The Child Welfare League of America recommends no more than 12 active investigations per month per social worker, 17 cases if they are ongoing cases per social worker, and no more than one new case assigned for every six open cases. It also recommends 10 active ongoing cases and four active investigations per social worker. The agency’s standards call for one supervisor per five social workers.
Really good people take jobs at DSS because they have big hearts and want to help children and families. But overwhelming caseloads, low pay, and high stress lead to burnout and turnover. This is supported by outside research:
When children languish in foster care, caseloads rise to untenable levels, and even the most dedicated case workers cannot provide the attention and support that children need. Case workers burn out and leave the profession in very high numbers. The annual turnover rate in the child welfare workforce is 20 percent for public agencies and 40 percent for private agencies. As the cadre of experienced case workers shrinks, the quality of care that children receive diminishes as well. -Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care (May 2004)
Imagine a company that had to replace its entire workforce every five years. It could not survive long.
According to a 2005 article in the Fall River Herald, 80 percent of DSS social workers exceed the caseload of 15 recommended by the Governor’s Special Commission on Foster Care in 1993. Apparently, a third of DSS social workers have more than 18 cases.
In 2001, the Massachusetts Citizens for Children recommended worker caseloads meet the CWL standards in order to reduce burnout and staff turnover and improve the quality of care to families and children.
In an April 2005 article in the Boston Globe, Commissioner Harry Spence says that the DSS budget has not kept pace with inflation and the growing caseload.
A March 2005 story on National Public Radio about Massachusetts’ DSS mentioned that when New York reduced its caseloads, fewer children needed to be removed from their families. It also cited Mass. as ranking third in the nation for children abused while in foster care.
This is not a new issue, it’s not a difficult issue, it’s just one that gets ignored. To the detriment of those who are least able to handle more stress–children in state care and those who are responsible for them.
I mean it’s time the commissioner of DSS cut caseloads for social workers. If he doesn’t have the money to do that, ask for more. If he doesn’t get it, complain loud and clear. If that doesn’t work, threaten to resign. Come on, show some moxie!
I am in total agreement with you, Kira. My mom was a foster parent for a teen when my 2 older sibs were grown and away at school and i was about 11. It was very difficult for him, the teen, most of all, but for the entire family too. My Mom needed all the support and guidance she could get in order to help nurture this boy and best address his many tough issues while he was part of our family.
<
p>
The DSS Commissioner might need our help to show some moxie, so what can we do? Would an online petition be a useful tool? (it would also serve to educate folks about this issue–you could include excerpts from the research cited in your post).
<
p>
One would hope that at this time of year, for this issue (kids in need), a petition might get an especially strong response. I think there’s a way to use an online service that’s aleady set up for this type of thing, but I don’t know the details. Does anyone else?
Harry Spense is the best commissioner DSS has had that I can remember.
<
p>
For once, we have someone who took the job because they wanted it. He wants to make a difference. He researches the best ideas from around the country and brings them here.
<
p>
Whenever there are budget cuts.. the kids in care do not get cut. Funding for the homes, their needs and education is always quietly kept out of the limelight and never gets touched.
<
p>
Now, as to the workers. We do need to find more money to fund a smaller caseload (I don’t know if I agree with 12..). Supervisors of 1:5 seems a little high for ongoing workers, while I could agree with that on those supervising kinship home cases and new initial cases.
<
p>
The bigger issue would be to find a way to get the courts to rework their scheduling. If there were more juvenile courts, then you could limit junvenile cases to 2 days a week, getting the workers out of the courtrooms and back into the lives of their clients.
<
p>
Harry is working well with the foster parent community. He does well advocating for the children within and outside the government circle (such as the new alliances with Jordan’s Furniture and WCVB News).
<
p>
Ask any experienced social worker and they will tell you he is the best commissioner they’ve ever worked for. So many before him just used the position as a stepping stone to another position.. giving little effort to the cause and understanding the needs of the kids in the care of the state.
Kira and Ann
<
p>
Your comments are strong and from experience. Writing to your state senator and representative and sharing the article as well as your comments can be helpful. As we enter the new budget process, when legislators decide how many social workers should be assigned to DSS, your comments can educate them. If you can get a friend or two to do the same even better.
<
p>
The social workers I know put their heart and soul into the job. What they ask of DSS is support and the time to do it right. Unfortunately too often the courage of the workers and the children they work with is lacking in the leadership of the agency.
<
p>
I thank you for taking the time to write and your concern.
<
p>
Every study of DSS has said that the social workers are the strength of the agency but they do not get support. Professional standards (Child Welfare League) to allow for professional level work should not be such a struggle. Without professional level staffing DSS social workers often have to react to a family crisis rather than being able to anticipate it and act to help prevent it.
<
p>
Our foster parents provide a haven of love and support for vulnerable children. They deserve to have support from social workers who can spend more time with them and helping them get the services the children need.
