Intact Family Services ensures the safety and well-being of children without the need for protective custody by providing families with needed in-home services. Emphasis is on child safety and keeping the family together. The program provides intensive in-home case management as well as 24-hour response to emergencies.

F.A.Q.

How should I submit my CANS?

All Intact workers will complete and submit CANS via SACWIS. If you do not already have an NT account to access SACWIS, please have your supervisor submit a new NT account form found on the DNet. If you do not yet have access to CANS in SACWIS, please ensure you have gone through CANS certification or recertification, as well as other training requirements such as the CANS Crosswalk and SACWIS Functionality training.

Do I need to be certified in the CANS?

All staff must have been certified or re-certified on CANS 2.0 within the last year to gain access to CANS in SACWIS. All relevant training and certification are provided within the DCFS Virtual Training Center. For specific questions regarding this process, please contact your supervisor, program administrator, or the DCFS CANS use.

Once you have completed scoring a CANS for each youth and the associated caregivers to that youth (biological parents, foster-parents, paramours, etc,) in SACWIS. You need to submit your CANS for approval to your supervisor. If your supervisor is not able to approve your submitted CANS, you may use the reroute feature and send it to another supervisor for approval. Once you submit the completed CANS, your supervisor may send it back to you for revision and re-submission. Supervisors must approve your submitted CANS. If your supervisor determines your submitted CANS is not an accurate reflection of the needs and strengths of the family, it will be returned to you for editing.  

What version of the CANS do I complete?

All CANS should be completed with CANS 2.0. You can access the CANS 2.0 manual here.

Who should be scored on the CANS?

A CANS should be completed on each child in the case, and include caregiving scores for every adult in the home providing any level of caregiving or interaction with that child, this could be a temporary caregiver (such as within a safety plan), grandparents, aunt, girl/boyfriend of a parent in the home, etc. If you are working with any type of substitute caregiver (foster parent, grandmother, paramour, etc.) they must be added to your case in SACWIS as a “collateral”. Information on this process can be reviewed in the CANS in SACWIS Functionality Training available on the DCFS Virtual Training Center.

How often should I complete the CANS?

The initial CANS should be completed within the first 30 days of case opening. Subsequent CANS should be completed every 6 months. A closing CANS should be completed within 30 days of case closing.

Do I need my supervisor’s approval before submitting my CANS?

Yes. Once you have completed scoring the CANS for each youth and the associated caregivers to that youth (biological parents, foster parents, paramours, etc.) in SACWIS, you need to submit your CANS for approval to your supervisor. If your supervisor is not able to approve your submitted CANS, you may use the reroute feature and send it to another supervisior for approval. Once you submit the completed CANS, your supervisor may send it back to you for revision and re-submittion. Supervisiors must approve your submitted CANS. If your supervisior determines your submitted CANS is not an accurate reflection of the needs and strengths of the family, it will be returned to you for editing.

Do I need my supervisor’s approval before submitting my CANS?

A CANS is consider complete when:

• All child items are scored and
• All caregiver items are scored for each individual caregiver (bioparents, foster parents) and
• All collaterals have been scored (paramours, significant caregivers)