Government Relations Update

NEW ADVOCACY RESOURCES

Child Welfare Workforce; Human Services Workforce; Data on Children & Families

CHILD WELFARE WORKFORCE: GAO Report

The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) recently released a report on promising practices for creating a stable and highly skilled child welfare workforce.  GAO interviewed close to 50 child welfare practitioners and researchers, including many social workers and NASW members; conducted extensive site visits in four states; analyzed close to 30 Child and Family Services Reviews required under the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA); and reviewed close to 600 exit interviews completed by child welfare staff across the country.  Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) and Rep. John Greenwood (R-PA) requested the report.  

This report builds a case for strengthening the child welfare workforce by identifying (1) the challenges child welfare agencies face in recruiting and retaining child welfare workers and supervisors, (2) how recruitment and retention challenges have affected the safety and permanency outcomes of children in foster care, and (3) workforce practices that public and private child welfare agencies have implemented to successfully confront those challenges.    

Title IV-E Partnerships

One of the promising practices identified in the report is the use of university partnerships to train current workers and prepare social work students for positions in the child welfare profession.  According to the report, more than 40 state agencies have formed training partnerships with schools of social work through the use of federal Title IV-E dollars and state contributions.  Such partnerships have been shown to improve recruitment, reduce turnover, and improve worker competence.        

Other promising practices identified in the report include accreditation, enhancements to supervision and mentoring, use of hiring competencies, realistic job previews, and recruitment bonuses. 

The GAO report, “HHS Could Play a Greater Role in Helping Child Welfare Agencies Recruit and Retain Staff,” is available online at www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-357 

HUMAN SERVICES WORKFORCE: Casey Foundation Report & Brookings Survey

A second report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, together with a survey by the Brookings Institution’s Center for Public Service, build a similar case for strengthening all sectors of the human services workforce.  The Casey Foundation report looks at workers not only in child welfare, but also youth services, childcare, juvenile justice, income support programs, and employment and training programs.  The total number of human services workers is conservatively estimated at three million.   

The Casey report provides information about the workers, themselves, the challenges they face, and how those challenges might be overcome, covering issues like compensation, support, and training. 

The report documents what social service professionals have long known—workers are underpaid, over-worked, and frustrated.  They often receive poor supervision, have insufficient education to match the demands of the job, and have limited opportunities for professional growth and advancement.  According to the report, “These widespread problems not only undermine the effectiveness of system reform efforts, they reveal inefficient use of our public resources and present very real risks to the welfare of already vulnerable families and children.”

The Brookings survey provides a more detailed portrait of the workforce based on a survey of over 1200 employees conducted last summer.    

The survey lays out two possible futures.  “One involves a slow but steady erosion of talent due to inaction and continued under-investment, even disinvestment in the industry’s human capital. … The other future involves a recommitment to the work force, and to the children, youth and families it serves.”  Recommitment would require making “long-overdue” investments in recruiting and retaining high quality workers. 

A copy of the Casey report, “The Unsolved Challenge of System Reform: Condition of the Frontline Human Services Workforce,” is available online at www.aecf.org/initiatives/hswi 

A copy of the Brookings survey is available online at www.brook.edu/gs/cps/light20032603.htm

LOCALIZED DATA ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES: New Online Resource  

A new project funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation provides in-depth, local-level data on the well-being of America's children and families on a single Web site. The new system, CLIKS: County, City, Community-Level Information on Kids, can be a valuable resource for community leaders, policymakers, service providers, parents, and advocates concerned with the lives of children and families.

CLIKS allows users to access state-specific inventories of local data on children from sources including health departments, human services agencies, and schools. Tools like community profiles and color-coded maps and graphs allow users to create a snapshot of their town, city, or county. Examples of the localized information available include:

• The number of children who are victims of child abuse
• The number or percent of children who receive TANF, Medicaid, food stamps, free or reduced-price lunches
• The number of juvenile arrests and detentions

The new CLIKS data is available on-line at http://www.aecf.org/cgi-bin/cliks.cgi