Collaboration > Innovation

Technology in its countless forms is a powerful tool— it helps us address challenges, streamline processes and explore new possibilities. However, in the complex and highly personal world of child and family services—particularly foster care—technology alone cannot replace the essential human connections that drive real change.

Sustainable innovation occurs when technology supports—rather than replaces—the collaborative efforts of care providers, administrators and community members. This is certainly crucial in Child and Family Services, where the collective expertise and passion of a range of care providers and stakeholders unite to form meaningful, lasting and healthy outcomes. The focus must remain on people—because technology can provide support, streamline workflows and offer valuable resources but the core of effective care and positive outcomes often hinges on empathy, understanding, and personal connections.

Unifying Agencies to Develop the Foster Care Portal 

When Netsmart set out to redesign the Foster Care Portal, our primary goal was to reduce the documentation burden overwhelming foster care providers, freeing them to focus more on the children and families in their care. This initiative brought together more than twenty professionals from various child and family services organizations. Their insights and feedback were instrumental in shaping a user-friendly, efficient portal designed to streamline processes and reduce the time spent filling out paperwork.

The reality is that the foster care system remains mired in outdated, tedious processes. These burdensome (albeit necessary) methods detract from the primary mission of providing care to children.

Consider this:

• In 2021, more than 206,000 children entered foster care in the United States.
• That same year, more than 606,000 passed through the foster system.
• And every year approximately 23,000 children and young adults age out of the foster care ecosystem.

Source

Each of those children—entering, moving through and exiting or aging out of foster care— requires meticulous documentation and case management, which without the right technology, often overwhelms providers. The Foster Care Portal aspires to alleviate these burdens by automating routine tasks and enabling real-time updates through mobile devices, allowing care providers to devote more 1:1 time and energy to foster children at all stages.

Empowering Care Via Technology 

The benefits of reducing the administrative paperwork burden are obvious: faster completion of necessary documentation allows care providers to dedicate more time to direct care. It will come as no surprise foster children require a very specialized form, quantity and manner of care. This is due to not only their ongoing mental, emotional and physical development but also because many of them are survivors of trauma, abuse, neglect and other experiences that require a gentle, long-term and personal approach to care.

By enabling more efficient documentation, we allow foster families and agencies to better meet the needs of the children in their care both in the short term and further into the child’s future. Additionally, the Foster Care Portal’s features, such as automated alerts and event scheduling, ensure that important deadlines like recertifications are met without last-minute scrambles. Foster families can even send required documentation directly through the app, saving time and frustration every step of the way. The result is a more organized and responsive care environment, which benefits the children in countless ways and ensures foster families are satisfied and engaged.

The Foster Care Portal features:

• Secure messaging between the agency, applicants and families
• Real-time access to medical, clinical and case data
• Documentation support and training
• Daily or weekly notes to document the child’s well-being
• Many more helpful features

Strengthening Partnerships in Technology Development

The success of the Foster Care Portal is a testament to the power of partnership. Bringing together our Child and Family Advisory Council, Early Adopters and CFS organizations across the country, the development process was a collaborative effort from start to finish. These partnerships not only improved workflows, but also expanded the scope of care from focusing solely on the child to considering the entire family. This integrated approach is key to improving long-term outcomes for children in foster care.

Clinically experienced Netsmart associates engaged with case managers, administrators and community members from the outset, and together created meaningful workflows that supports the organization, applicants and foster families. This approach enhances the technology's effectiveness and ensures it remains rooted in the fundamental goal of improving the lives of children in foster care.

Learn more about how Netsmart is powering the future of child-centered foster care.