ATHENS, Ga. – In a state where 80 percent of child welfare workers have caseloads exceeding levels recommended by the Child Welfare League of America, less than 20 percent have degrees in social work, and close to 10 percent have a high school diploma or GED as their highest level of education. University of Georgia social work professors Alberta Ellett and June Gary Hopps see a cause for concern.
“The system has been in crisis for the last 30 years or more,” said Hopps. “Child welfare workers have some of the most difficult, demanding and publicly scrutinized jobs in human services. Decisions like removing children from abusive families, terminating parental rights and planning and finalizing adoptions are extremely difficult, and often it is left to overworked, unprepared individuals to deal with a system that, frankly, needs some attention.”
Last week, the UGA School of Social Work hosted a working conference titled “Developing Strategies to Professionalize Child Welfare in America.” This invitational working conference featured national child welfare experts with representatives from leading universities, the National Association of Social Workers, the Child Welfare League of America, the American Bar Association, state agencies, UGA’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government and the Georgia legislature who all worked together to develop strategies to help empower child welfare workers.
“Social Work degrees requirements for child welfare workers were relinquished in the 1960s,” said Ellett. “Now we need to enhance preparation of child welfare professionals through state agencies and schools of social work to improve client outcomes. It’s the same concept that stands behind requiring doctors to pass exams for board certification, requiring teachers to be licensed and requiring lawyers to pass a bar exam. Credentialing is an important hallmark of any profession.” Ellett added that the proposed credentials, including appropriate education, should apply to new employees who work at all levels in child welfare.
The conference also advocated restructuring child welfare work to focus on engaging families in the development of their case plans to meet their unique needs. In most cases, child welfare workers are helping parents take better care of their children so that children do not have to be separated from their family.
“Federal law clearly spells out the goals of child welfare to be child safety, permanency and child and family well-being,” said Ellett. “Too often, overworked employees become process-driven and not progress-driven. Every family is different and every child is different. We need to develop a system where those differences can be accommodated while still giving caseworkers the autonomy and the authority to decide with the family what is best and what will work with each unique situation.”
The child welfare system has little control over the characteristics of the clients they serve, and most clients are involuntary. Researchers report that from 50 to 80 percent of parents who abuse or neglect their children are affected by substance abuse. Many parents are poor, have low education levels, live in violent neighborhoods and some may also have mental illness and retardation.
“Although child welfare workers have little or no control over who their clients are or the external environment, they can exercise more control over the workplace by developing a cadre of skilled, appropriately educated practitioners who are sanctioned with public authority,” said Hopps. “This can be done in numerous ways including requiring credentialing, lowering caseloads, improving qualifications, providing safety measures for staff working in extreme conditions and raising salaries to a competitive level with nurses, teachers and pharmacists.”
This conference was supported by the UGA School of Social Work and the UGA President’s Venture Fund. Opening remarks were made by UGA officials including Art Dunning, vice president for public service and outreach and associate provost; Bonnie Yegidis, associate vice president for academic affairs and associate provost; and Larry Nackerud, School of Social Work interim dean. Next year’s conference will be held at Portland State University to continue these national efforts to professionalize child welfare. The conference was developed by the National Association of Social Work Deans and Directors and the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators last year.
