About Child Welfare Recruitment & Retention

A Matter of Priorities—Project Rationale

If you would like to read more about the research methods for this project, please click here.

An increasing number of children in North Carolina and elsewhere in the United States are in dire need of child welfare services. Yet qualified child welfare workers are dangerously underrepresented in the field of public child welfare.

The continued loss of qualified and committed child welfare workers has become a national crisis. Annually, the turnover rate of child welfare workers in the U.S. falls between 30 and 40 percent. Moreover, the average duration of employment is less than two years, interrupting continuity of services to children and families (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2003). In North Carolina, the average turnover rate is 44 percent. And 54 percent of the workers hired fall at least two years short of the minimum-required experience for the position.

Some of the factors that have affected workforce morale and retention:

Currently, less than one-third of caseworkers employed in public child welfare agencies have formal social work education
Salaries in child welfare agencies are lower than in comparable professions
Concerns about workforce safety have increased, as has a poor image of child welfare in general.

Creating a Culture of Retention—Project Background

Meeting the challenge of a child welfare system in crisis calls for identifying strategies that will promote the recruitment, selection, and retention of expert and committed workers—workers who understand the nature of the job and who embrace its challenges and opportunities.

To that end, the U.S. Children’s Bureau funded the Jordan Institute for Families at the UNC School of Social Work to conduct Child Welfare Staff Recruitment and Retention. Based on outcome-focused research, the project’s objective is the creation of resources that will help public child welfare directors and supervisors increase their ability to recruit, select, and retain a qualified and committed team of workers who understand and are prepared for child welfare work.

The project will support child welfare supervisors and agency administrators in clarifying and communicating the agency mission, and in creating a positive organizational environment that provides support through relationships and teamwork, affirms staff, and promotes a culture of employee retention.

The project’s success will be measured by positive outcomes for trainees, for the workforce, and ultimately for children and families. The study will result in integrated, evidence-based curricula and accompanying resources that can be offered to each county department of social services within North Carolina as well as nationally.