# COMAR Title 07 — Department of Human Services

## Subtitle 02 — Social Services Administration

### Chapter 01 — In-Home Family Services

#### Regulation .01 Purpose and Goals.

*COMAR 07.02.01.01*

A. The purpose of In-Home Family Services is to:

  (1) Promote the safety and well-being of children and their families;

  (2) Preserve family unity where children's safety can be supported;

  (3) Maintain permanency for children; and

  (4) Empower families to achieve or sustain independence and self-sufficiency.

B. The goals of In-Home Family Services include:

  (1) Enhancing the parents' ability to create a safe, stable, and nurturing home environment that promotes healthy child development;

  (2) Preventing out-of-home placement of children when safety can be promoted to a sufficient proportion; and

  (3) Providing, referring to, and coordinating services needed to achieve or maintain family safety, stability, independence, and unity.

C. The Department provides a continuum of service programs designed to achieve the purposes and goals of In-Home Family Services and meet the needs of individual families. The programs include:

  (1) Services to Families with Children—Central Intake (SFC-I) or Family Support Services (FSS), as described in Regulation .04 of this chapter;

  (2) Services to Families with Children—Continuing (SFC-C), as described in Regulation .05 of this chapter;

  (3) Intensive Family Services (IFS), as described in Regulation .06 of this chapter;

  (4) Families Now, as described in Regulation .07 of this chapter;

  (5) Continuing Protective Services, as described in Regulation .08 of this chapter; and

  (6) Consolidated Family Services, as described in Regulation .09 of this chapter.

D. In each program specified in §C of this regulation, services shall be:

  (1) Child safety based;

  (2) Family focused;

  (3) Dedicated to work with families as partners;

  (4) Built on respect of the family;

  (5) Designed to build on family strengths and unity within the context of the family's culture and community;

  (6) Dedicated to prevent, reduce, or eliminate behaviors, institutional practices, and community conditions that may place a child, family, or community at risk of maltreatment;

  (7) Primarily provided in the home or community;

  (8) Flexible and based on the changing needs of families and children at various times in their lives;

  (9) Timely; and

  (10) Designed to achieve measurable outcomes.

E. The local department may terminate services with the family at any time during the course of the intervention when:

  (1) The goals have been met and the safety issues have been resolved;

  (2) There has been a referral to another unit or agency for service; or

  (3) The family declines or fails to accept service, safety is not an issue, and other intervention is not warranted.