On July 12-13, 2022, the Florida Coalition for Children (FCC) convened its second annual series of Community Café Forums at its “People. Purpose. Passion.” Conference event. The Cafés engaged over 300 individuals from across the statewide community of practice who actively participated in setting strategic direction for 2022-23.
The FCC Community Café priorities were established by the FCC membership in 2021 and have been carried out over the past 12 months.
To embrace movement toward the establishment of the Collective Impact framework and to facilitate an inclusive Strategic Planning process in July 2021, the FCC hosted its inaugural “Together Innovating Child Well-Being” Leadership Summit with 180 guests present.
The FCC Learning Community spearheaded the annual Leadership Summit to gather the Florida child welfare community of practice, parents, and youth with lived experience, state leadership, and policymakers to conversate, innovate, and co-create strategy and solutions that would result in the identification of a common agenda to advance Florida’s child and family well-being system.
To accomplish this, the FCC hosted a series of five Community Café forums over 2.5 days. Cafés were founded upon the World Café approach of “shaping the future through conversations that matter.” The participants came together for “dreaming, designing, discovering, and delivering” to move the Florida child welfare/child and family well-being community of practice from inquiry to action in an informed and inclusive manner.
To identify the key strategic priorities for the FCC moving into 2022, the FCC surveyed its member organizations to identify and prioritize focal areas from a list of 20 categories to determine where the FCC should develop a common agenda to achieve collective impact over the coming months. To that end, respondent’s ratings resulted in the selection of three top priorities:
WRITTEN BY: DR. PATRICIA NELLIUS GUTHRIEYouth and Family Engagement
Trauma Informed and Responsive Care Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
In addition, leadership determined Case Management Recruitment and Retention/Workforce Stability and the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) to be strategic priorities included at the Summit.
The Cafés included five key strategic priorities identified through the survey conducted in February 2021. The priorities were:
Youth and Family Engagement
Trauma Informed and Responsive Care Racial Equity and Inclusion Case Management Recruitment and Retention Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA)
PUBLISHED BY:Each of the respective Community Cafés was co-facilitated by a team of subject matter experts and, where applicable included those with lived expertise.
Café forums were customized around each priority using data, research, content, and the experience of those who have been entrenched in the work and possess lived expertise with the system. Each of the groups presented the following questions for dialogue and discussion.
Where are we as a state regarding the topic of the respective Café?
What is our collective vision of the future state regarding the topic?
What strategies, tactics, and innovations do we need to employ to realize and achieve our vision?
At the conclusion of the 2021 Café sessions, facilitators guided discussions to build consensus on the themes, trends, and preliminary recommendations of the group to guide the work moving into the future. More detailed information can be found in the FCC 2021 Community Café Executive Summary HERE.
the work over the past year. The 2022 Cafés were attended by over 300 youth, parents, system professionals, and partners.
Each Café forum reported on the status toward goals and recommendations resulting from the 2021 Cafés and focused on the identification of strategies, next steps, measurable results, and additional recommendations moving into the future.
The four* 2022 Cafés included:
REI Workforce Stability (WFS) Youth and Family Engagement (YFE)
Family First Prevention Services Act Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA): Led by Teri Saunders, CEO, (FFPSA): Led by Teri Saunders, CEO, Heartland for Children and Schuyler Heartland for Children and Schuyler Siefker, Executive Director, St. Augustine Siefker, Executive Director, St. Augustine Youth Services Youth Services
Families First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) is one of the most significant child welfare finance reforms to occur in decades.
In the spirit of inclusion, collaboration, and collective impact, the FCC has adopted the Community Café Forum process to maintain a pulse on the ever-changing landscape of child and family well-being across the state of Florida. This enables the FCC to annually review strategic priorities and goals, report progress and results, and realign strategic direction as needed.
To continue the work accomplished in the Community Café space in 2021, the FCC hosted and convened its second annual Community Café forum in July 2022. The forums were led by the subject matter expert conveners who mobilized and led
Over the past 2.5 years Teri Saunders, CEO, Heartland for Children, and Schuyler Siefker, Executive Director, Saint Augustine Youth Services, represented the FCC alongside the Department of Children and Families (DCF) as the co-conveners of the Statewide FFPSA Steering Committee. In this role they worked countless hours with FCC members and staff playing a lead role in the design, planning and implementation of Florida’s plan.
In July 2022 the mantle of leadership was passed to Irene Rickus, President and CEO, Children’s Home Network and Brena Slater, President and CEO, Safe Children Coalition.
The Café forum conducted an introductory overview of the 2021 priorities and recommendations resulting from the 2021 Community Café, which included the following:
*It was determined the Trauma Informed Care priority would be integrated into the work occurring statewide
Create capacity in a comprehensive placement/treatment array that can meet the complex needs of today’s youth in foster care
Revise suitability assessment processes so that youth in need of Qualified Residential Treatment Centers (QRTP), Specialized Therapeutic Group Care (STGH), and/or Specialized Inpatient Placement (SIPP) can gain timely access to appropriate levels of care
Create/revise policies to maximize Title IV-E funding
Braid systems of funding to support ongoing delivery of evidence-based prevention services for families involved with the child welfare systems: Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD), Agency for
Healthcare Administration (AHCA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health (SAMH), and Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), County, and others.