<
p>
Edm
First, if Harry Spence is the best Commissioner DSS has ever had, that is tragic. He seems to have no conception of what it takes to strengthen families, and no interest in fathers parenting as far as I have experienced. He does not respond to letters or return calls from attorneys with concerns. He never, ever admits DSS is wrong, either, nor does he support efforts in favor of family preservation. And such efforts work! See http://waysandmeans….
<
p>
Further, our state has no criteria to require reasonable efforts, concrete, enforceable reasonable efforts prior to removing children from their parents. See http://www.nccpr.org… A quote:
<
p>
“Sadly, the scapegoating of family preservation has been so successful that by the end of 1997, Congress had effectively repealed the “reasonable efforts” requirement. Backers of the new law say it only ends reasonable efforts in the most egregious cases. In fact, the new law is filled with “catch-all” clauses that make it possible to avoid the requirement in almost every case. The law no longer requires reasonable efforts, but it does not prohibit them. It is up to states and localities to decide what to do next.”
<
p>
Further, DSS is a shot gun marriage between a prosecutorial function that removes children and terminates parental rights, and the social service function of strengthening and preserving families.
<
p>
As DSS support for “National Adoption Day” shows, it is not strengthening and preserving families that is the current focus.
He is all about redesigning the system to solve the problems of families in their own homes.
<
p>
He is changing all the systems of working with families.. but it is a slow process. He is forced to do it within his budget.
<
p>
To fund one new initiative, he has to close down another.
<
p>
Community Connections, family support teams, advocates for families, training and support for family stability.. I’m seeing it all the time.
<
p>
He has been preaching family preservation since he took the position.
<
p>
The new approach is designed on “Systems of Care”
http://www.childwelf…
<
p>
But the fact is, in many cases children must be removed immediately. If they were not doing this, then the people would be all over them for allowing child abuse.
<
p>
Now, DSS is based upon people, and people do make mistakes. But this small agency is dealing with over 23000 active cases involving 75000 individuals (children and parents). They have to perform tens of thousands of investigations every year. Out of that 75000, only about 11000 are actually in foster care.. where are provided help within their own homes, some are placed with family or family friends. Only 34% of these cases are actually in foster homes.
http://www.mass.gov/…
<
p>
And I agree that the adversarial (court) process is the worst process we have for dealing with the needs of families.. but we live in a nation of laws. You don’t want beaurocrats unilaterally being able to take away parents rights. I agree that at times it seems like its all a setup, but at least with courts you have some system of appeal and process.
<
p>
You can go after the commissioner if you want. Thats your perogative, but just think what you may get if you drive him away.
<
p>
The list of short-timers who cycled through that office for years is long.. each of them just holding a spot waiting for a bigger position in a state or federal job somewhere.
<
p>
And the kids suffered.
I have worked for 21 years for DMH. I have become totally frustrated with all of the decisions being made by people who no longer deliver services and refuse to take any input from those of us lower down in the chain of command who actually provideservices. When they started to close inpatient beds in DMH, I got so angry, I asked my state rep to file a bill for me requirng public hearing prior to bed closings. I wrote position papers for the campaign and spoke publicly about my concerns about the DMH. I checked rules regarding public employees, and it is okay to speak if you do not do it on state time and acknowledge that you are not speaking for your agency, but are voicing your own personal opinion. I know administrators are pissed that I am speaking publicly about the Department, but there isn’t much they can do about it. The state has been very intimidating of its emploees right to free speech, but we have one, and it is the only voice we can have because state administrators do not want to hear from their employees.
For example:
<
p>
http://www.boston.co…
<
p>
Quote from the above story “Man in the Middle”:
<
p>
Harry Spence’s handling of the high-profile death of one child and the beating of another made him a target for critics of the state’s social services. Five years into his term, his plan for reform is hardly quieting those opponents.
<
p>
It is interesting to remember that Spence is himself the father of three elementary school age children.
<
p>
A bit more:
<
p>
URL for a live interview of Spence:
http://www.wbur.org/…
<
p>
And here is Spence’s own web site (so no one has to take my word for any of this):
<
p>
http://www.mass.gov/…
<
p>
The problem is social engineering post ASFA and insufficient resources, both.
AmberPaw says:
<
p>
Well bully for him. How about some professional child welfare experience? His past experience was as “deputy chancellor for operations for the New York City Public Schools; governor-appointed receiver for the bankrupt city of Chelsea, Massachusetts; and court-appointed receiver for the Boston Housing Authority” (From Pegasus Communications). Sounds like a numbers cruncher to me. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just that there are human lives at stake.
<
p>
Shawn says:
<
p>
But the entire foster parent recruitment budget was cut during the last budget crisis. How can you provide safe homes for children when there is no recruitment going on? If it hadn’t been for Jordan’s, I don’t think there would have been any mention of the need for parents. But I don’t know how effective that kind of advertising is–all you need is love and an extra bed.
<
p>
Foster parents are portrayed as either gods or monsters by the media. Watching those ads, I (a foster parent) felt like I could never live up to the saints profiled. And reading the news accounts of the horrors inflicted by foster parents made me hate the entire system.
