Worker Retention And Morale
The Division of Child and Family Services experiences a fair amount of turnover in our staff. Personnel changes are hard on a family that is receiving services. Case information may not always be fully exchanged or may be misunderstood, and caseworkers need time to get to know a family’s unique issues, successes, and needs. Children in foster care often have few significant relationships which they can rely on. Losing the caseworker they knew cared about them is very hard emotionally.
Turnover is also expensive, and places a burden on workers, who bear the burden of handling extra cases when a colleague quits and leaves his or her cases behind.
A secondary issue caused by turnover is poor caseworker morale. . DCFS staff work long hours, have a lot of paperwork requirements, and work with families in crisis who who are often compelled to work within the system rather than those that might voluntarily be seeking some help. Dealing with the emotions of child abuse/neglect cases can also be very draining for staff.
The Division of Child and Family Services has created a workgroup to further study the myriad issues about retention and morale and to make recommendations for improvement. The quality improvement committees will also study and give outside perspectives and recommendations in terms of improvements. Those recommendations will be posted as they become available.
