The Effective Use of Timelines in Child Welfare Cases

Effective case management in child welfare involves using two essential tools that guide this process: trajectories and timelines. While often confused, they serve distinct yet complementary roles in shaping the path from assessing risk to creating and implementing safety plans. To begin, clarifying the difference between a trajectory and a timeline is essential. A trajectory represents a case's overall direction or path (comprised of the danger statement on one end and the safety goals on the other and anchored by the safety scale). The trajectory serves as a long-term vision of what needs to happen to ensure the safety and well-being of the child. This concept of progress aligns with the Agile methodology’s idea of "Done," where specific, actionable goals are achieved through well-defined steps, ensuring the team (in this case, the family and welfare workers) knows when they have reached a milestone. In Agile, "Done" means that a task or requirement has been fully completed to a standard agreed upon by all stakeholders (Agile Alliance, 2023). Similarly, in child welfare, a timeline creates clear indicators of success, helping the family and professionals know when an aspect of the safety plan has been successfully implemented.

A timeline is a tool to map out the specific actions and interventions needed to achieve the goals identified in the trajectory. A timeline is structured, time-bound, and measurable. It provides a detailed plan of how and when various activities, meetings, or tasks will occur. While the trajectory offers a vision for what will be achieved, the timeline outlines the journey to reach that destination. One fundamental paradigm that frames trajectories and timelines in child welfare is mutual accountability between the organization and families, understood as a contractual partnership. This mutual responsibility is crucial for several reasons, the most important being the prevention of case drift. Holding the organization and the family accountable for their roles ensures high commitment and responsibility from all parties involved.

Case drift occurs when a child welfare case, despite initial efforts, deviates from its intended path, resulting in delays, lack of progress, or insufficient interventions (Maas & Engler, 1959; U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2022). It can lead to severe consequences, including prolonged risk to the child, stress on the family, and a breakdown in trust between the family and the organization. Timelines, when rigorously implemented, act as a safeguard against this drift. They provide clear, measurable milestones that the family and the organization are responsible for achieving. This way, timelines keep the case on track by ensuring that neither side neglects their role. Families must engage in the required steps, such as finding a network, working to create the words and pictures, attending safety planning meetings, implementing agreed-upon interventions and participating in the monitoring and testing stage. At the same time, organizations must facilitate and provide the necessary processes, conduct regular reviews, and hold themselves, the caregivers and their network accountable for the process and success.

The mutual accountability inherent in this "contract" helps to foster trust between the family and the child welfare professionals. When timelines are respected, families feel their voices and success are valued, strengthening their commitment to the safety plan. It also builds trust in the organization, as professionals demand compliance and hold themselves to the same accountability standards. An essential aspect of this paradigm is that the case's outcome is not predetermined. Unlike in many other processes, where there is a fixed outcome in mind, child welfare professionals must remain open to allowing the process to guide them toward the outcome. This means trusting the trajectory and timeline to reveal the final resolution rather than assuming that a specific endpoint will be reached from the outset. The safety plan and timeline are designed with flexibility, allowing for adjustments based on the evolving circumstances of the family. This approach acknowledges the complexities of family dynamics and child safety, where rigid outcomes cannot always be anticipated. As a result, the timeline serves as both a guide and a feedback loop that informs the professionals and the family of how well the safety interventions are working and where modifications are needed.

Trusting the process also means being open to learning from the progress (or setbacks) along the way. Each review meeting, each check-in with the safety network, and each documented success or failure becomes a learning opportunity. This reflective approach prevents the organization from falling into a pattern of simply checking boxes or enforcing arbitrary deadlines. Instead, it encourages a deeper engagement with the family's reality, allowing adaptive changes to the plan to meet the child's needs. For instance, if a timeline reveals a family struggling to meet certain milestones, the organization must promptly lead discussions with the caregivers and network to address these issues while always holding firm on safety and well-being. 

