Strategies for success

State teams must commit to developing a shared vision, identifying desired outcomes for children and families in their state and developing common goals for their three-branch approach. Representatives from all three branches of government should be involved at the outset of this process to ensure that all are equally invested in the initiative. The importance of full involvement from all branches at this stage cannot be overstated. Investing time and attention early is critical to relationship-building efforts and will increase participation throughout the initiative. This also is an important opportunity for members to help identify and define their roles and responsibilities and make individual commitments to the initiative

When the core team has developed a common vision for the effort, the strategic planning process can begin. All three branches must work together to identify concrete and specific roles in the strategic plan, with measurable goals, benchmarks for success and timelines. Leaning on one branch to lead and set directives could result in myopic goalsetting and timelines.

Be prepared to revise or expand goals and rethink factors that contribute to desired outcomes for children. A careful root cause analysis often reveals additional factors, system dynamics and other nuances.

Develop a diverse team that includes staff from all levels of state government. Many positions are prone to staff turnover, leadership transition, rotating assignments or changes resulting from elections and term limits. It is important to involve leadership with the authority to make decisions in the core and implementation teams, but engaging more diverse personnel helps ensure sustainability. Teams can also consider creating written succession plans, with agreement on who will take over assigned roles and tasks within each branch when members leave.

Managing a three-branch approach is time intensive. Team members have competing priorities outside the initiative that may take precedence over three-branch work. Developing agendas, scheduling meetings, taking minutes, circulating notes and holding team members accountable to agreed-upon action items require time and effort. Hiring a project manager to assume these responsibilities can reduce pressures on others, but the financial implications are clear. Most states have drawn on executive branch staff to manage the initiative, but other strategies may divide the responsibility among staff from all three branches or pool funding from all three branches to hire a staff person. Co-funding staff may boost engagement and provide a sense of ownership. States can also seek support from philanthropies or anchor organizations. Building three-branch responsibilities into job descriptions promotes efficient use of existing resources.

Deepening relationships across branches and creating a sense of shared investment in the work are critical to a successful three-branch approach. Holding in-person meetings at the outset of the initiative helps build rapport and create a shared understanding of the issues state teams want to address. Building positive relationships is critical to addressing challenges before they arise. Participants must also continually reach out to colleagues within their respective branches of government.

Developing clear information and presentations on the work of the three-branch approach and how it advances better outcomes for children and families can help attract the support of additional leaders to participate on the implementation team. For example, legislators can educate their colleagues through committee hearings, child welfare-related task forces and other forums for engagement. Judges can present at judicial summits, statewide children’s conferences, judicial commission meetings and similar judicial convenings.

Collaboration across the three branches of government is both an important component of and successful outcome of a three-branch initiative. Several methods exist for achieving this collaboration, including establishing formal memoranda of understanding (MOUs) among agencies and across the three branches, holding regularly scheduled cross-branch meetings in person and over the phone and creating crosssystem task forces. Schedule meetings far in advance to avoid conflict with judicial schedules and legislative calendars

Maintaining consistent engagement across all three branches throughout the initiative will be challenging. To ensure robust participation and encourage a sense of ownership among leaders across branches, consider the following strategies:

• Devote time to understanding each branch’s current role in child welfare, policy development processes and limitations or restrictions in engaging in the initiative.
• Ensure that all participants understand the roles and responsibilities of each branch in advancing the goals
  of the collaboration.
• Involve each branch from the beginning stages of planning the collaboration, and encourage each branch’s
  input into all aspects of the initiative, including:
  – Identifying the issues to address and the outcomes to achieve.
  – Recommending implementation and extended team members.
  – Developing the overarching goals and objectives, data indicators, interim benchmarks, implementation and oversight strategies, timelines and people/ departments responsible for tasks.
  – Monitoring, oversight and evaluation when implementation has begun.
• Write specific roles and responsibilities, with clear timelines, into the strategic plan.
• When developing agendas for core, implementation and extended team meetings or for public/constituent educational sessions, there should be an agreed-upon role for each branch. This is especially important for members of the legislative and judicial branches, who may not be as closely involved in the day-to-day work as the executive branch but can make critical contributions and need to feel central to the process

A comprehensive understanding of current programs and initiatives, including identifying which agencies are responsible for administering them and the initiatives, allows for better strategic planning for current work. Similarly, clearly defining existing policies, programs, practices and initiatives can help dispel misunderstanding and craft strategies for improvement and reduces duplication of effort. In fact, several states that have undertaken successful three-branch approaches did so by identifying an existing effort as the focus of their work. A cross-branch collaborative approach brought new life to the existing initiative, which was then expanded across the state.

Cross-branch teams can hold formal listening sessions, joint hearings or public forums to involve experts and other community members in building a shared understanding of the identified issue. Bring in experts and those with lived experience, including including youth in foster care or formerly in care, foster parents, birth parents, and kinship caregivers, to help build shared understanding. Teams can also review relevant existing and prior studies, research, reports and plans (such as the state’s Child and Family Service Review)

Many states already have some form of cross-system collaborative structure — for example, children’s cabinets, children’s caucuses, statewide children’s advisory groups or task forces and behavioral health children’s task forces. Three-branch approaches should build on such structures to save time during planning and for participants. A thorough inventory of existing collaborations can prevent duplication of effort. Building on existing collaborative structures can help embed a three-branch approach into the way the state does business.

Large-scale system reform of any kind requires a long-term commitment. Identifying easy wins early, even during the initial implementation period, and celebrating small victories boost morale and deepen cross-branch relationships. Often, process changes such as continuing to hold regularly scheduled cross-branch meetings and developing relationships and lines of communication among branches are not initially identified as initiative goals, but they are necessary to sustain engagement and should not be overlooked as measures of success. Celebrating easy wins is an important strategy to bolster morale while the team is tackling more difficult issues. In addition, convening and developing shared policy goals before a major win, such as the passage of legislation or the signing of an executive order, is integral to presenting a united front to constituents and advocates.