Turnover
in Child Welfare
Turnover hurts families and children. By
leaving their jobs, social workers can compound feelings of insignificance
and rejection in kids already hurting from abuse and neglect.
When foster and adoptive parents quit, the
effects on foster children—most of whom have already lost one
family—can be devastating.
Turnover hurts agencies, too. It lowers morale,
reduces efficiency, and eats up time and money as agencies seek,
hire, and train new employees. And turnover prevents us from meeting
our goal of one case worker or case work team for each child and
family.
In this edition Practice Notes explores
what researchers, practitioners, and administrators have to say
about turnover in child welfare, and we present some ideas for fixing
this system-wide problem. Unless we confront this issue head on,
we will be unable to ensure that every foster child has a safe,
loving, permanent family within one year.
Contents
