This is the third blog in a six part blog series on Children’s Cabinets and integrated supports and services for children.
By Holly Bluhm and Chiara Parisi
In the first two blogs in this series --“Setting the Table” and “Aligning Data," we talked about how public systems are largely structured to inhibit the type of coordination necessary to provide comprehensive care for children. Children’s Cabinets have emerged throughout the country to improve the coordination of services by tackling issues like the use of common sets of indicators and measures among education and welfare agencies. This week, we consider a Children’s Cabinet’s role in aligning people in various child serving agencies, and look to efforts underway in Maryland and New Mexico to address this issue.
Children’s Cabinets have the ability to bring together agency leaders, staff, and community members in an effort to prioritize certain goals, align resources, and close gaps. Often, agencies operate in silos, seldom communicating or integrating their work. School leaders are equally isolated, though schools could serve as the ideal delivery hub for services. Policy and practice coordinating bodies like Children’s Cabinets provide a unique opportunity for government leaders to collaborate and support each other, all while reducing fragmented and overlapping services.
Maryland has aligned existing agencies at the state and local level to focus efforts for its vulnerable youth. New Mexico’s recently relaunched Children’s Cabinet has used a needs assessment process to develop a strategic statewide plan with an early childhood focus. In both states, public sector leaders are working together to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of efforts through greater coordination among existing agencies.
One of the longest standing Children’s Cabinets in the country, the Maryland Children’s Cabinet, was created more than thirty years ago to promote interagency collaboration around educational, treatment, and residential services. The Cabinet includes state government officials in charge of budgeting, public staffing, education, labor, juvenile services, public safety, and corrections. The cabinet meets regularly to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to address the needs of the whole child.
Unique among other states, Maryland also mandates the coordination of agencies at the county level. Each county in Maryland must establish a “Local Management Board” to serve as a hub for local planning and coordination. The Board may include representatives from local agencies like those in the statewide Children’s Cabinet, as well as members representing private organizations, families, and youth. The Boards convene local stakeholders to identify and address needs in their jurisdictions, coordinate services to fill gaps and avoid duplication, and collaborate with the state level Children’s Cabinet to fulfill state priorities. In return, the state Cabinet provides training and technical assistance to the Local Management Boards on developing resources, program implementation, and fiscal accountability. In this way, programs are managed in ways that better connect efforts across agencies and levels of government.
In comparison with Maryland, New Mexico’s efforts are newer and have adopted a slightly different strategy to better align resources with need. The state’s newly reinstated Children’s Cabinet partnered with the University of New Mexico (UNM) Native American Budget and Policy Institute and the New Mexico Early Childhood Development Partnership to implement a needs assessment.
As part of the needs assessment, stories, recommendations, and qualitative data were gathered from community members and families through large community events. Because there are 23 Native American tribes located in New Mexico, the needs assessment also included experts on Native American education, with tribal sensitive opportunities in private breakout sessions. In total, over 4,000 New Mexican voices were heard throughout the needs assessment data collection process.
The findings of that needs assessment—namely that the greatest age-span of need in New Mexico is in early childhood, prenatal to age five—led the way for the creation of the Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) in 2019. Prior to the formation of the ECECD, early childhood services were spread across three separate state agencies: the Department of Health, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, and the Public Education Department. In establishing the ECECD, New Mexico unified the work of the three agencies on early childhood issues and formed an Assistant Secretary for Native American Early Childhood Education and Care to ensure partnerships with tribal communities. The ECECD now drives efforts of the New Mexico Children’s Cabinet around early childhood education.
In developing a broader strategic plan, the New Mexico’s Children’s Cabinet held meetings and engaged in community conversations, workforce surveys, and family surveys. Five out of the six goals in the new strategic plan include a focus on aligning people, agencies, systems, and data, with the sixth goal focusing on funding. Though in its beginning stages, the New Mexico Children’s Cabinet has already helped create a unified vision and sustainable financial plan to ensure continuity of the Cabinet and its goals.
New Mexico Early Childhood Development Partnership. The New Mexico Early Childhood Strategic Plan 2021-2024. 8 Jan. 2021, p. 9, https://www.nmececd.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-2024_NMEarlyChildhood_StrategicPlan.pdf.
The New Mexico and Maryland Children’s Cabinets have taken similar approaches to aligning people, with varying focuses on state government leaders, local agencies, universities, and community stakeholders. Both have done so with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes, efficiency, and accessibility of child services. Through the alignment of government agencies, we can ensure that resources and programming are accessed by the children who need it most.