At the same time, timelines also hold the organization accountable to the family. The family should expect caseworkers and supervisors to track progress, attend scheduled meetings, and promptly facilitate the process. This is critical for preventing the organization from ‘shifting the goal post,’ where delays in providing necessary interventions can exacerbate the family's challenges and place the child at further risk. Timelines ensure the organization keeps focused on the case's trajectory by following the path anchored by the safety goals, conducting regular check-ins, learning from what worked and doing more of it.   

Lastly, a practitioner must appreciate that every family’s journey is unique, and child welfare cases do not follow a one-size-fits-all path. Notably, each family’s journey and outcome will be different. Some journeys may resolve quickly, while others may require longer interventions. What needs to be consistent, instead, is adherence to a working timeline that creates a space for moving, albeit incrementally, toward the child’s safety and well-being. Central to a child-centred approach is an openness to the unknown that anchors the process in the young person and their family’s needs and abilities rather than fitting them into a predefined, standardized approach and process.

Trajectories VS. Timelines: What is the difference 

The process of child protection often begins with a risk assessment. This assessment identifies vital dangers and risks to the child's safety, such as domestic violence, neglect, or sexual abuse. The evaluation helps caseworkers and supervisors develop a trajectory that addresses these risks and creates a safer environment for the child. For example, if the risk is a parent’s use of drugs, the trajectory would be geared to decrease or eliminate those risks. It might set long-term safety goals, like ensuring the children will always have safe and sober caregivers looking after them to ensure they are secure and well cared for regardless of the risk of substance use. After the trajectory has been identified, the second stage can begin, mainly focusing on developing the adult safety plan.  The safety plan answers the question: What must happen to mitigate the risks identified in the assessment, and when? This is where the timeline comes in. The timeline captures the specific interventions needed to keep the family safe, when the various tasks need to be completed, how frequently those in the safety plan need to check back in and what will need to be done differently if the plan does not work.

Creating the Timeline

When constructing a comprehensive timeline for a child welfare case, it is essential to break it down into clear, manageable sections that guide the entire process from safety planning to the monitoring, testing, and refining stages. Every timeline must include five fundamental steps to be considered rigorous: networks, words and pictures; building the adult safety plan; testing and monitoring the adult safety plan; and lastly, the safety planning works and pictures. The timeline includes several essential sections, each with its specific components:

1. Timeframe: This refers to the total duration for each case phase, such as safety planning and monitoring, testing, and refining. The timescale is calculated based on the number of tasks or fire drills required and how frequently the worker can meet with the family and network. This ensures that the process is realistic and considers the specific needs and complexities of the case.

2. Tasks: These are the specific actions that must be accomplished at each timeline stage. Tasks include developing the safety plan rules, addressing danger statements, conducting fire drills, and reviewing progress. Each task should have a clear purpose and a deadline, ensuring the timeline remains actionable and focused on moving the case forward.

3. Meetings: Meetings are the scheduled interactions between the family, safety network, and professionals involved in the case. These meetings are essential for guiding the family through developing safety plans, reviewing progress, and making necessary adjustments. For example, during the safety planning phase, the worker may meet with the family and network twice a month to finalize safety rules. In contrast, in the monitoring phase, meetings might focus on reviewing fire drills and assessing whether the safety plan is followed.

4. Contact Changes: Contact between caregivers and children often needs to be adjusted as safety increases or risks are mitigated. In the timeline, clear milestones should be set for incremental changes in contact arrangements. For example, contact between the child and an unsafe caregiver might be fully supervised in the initial phases. Still, as the safety plan is successfully implemented and tested, supervised contact may gradually decrease, leading to more unsupervised visits. The timeline should reflect these changes based on demonstrated safety and measurable progress. These contact changes must be aligned with the safety plan and made to the family’s needs and the overall safety trajectory.

A well-structured timeline divides the case into clear sections that address the timeframe, tasks, meetings, and contact changes needed to achieve the case goals. This structured approach ensures that every aspect of the case is addressed and progress is consistently tracked, reducing the risk of case drift and ensuring that the child’s safety remains the central focus.

