Professionalizing Child Welfare Through the Social Work Education Consortium

Mary L. McCarthy, PhD, LMSW, Director, Social Work Education Consortium

The New York State Social Work Education Consortium was established in 2000 as a formal partnership between the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), the New York State Association of Deans of Social Work Schools, the social work education community and local social services districts. Other Consortium partners include child welfare workers, NASW, relevant child welfare associations, unions, training providers and the families being served by child welfare agencies.

An Advisory Council, appointed by the OCFS Commissioner John A. Johnson and comprised of representatives from a wide range of constituencies invested in workforce development, advises the Consortium. The primary goal of the consortium is the identification and implementation of programs and activities that promote a forward-looking approach to training and education, emphasizing workforce stabilization and professionalization. In an effort to operate as a high performing learning organization and to support data driven practice, the Consortium has endeavored to use research to guide our work.

Regional Collaborations to Support Education

Over the past five years, the Consortium has initiated regional collaborations between local social work education programs and local social services districts. This partnership is based on the belief that a social work education is the best preparation for child welfare practice. There are currently seven active regional groups. The regional structure allows for the design of programs responsive to the unique needs of each region, thereby effectively targeting resources. Activities include: tuition for social work courses at the associate, baccalaureate and masters level, stipends for students participating in internships in local and public child welfare agencies, support for MSW field instructors, funds for continuing education programs designed for child welfare practice improvement and support for regional coordination.

The strength of the Consortium has been enhanced by the flexibility, over a number of years, to develop a range of activities which are responsive to local workforce needs. The OCFS Program Improvement Plan (PIP) has guided this flexibility for New York State and the individual counties. The PIP offers a framework for a comprehensive approach to measurable improvement in services to children and families. These activities include the establishment of research partnerships with local districts around critical questions for workforce development, professional education opportunities for local staff, social work field instruction, and new or revised curriculum in schools of social work with a focus on child welfare. A key benefit of attention to the workforce will be the enhanced capacity of local districts and New York State to accomplish the goals established in the PIP.

A priority for the Consortium has been the development of pathways for employment between schools of social work and public child welfare agencies. This has been accomplished primarily through the provision of tuition support for current child welfare employees who wish to pursue a graduate or undergraduate social work degree. In 2004 the Consortium paid tuition for 294 social work courses across three semesters. The majority of child welfare employees using these resources are matriculated in graduate programs. Five workers graduated with their MSW degree in 2004. Additionally, 12 social work students interested in child welfare as a career completed field placements in public child welfare agencies.

The Challenge of Recruiting Social Workers for Public Child Welfare Positions

Many social work graduates aspire to be “clinicians” or therapists and their view of child welfare practice as investigation or case management oriented impedes their exploration of child welfare as a potential career path. Additionally, workers tell us that the paperwork burdens make it difficult to spend quality time with families and children. A recent child welfare workforce study in New York State found that workers spend between 40% and 45% of their time each week on paperwork and only 30-36% of their time on direct services (Social Work Education Consortium, 2004).

Social work programs must continue to emphasize the link between social work skills and effective child welfare practice. Protective Services’ practice is challenging. Workers are expected to complete accurate safety and risk assessments and develop trusting relationships with vulnerable families. These tasks require advanced skills particularly in the area of assessment and relationship building. Practice in prevention, foster care and adoption requires attention to ongoing, complex safety and risk assessments, as well as developing relationships with foster/adoptive families, birth families and children of all ages who have experienced loss and possibly trauma.

Workers must also be experts at systems oriented practice to navigate the complexities of the multiple bureaucracies that intersect with child welfare. Each of these arenas requires advanced social work skills at multiple levels. It is the Consortium’s belief that increasing the number of professionally trained social workers will result in consistently improving practice.
Implications of Licensure

The Consortium groups anticipate that MSW trained employees will want to receive supervision that facilitates the opportunity to pursue the LCSW if they so desire. While child welfare practitioners may not be mandated to have a graduate social work degree in New York State, those that do have the MSW will want their practice in child welfare to be recognized if they decide to seek the LCSW license. This means that child welfare agencies will have to find ways to support supervision that meets the requirements of the LCSW license if they wish to hire or retain employees who are Licensed Master Social Workers (LMSW).

Commissioner Johnson has been an advocate for a forward-looking approach to building a professional and stable workforce for New York State. The partnership between the New York Deans, the County Commissioners, NYC’s Administration for Children’s Services, and the Office of Children and Family Services has resulted in new opportunities for serving the children and families of our State.

Contributors to this article included:
Peter Miraglia, Director, OCFS Bureau of Training; Sharon Kollar, MSW student, Center for Women in Government Fellow; Sarah Talbot, MSW student, Graduate Assistant, Social Work Education Consortium regional coordination.

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