External Pressures Facing Private Child and Family-Serving Agencies and Organizational Strategies Aimed to Address Them

Background

Private child and family-serving agencies operate in an environment influenced by external forces impacting their ability to function effectively.  Changing and competing institutional demands (e.g., changing funding levels and policy requirements) can challenge agency performance and affect agencies’ ability to innovate and respond to changing client and community needs.  Drawing upon qualitative data from a large multistate survey, this study assessed private executives’ perceptions of the most serious external pressures affecting their agencies as well as strategies to address these pressures. In so doing, this study provides the most comprehensive profile to date of how private agencies are responding to common institutional pressures in the post-Great Recession era.

Methods

Data were drawn from a study of organizational supports for evidence use in private child and family serving agencies (Chuang, Collins-Camargo, & McBeath, 2017). An electronic survey was administered to managers of 414 agencies from 6 state associations of private providers and/or the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities. Executives from 229 agencies responded to the survey (52% response rate). The current study involves qualitative analysis of responses to the following survey questions: “Please briefly list the 3 major external pressures, requirements, and/or other external factors that currently impact your agency’s functioning” and “ How is your agency preparing to address these external pressures?” Content analysis was used to identify overarching themes in response to these questions. We also systematically assessed variance by state, agency service array, percentage of revenue from state or county child welfare contracts, and size.

Results

Respondents were from agencies that varied significantly in size (median number of employees = 100) and revenue. Most agencies provided both child welfare and behavioral health services and were largely dependent on public agency contracts. Of the 229 respondents completing the survey, 182 responded to the open text questions.  A total of 535 unique external pressures were sorted into 47 themes across six overarching categories: Funding (144 statements, 10 themes, e.g. stagnant rates, unfunded mandates); Operations/Practice-Related Issues (135 statements, 13 themes, e.g. public agency expectations, outcome measurement); Staff Recruitment and Retention (100 statements, 7 themes, e.g. competition for qualified staff); Laws/Regulations/Licensure (75 statements, 6 themes, e.g. changeability); Contracts and Contract-Related Expectations (57 statements, 7 themes e.g. increasing requirements); and Inter-Organizational Relationships (24 statements, 4 themes, e.g. interorganizational competition).

Participants described 35 unique strategies for responding to these pressures. Most strategies varied based on the external pressure faced; however, 8 crosscutting or general strategies were identified: Adjust staffing, Advocacy, Collaboration (with peer or public agencies), Investment in technology/data systems, Marketing, Practice/program changes, Training/professional development, and Use of data/evaluation. The most frequently cited strategies were Advocacy, Collaboration, and Use of data/evaluation.

Implications

Findings confirm that it is important for managers to consider how they may best face rapidly changing institutional demands and insufficient resources to meet them. Results also identify the specific strategies agencies are using to support their service array. There is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of differing organizational strategies in confronting and addressing pressures faced by these agencies.