How to build the time frame

In defining a timeframe for safety planning, it is crucial to understand that this timeframe is not arbitrary; instead, it must be carefully tailored to the context of each case. Different cases require different durations based on the issues' complexity, the risks' seriousness, and the family's capacity and support network. A method that helps practitioners define the timeframe for both safety planning and the subsequent monitoring, testing, and refining phases is grounded in a structured review of the danger statements and the development of practical, realistic timelines for intervention.

For the safety planning phase, one of the most important steps is to review the danger statements; these are specific descriptions of the harm or potential harm to the child. The number and seriousness of the danger statements will inform how many sessions are needed to guide the family and network through creating safety rules. For example, if the case involves parent-teen conflict, a worker might ask: How many sessions will it take to lead the family and network through the development of safety rules to address the identified issue? This decision is crucial because it frames the entire planning stage.

Here is an example of how the practitioner might approach this. Suppose a worker estimates that two sessions will be required to develop all the necessary safety plan rules for the particular conflict, and they can schedule these sessions twice a month. In that case, the safety planning phase will take approximately four weeks. Alternatively, if the worker can only meet with the family once a month, the same safety planning process would span eight weeks. The timeframe here is dictated by both the complexity of the case and the practical considerations, such as how frequently meetings can be scheduled. A good rule of thumb for these sessions is to ensure they last up to two hours, allowing for focused and productive discussions without overwhelming the family or network.

Once the safety planning is in place, the next stage is monitoring, testing, and refining. It involves regularly testing the safety plan through exercises like fire drills and simulated scenarios where the network can implement it under stress. During this phase, the worker must decide how many fire drills will be required to adequately test the family's ability to maintain safety under various conditions. This decision should also account for the importance of time in addition to action. Time is valuable here because it provides the family and network opportunities to demonstrate safety over an extended period. More than simply performing the actions is required; families need time to show consistent, long-term compliance with the safety plan, which is essential to ensuring the plan's sustainability.

For instance, if a worker determines that they must conduct at least ten fire drills to feel confident in the family's ability to maintain safety, they must decide how many drills can reasonably be undertaken each Month. If the worker plans to conduct four monthly drills, the monitoring, testing, and refining phase will take approximately five months (or 20 weeks). However, since time also plays a critical role in allowing the family to internalize the safety behaviours and demonstrate their ability to keep the children safe over time, the worker might add two months to allow for more gradual progress. This would result in a total 28-week monitoring, testing, and refining stage. This method allows for a rigorous yet flexible approach to setting timeframes. It recognizes that different cases will require different paces and intensities of intervention. The worker must balance the need for timely action with the need for the family to demonstrate their safety over time. This careful calibration prevents the process from becoming rushed or dragged out, ensuring the timeline remains realistic, actionable, and context-specific.

A simple mathematical formula is presented here to help practitioners calculate the necessary duration based on the number of sessions or fire drills required and the frequency of these events to help practitioners define a timeline for safety planning and the monitoring, testing, and refining phases.

The formula for determining the length of the safety planning phase can be expressed as:

Total Time (Weeks) = (Number of Sessions Needed ÷ Sessions per Month) × 4

Where:

• The number of Sessions Needed is the total number of sessions required to develop the safety rules.

• Sessions per Month is how often the worker can meet with the family (e.g., once or twice a month).

• Multiplying by 4 converts the time into weeks.

Example:

• If two sessions are needed and you meet twice a month:

  
  

  Total Time = (2 ÷ 2) × 4 = 4 weeks

• If meeting once a month:

  
  

  Total Time = (2 ÷ 1) × 4 = 8 weeks

  
  

Total Time (Weeks) = (Number of Fire Drills Needed ÷ Fire Drills per Month) × 4 + Additional Time (Weeks)

Where:

• The number of Fire Drills Needed is the estimated number of drills required (e.g., 10).

• Fire Drills per Month is how many drills can be conducted monthly (e.g., 4).

• Additional Time is any extra time added (e.g., eight weeks).

