safety Analysis

The process by which a County Children and Youth Agency staff person systematically evaluates the information gathered.

Preliminary Safety Decision

A determination made that Present Danger exists based on information gathered prior to the completion of the assessment/investigation.

In-Home Safety Decisions

Determinations related to the safety of a child in their own home, which is based on the conclusions of the safety analysis.

Safe

Either caregiver’s existing Protective Capacities sufficiently control each specific and identified Safety Threat or no Safety Threats exist.

Safe with a Comprehensive Safety Plan

Caregivers' existing Protective Capacities can be supplemented by safety actions to control each specific and identified Safety Threat.

Unsafe

Caregivers' existing Protective Capacities cannot be sufficiently supplemented by safety actions to control specific and identified Safety Threats.

Safety Plan

A written arrangement between caregivers, responsible persons, and the County Children and Youth Agency that delineates the actions implemented to control Safety Threats.

Immediate Preliminary Safety Plan

A written arrangement designed to control Present Danger in order to allow the CPS investigation, GPS assessment, and/or safety assessment to occur.

Responsible Persons

Any individual(s) who has a role and responsibility to assure the child’s safety for compliance with the plan.

Accept for Service

A decision made to admit or receive an individual as a client of the County Children and Youth Agency.

Caregiver(s) of Origin

The adult(s) who holds the primary responsibility for the child’s care and safety (i.e. the child’s birth parents).

Risk Assessment

The process by which the child welfare professional assesses the current level of risk to a child to determine the likelihood of future harm, abuse, or neglect as prescribed by the Pennsylvania Risk Assessment Model.

Out-of-Home Care

24-hour care and supervision of a child outside of the home from which the child was removed.

Out-of-Home Caregiver

Individual providing care to the child in all situations of formal and informal out-of-home care.

Formal Care

Situations in which the County Children and Youth Agency has legal and physical custody of the child.

Informal Care

Situations in which a child goes to live with an alternate caregiver on a temporary basis when Safety Threats are present.

Pennsylvania Standard of Care

All out-of-home care settings will be evaluated using the same criteria and expectations, regardless of the setting.

Qualified Caseworker

A person with case management or case visitation responsibilities for a particular case.

Resource Family

Family which provides temporary foster or kinship care for children who need out-of-home placement.

Kinship Care

The full-time nurturing and protection by kin, through informal or formal means, of a child who is separated from his/her caregiver(s) of origin.

Relative

Any relation by blood, marriage, or adoption who is within the fifth degree of kinship to the child.