Child Welfare Workforce Retention Research in New York State

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Child Welfare Workforce Retention Research in New
York State

• New York State Social Work Education Consortium

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Study Team Members
Social Work Education Consortium NYS Office of
Children and Family Services NYS Deans Association
Commissioners
University Faculty and Students
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Project History

• OCFS Turnover Survey
• Commissioners in counties with turnover over 25
  meet
• Commissioners request a study
• Consortium agrees to lead the study

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Study Objectives

• Use a participatory approach to create knowledge
  to strengthen the child welfare workforce
• Help managers develop effective approaches to
  recruit and retain workers

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County Characteristics

• Population 31,582 - 1,419,369
• FY 2000 Child Abuse Reports 400 - 8,569
• Indicated Reports 78 - 2,820
• Workforce size 18 - 279
• Beginning Salary 23,446 - 35,805
• Average salary 25,595 - 43,639

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Participatory (Action) Research

• 11 schools of participatory research
• Each is grounded in
• Different traditions
• Different philosophical and psychological
  assumptions
• Different political goals
• (Reason and Bradbury, 2001)
• In all the research process is participative,
  grounded in experience, action oriented

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Study Approach

• Value the expertise and contributions of faculty,
  county commissioners, state policy and program
  staff, and students
• Respect, trust, and communicate

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Process

• Research team meetings
• Ongoing and regular feed back from all partners
• Consensus building

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Process

• Travel to counties to present the survey in
  person
• Travel to counties to present and discuss initial
  findings
• Meetings with commissioners to plan next steps of
  the study

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Benefits of the process

• Commissioners feel ownership of the study
  findings
• Commissioners are committed to future steps

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Challenges of the process

• Time
• Truly incorporating participants views resulted
  in scientific compromises
• Uncertain implications of team-member turnover

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Demographics

• 696 child welfare workers in all participating
  counties
• 409 child welfare workers participated in the
  study
• 59 of workers participated in the study

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Race of Participants
African American 3.0
Hispanic 2.3
American Indian 0.3
2 or More Races 1.5
Pacific Islander 0.3
Asian 0.5
Caucasian 91.3
Other 1.0
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Gender of Participants
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Age of Participants

• Average age of Participants is 39.8 years
• Average age of Supervisors is 44.3 years
• Average age of Workers is 38.2 years

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Age Brackets of Supervisors and Workers
   
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Years in Child Welfare

• Mean number of years is 8.5
• Half of the participants have worked less than
  5.8 years half have worked more than 5.8 years.
• The median number of years worked by participants
  is 5.8
• Time in Child Welfare ranged from 1 month to 40
  years

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Average Years in Child Welfare
 
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Median Years in Child Welfare
 
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Annual Salary Range 2 participants reported a
salary of less than 20,000.
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Satisfaction with Salary and Benefits
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Annual Household Income 15.4 of participants
in all counties combined hold more than one job
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Child Caseload Size

• Workers in all counties combined reported
  caseloads ranging from 0 400.
• Supervisors in all counties combined reported
  caseloads ranging from 0-1700.
• The average number of children in caseloads of
  supervisors is 165.
• The median number of children in caseloads of
  supervisors is 50.

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Child Caseload Size of Workers
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Caseload Size
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Foster Families and Biological Parents in
Caseloads of all participants
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Supervisor Task Breakdown
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Worker Task Breakdown
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Task Breakdown for Workers and Supervisors in All
Counties
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Work Experience
Other category includes adult services,
youth/PINS/JD, day care, income employment,
child support, emergency services, foster home
finding, homeless services, intake, and out of
state.
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Casework as a Choice
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Organizational and Supervisory Factors Associated
with Retention
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Organizational Factors

• Clarity Coherence of Practice
• Life Work Fit
• Goal Attainment, Job Satisfaction Efficacy
• Job Supports Relationships
• Technology, Training Record Keeping
• Salaries Benefits

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Supervisory Factors

• Supervisor Support
• Supervisor Competence

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Logistic Regression Models
Workers Only with statistical significance Higher
scores on all Organizational dimensions except
salary benefits reduces the likelihood of
considering new job Higher Score on supervisor
support reduces the likelihood of considering a
new job.
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Analysis continued
A higher score on satisfaction with
organizational dimensions consistently reduces
the likelihood of considering a new job, even
when controlling for salary, caseload size and
paperwork A higher score on supervisor support
reduces by 42 the likelihood of considering a
new job even when controlling for salary,
caseload size and paperwork A higher score on
supervisor knowledge is not related to
considering a new job (at a level of statistical
significance) when accounting for salary,
caseload size and paperwork
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Recommendations
Organizational characteristics matter to workers
retention (even when accounting for salary,
caseload size and paperwork). Supervisor Support
is important. Strategies to address this are
unique to each county. Interviews to get specific
ideas from workers and supervisors regarding
specific improvements in their county to improve
retention. Survey low turnover counties to see
what the differences and similarities are.