Example:

• If ten fire drills are needed and four can be done per month:

  
  

  Total Time = (10 ÷ 4) × 4 + 8 = 18 weeks.

By applying these formulas, practitioners can more easily calculate a realistic timeline that accounts for the number of sessions or fire drills needed and the time necessary to demonstrate safety over an extended period. These formulas ensure timelines are structured, actionable, and tailored to each case's unique demands.  When using the mathematical formula to calculate the timeframe for safety planning and the monitoring, testing, and refining stages, practitioners must remember that the formula does not account for additional critical tasks that must be included in the overall timeline. These tasks may include the preparation stage, where the family is introduced to the process and the danger statements are reviewed. Additionally, time must be allotted for the family to find and gather their safety network, which may take several weeks, depending on the case's complexity.

Furthermore, the Words and Pictures stage, which involves developing a visual and narrative representation of the safety plan to explain it to children in an accessible way, also needs to be factored in. Also, the child-friendly version of the safety plan is essential, as it ensures that children understand the safety measures being put in place to protect them. While not captured by the formula, these elements are integral to the overall progress of the case and should be accounted for when constructing the entire timeline. Therefore, practitioners should adjust the timeline to include these necessary preparatory and implementation steps to ensure a comprehensive and realistic timeframe for the case.

Example: The Trajectory-Timeline Connection

Imagine a case where a father, Brad, has a history of sexual abuse toward his children. The practitioner’s bottom line might be that Brad should never be alone with his children until they are 16. This is a long-term bottom line that addresses the primary safety concern. However, achieving it requires numerous actions, such as ensuring Brad is supervised 24-7 when around his children, developing a safety network, and regularly reviewing the family’s progress. The timeline would track the steps necessary to achieve the safety goals, such as arranging regular meetings with the safety network, conducting sessions to address Brad’s behaviour, and monitoring Sarah’s (his wife) and their network’s ability to protect the children. In this way, the trajectory ensures everyone involved in the case understands the overarching safety goal, while the timeline tracks progress and provides the plan is implemented effectively.

Rigorous vs. Naive Timelines: What is the Difference?

A timeline's quality in child welfare can significantly impact a case's success. Specifically, rigorous and sophisticated timelines are all-encompassing, realistic, and designed to ensure that all adult-specific elements identified in the safety goals are executed, acted upon, and monitored. In contrast, naive timelines are overly simplistic, unrealistic, or superficial, failing to account for the complexity of the case and, in the end, often producing no significant, meaningful interventions.

Characteristics of a Rigorous Timeline

A rigorous timeline is:

• Comprehensive: It includes all necessary steps and activities, such as safety meetings, sessions with professionals, and regular reviews.

• Realistic: The timeline sets realistic deadlines and ensures that the number of sessions or meetings planned is sufficient to achieve the safety goals.

• Measurable: It allows for progress to be tracked and measured over time, ensuring that adjustments can be made if the plan is not working.

• Adaptable: It includes contingencies for when things go wrong and allows for ongoing adjustments based on the family’s progress.

For example, a rigorous timeline will include the creation of words and pictures, the proper number of safety-building sessions involving the caregivers and their network, regular supervision visits for the children (if in care), increased access that is based on demonstrated safety and regular safety network meetings to monitor the family’s progress and training and refining meetings, including fire drills and the creation of a safety plan words and pictures. Each activity would have specific deadlines and expectations, with a built-in review process to ensure the plan remains on track.

Characteristics of a Naive Timeline

A naive timeline, by contrast, is typical:

• Superficial: It may only outline basic tasks, such as scheduling a few check-ins or meetings, without addressing the full scope of the child’s safety needs.

• Unrealistic: A naive timeline might underestimate how long it will take to achieve significant changes in behaviour, failing to account for setbacks or complications.

• Non-specific: Clear goals may be needed, making tracking progress or determining whether the safety plan is working easier.

For example, a naive timeline might include just a few meetings with the family without addressing deeper issues like behavioural changes, network involvement, or safety monitoring.

