Wraparound (childcare) - Implementation Essentials

Implementation Essentials

Wraparound is intended to ensure that youth with complex needs (and multiple agency involvement) benefit from a coordinated care planning process that produces a single plan of care that cuts across all agencies and providers. Wraparound plans and wraparound teams require access to flexible resources and a well-developed array of services and supports in the community. As a result, wraparound implementation requires that the child-serving system is supportive of wraparound. Some of the key types of community and system supports include:

• Community partnership: Key stakeholder groups, including agencies, providers, and representatives of youths and families have joined together in a collaborative effort to plan and implement wraparound.
• Collaborative action: Stakeholders involved in the wraparound effort take concrete steps to translate the wraparound philosophy into concrete policies, practices and achievements.
• Fiscal Policies: The community has developed fiscal strategies to support the wraparound effort and to better meet the needs of children and youth participating in the wraparound effort
• Access to needed supports and services: The community has developed mechanisms for ensuring access to the services and supports that wraparound teams need to fully implement their plans.
• Human Resource Development and Support: The system supports wraparound staff and partner agency staff to work in a manner that allows full implementation of the wraparound model.
• Accountability. The community has implemented mechanisms to monitor wraparound fidelity, service quality, and outcomes, and to oversee the quality and development of the overall wraparound effort.

In addition to system supports, the wraparound process requires skilled facilitators and family support partners who have the right working conditions to do their jobs. As a result, the lead agency responsible for implementing the wraparound process for families must support implementation in several key ways, including maintaining adequately low caseload sizes; ensuring that primary staff receive comprehensive training and skill development; supporting wraparound team efforts to get necessary members to attend meetings and participate collaboratively; and making timely decisions regarding funding for strategies developed by teams to meet families’ unique needs.