NCREL's Policy Briefs

Integrating Community Services for
Young Children and Their Families

Problems with the Service Delivery System

Melaville and Blank (1991) identify several critical flaws in the current service delivery system:

• Most services are crisis-oriented, rather than prevention-oriented.

• The social welfare system divides the problems of children and families into rigid and distinct categories that fail to reflect interrelated causes and solutions.

• Functional communication is lacking between and among public and private sector agencies.

• Specialized agencies have difficulty crafting comprehensive solutions to complex problems.

• Existing services are insufficiently funded.

From the perspective of families, some services are not available or easily accessible, while other services are unacceptable because they focus on the family's weaknesses and problems rather than its strengths.

Meanwhile, teachers, social workers, nurse practitioners, and other "frontline" workers who deal directly with families also fault the system. They are frustrated that youngsters come to school with problems that interfere with learning. They also acknowledge being overburdened by high caseloads and constrained by strict rules governing whom they can work with, for how long, and what services they can offer.

References and Resources

Posted on March 23, 1995

URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/go/93-3prob.htm