<
p>
It’s tough being responsible for someone’s else child, even if their parent was horrible.
<
p>
Spence may well be the best commissioner we’ve ever had, but I say it isn’t good enough. That’s like saying, after you’ve been hit by a bus, that falling down the stairs isn’t so bad.
<
p>
Ideas like Systems of Care and getting kids out of residential homes need to be built from the foundation up. The support services for children, families, and foster families simply aren’t there. When I became a foster parent, I was told that there were all these services: support group, newsletter, parent liaison. Well, there was one group meeting and no sign of another being scheduled. Never saw a newsletter. Met the liaison, and think if I had called she would have helped me, but thankfully I didn’t need it. I’m sure she was kept busy with the families with teenagers. I’ve seen birthmothers languish in holding cells for months waiting to get into a residential drug rehab program that will let them get their babies back. Court cases drag on for years because lawyers don’t show up and a case gets continued. Parents with a proven track record of ruining one child’s life get second, third, and more chances with the next one.
<
p>
Rhondabourne’s frustration with DMH goes well beyond the bureaucracy. There’s an overwhelming lack of mental health services for foster kids. Sure they are eligible for MassHealth. But try to find a therapist who accepts it and is experienced with the issues these kids are dealing with.
<
p>
And regarding the “throw away parent syndrome,” I’ve seen what happens to children who are not removed from homes when they should be. Or are passed back and forth over years. It damages them. No child should spend five years of their five years of life with no permanent home. Simple.
<
p>
I have written to every legislator in the state advocating for increased funding to lower caseloads. I only heard back from one, a former foster child, and not even my own reps.
<
p>
I’ve worked with some truly inspiring social workers. I’ve also worked with some truly evil ones who were motivated not by the child’s best interest but some darker goal. Ambition? Ego? Who knows. But DSS seems to be a system that stifles the best and encourages the worst. The best leave. The worst thrive. That’s me on my most cynical days. I don’t have enough experience with the agency to know whether this is true or not or if it can be changed. I hear grumbles. I just wish the workers felt they could speak up and would speak up. Every company has workers who like to grouse in private but won’t say anything when given the chance. It’s just that at a place like DSS, real harm can come from that misplaced silence.
<
p>
I really didn’t intend to make this a Spence-bashing. I do like the guy. I think he’s a good speaker and has really stepped up to the mic when bad things have happened at DSS. I just think more could be done.
<
p>
I wish there were a way to get the word out that makes people–legislators and, especially, voters–care enough to get something done. One man can’t do it all. The workers can’t do it all. The foster parents can’t do it all. Children dying in care doesn’t do it.
<
p>
When you can’t get taxpayers without children to fund schools, how can you get citizens, most of whom are lucky enough never to have DSS enter their life, care about the children unfortunate enough to have DSS in theirs?
I have to say, because I do the same type of advocacy.. I’ve felt the same way at times.
<
p>
Cynicism and frustration at people who just don’t want to look at the issue gets to me too. (I assume the only response you got was from either Gloria Fox or Marie Parente?)
<
p>
The ad campaign we did with WCVB was to focus exactly on that issue.. it doesnt take a saint to be a foster parent, just someone who wants to try.
<
p>
During this same 5 year period.. we’ve added recruitment workers to reach region (but we do need to continue to focus on retention.. those other services that are needed for the current foster parents). Bringing in the professionals (Barry & Elliot) was needed to show a state agency how to actually get the job done. Recruitment is definately up lately.
<
p>
I think the services for foster parents tend to be there for those who want them. Northeast (Lowell, Lawrence, Salem) seem to be well served. I’ve heard other areas aren’t as much. Usually its because there are so few parents interested.
<
p>
I tend to use the support groups and like to organize them into advocacy groups.. we’ve done parade floats, legislative breakfast, meetings with the mayor, inter-agency group events, etc.
<
p>
Changes are happening.. but never fast enough for me. Every kid that I watch fail (because of all those causes you list and more), I blame on the system as well.
<
p>
But, there are kids that are making it too. There are families that recover. And there are kids that are graduating from college this year who just a few years you would have predicted them landing in jail.
<
p>
The negative stories you hear in the paper are the simple result of the media looking for tasty stories. The other stories are there.. you just dont hear them.
<
p>
Just this morning there is a big story here in Dracut about twins being placed into foster care on an emergency basis because of a shaken-baby situation.
<
p>
Little to nothing is said about the family who is taking in those kids just days before christmas.. how much effort they will go through to make those children comfortable, help the bio-family to know thier kids are safe, attend all the multiple court/doctor/socialworker/lawyer that will happen in the next two weeks.. all disrupting their family’s holidays and vacations. All for the sake of someone else’s children.
<
p>
Again, there are lots of good stories out there, you just don’t hear them.
<
p>
Its all up to us to keep trying.
Didn’t hear from Gloria Fox or Marie Parente.
<
p>
Who’s “we” by the way?
<
p>
We took in our first baby right before Christmas. You should have seen us running around to find a crib and other supplies. But one of our best Christmases.