The Importance of Critical Questions in Developing Timelines

Supervisors and caseworkers must ask critical questions throughout the process to ensure a rigorous and comprehensive timeline. This reflective practice helps ensure the timeline is a formality and a well-thought-out plan that drives real progress toward safety. Some vital questions include:

• Is the timeframe appropriate for the safety goals? A timeline that rushes or drags out tasks without purpose can jeopardize the children's safety.

• How realistic is the number of meetings or sessions?: This ensures that the family and professionals can handle the situation.

• Are there clear milestones for measuring progress? Built-in checkpoints are essential for evaluating whether the safety plan works.

• What are the contingencies if the plan does not work?: A reasonable timeline anticipates potential failures and includes backup plans.

Case Example: A Comprehensive Timeline in Action

Let us revisit the case of Brad and Sarah. Brad's history of sexual abuse means that ensuring the safety of the children is the primary goal. The trajectory focuses on keeping Brad away from the children unless supervised. However, how does this translate into a timeline?

A rigorous timeline for this case would include specific steps, such as:

1. Preparation Stage (Week 0): Meet with professionals (e.g., lawyers, social workers, trauma counsellors) to finalize safety goals. The worker and supervisor agree on the bottom line (Brad cannot be alone with the children).

2. Early Safety Planning: Share the safety goals and timeline with the family and ensure they understand the expectations. Begin building the safety network, which will later supervise visits.

3. Network Involvement: Work with Sarah and Brad to bring their safety network into the process. This includes briefing them on their roles and responsibilities.

4. Creating the words and pictures and sharing them with the children to explain why child protection is involved and what is being done to ensure they will always be safe from what was said. 

5. Adult Safety Plan Development: Start developing specific rules about how the children will be supervised, what triggers or stressors the family should watch for, and how the network will respond when things go wrong.

6. Monitoring and Refining: Test the safety plan through "fire drills," where the network practices responding to safety breaches.

7. Create the safety plan words and pictures and share them with the children.

In this case, the timeline ensures regular reviews, involvement of the safety network, and continuous monitoring of the family's progress. This process turns the safety plan from a static document into a dynamic, actionable plan that can adapt to changes in the family’s circumstances.

Monitoring and Adjusting the Timeline

Supervisors play a critical role in ensuring that timelines remain effective. They must regularly review the timeline to see if the goals are being met, if tasks are being completed on time, and if the safety plan is working as intended. Suppose the family encounters setbacks, such as Sarah failing to follow a rule creation during a safety planning session. In that case, the timeline must include more intensive discussion and further planning. One way to ensure that a timeline remains on track is through safety journals, where the family and safety network record what is working and where the difficulties lie. These journals help track progress and provide concrete evidence that the safety plan is being implemented effectively.

Sustaining Timelines Over the Long Term

For long-term cases, such as those involving substance abuse, sexual abuse or ongoing domestic violence, timelines can stretch over many months or even years. It is essential to consider the risk of network burnout, where safety network members or professionals become fatigued by the length of the process. To avoid burnout, timelines should include regular "signs of success" meetings, where the family and network can reflect on what is working, celebrate small victories, and adjust the plan as necessary.

In child welfare, the distinction between trajectory and timeline is essential for creating a clear, actionable path to safety. A trajectory provides direction and long-term goals, while a timeline tracks the steps needed to achieve those goals. By developing rigorous timelines filled with critical questions, checkpoints, and regular reviews, caseworkers and supervisors can ensure that safety plans are implemented and are effective in protecting children.

The ultimate goal of a timeline in child welfare is not just to comply with procedures but to create meaningful, long-lasting safety for children. By embedding reflective practices, involving safety networks, and continuously monitoring progress, timelines become powerful tools for achieving the safety and well-being of the most vulnerable.

References

Agile Alliance. (2023). Definition of Done. Agile Alliance. https://www.agilealliance.org

Maas, H. S., & Engler, R. E. (1959). Children in need of parents. Columbia University Press.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2022). Child Welfare Outcomes 2020: Report to Congress.