Keep prevention processes streamlined without adding on state requirements that increase workload and expenses beyond the federal requirements
Develop tools necessary for community providers and systems to deliver evidence-based prevention services to community families
The conveners then shared a survey that was conducted to better understand the gaps and needs of children and youth requiring residential care and to explore how best to move forward with the implementation of QRTPs or the creation of alternative levels of care. Survey respondents were comprised of:
69 individuals who work in the behavioral health, child welfare residential, and/or juvenile justice fields.
59 agencies including mental health, substance use, child welfare residential providers, and juvenile justice residential providers.
Respondent roles ranged from Program Supervisors to CEOs.
Providers were asked, “If barriers were reduced, (i.e., licensing by DCF), reimbursement rates increased, and FFTA dollars provided for transition, would you consider serving a specialty population?”
Of the providers who responded to surveys, 81% reported that they have the capacity today (facilities with beds) that they would open to those in need of a QRTP placement if the barriers identified were removed. Combined, this would make 146 beds available this year for QRTP, serving youth presenting with conduct disorders, severe emotional disturbance (SED), high risk behaviors, and multi-system involved youth such as DJJ, DCF, and APD.
Outlined below is a chart delineating possible solutions and strategies to build placement capacity for complex youth in Florida.
Willingness to provide capacity was highest (scale 0-100) when the following conditions were met: adequate funding/rate (79), paid via available capacity vs. utilization (78), ability to retain surplus to recoup start-up (80), multi-year contracts (78), license through DCF vs. AHCA (72), and available start-up funds (71).
It should be noted that even if the AHCA license was amended to be less restrictive, providers reported that their willingness to work with AHCA on obtaining a license was only 46 out of 100.
Following the report surrounding residential needs and capacity, an overview of FFPSA implementation successes were outlined. They included but are not limited to:
The Age Differential Waiver removal from Administrative Code.
The Human Trafficking training requirement reduction to 12 hours.
Suitability Assessments to now include behavioral disorders.
The status of the revised version of the Florida FFPSA Prevention Plan was presented and discussed. A copy of the plan can be found HERE.
As of today, revisions are under review with the Department of Children and Families to be submitted in the near future for approval by the Federal government.
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Key Features include:
The candidacy definition is very broad and includes families in the community without reports of child abuse.
Nine Well Supported EBPs are included in the plan (Motivational Interviewing, Homebuilders, Multisystemic Therapy, Functional Family Therapy, Brief Strategic Family Therapy, Parent Child Interaction Therapy, Healthy Families, Parents as Teachers, Nurse-Family Partnership).
Restructure QRTPs to serve the populations FCC has identified as most challenging: Capacity to care for youth with complex needs, and capacity to care for medically complex children.
Increase stability of high needs youth.
Establish 5 levels of QRTP specifications.
Increase capacity for primary prevention services that can be supported by FFPSA (not client specific).
Develop specialty treatment homes. Develop a more streamlined process for suitability.
Develop residential capacity to care for children with high/special needs.
Racial Equity and Inclusion (REI): Led by Racial Equity and Inclusion (REI): Led by Esther Jacobo, Director, Citrus Family Esther Jacobo, Director, Citrus Family Care Network and Michael Bryant, COO, Care Network and Michael Bryant, COO, Embrace Families Embrace Families
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is to be used by case managers to enhance engagement, but most likely will not be claiming Title IV-E reimbursement for the delivery.
Of the 75 FFPSA Café attendees representing cross sector partner agencies from across the statewide SOC, the following recommendations were made:
Identify EBPs that are program-wide vs. those based on individual therapists to reduce impact of turnover.
Scale and track capacity of prevention and diversion.
Reduce state requirements that exceed federal requirements.
The Racial Equity and Inclusion (REI) work has been led by Citrus Family Care Network Director Esther Jacobo, and Chief Operations Officer of Embrace Families Michael Bryant over the past year. The committee has convened monthly meetings with members from across the state who are committed to advancing REI. After establishing its charter, developing priority focus areas, and expanding its membership, the REI Committee has launched three Action Teams to focus on Policy, Workforce, and Data.
The REI Café session was attended by 65 participants who engaged in the conversation on Racial Equity and Inclusion in the Florida Child and Family Well-Being system. Esther Jacobo and Michael Bryant served as conveners along with Citrus Family Care Network Director of Training Michelle Samuels.
The Café opened with conveners framing context and explaining how the FCC Strategy and Innovation Roundtable (SIRT) members identified Racial Equity and Inclusion as a strategic priority and support high level systems change which includes developing a framework for Community-Based Care agencies and providers to replicate changes to address disproportionality at the local level.
Since Racial Equity and Inclusion can be a sensitive subject, group agreements were established to ensure all attendees felt comfortable sharing their perspectives and experiences openly. Background on the origin of the REI work occurring around
An impactful pre-recorded video highlighting Ms. Allison Schild’s experience as a parent turned peer in the child welfare system was shared. The message conveyed the importance and value of including those with lived expertise in conversations aimed at improving the system and reducing disproportionality (the video can be found HERE).
Ms. Schild highlighted the importance of having individuals and parents of color with lived experience at the table and to factor their experience with the system into decision-making and system improvements. She urged the audience to “find a bio parent and add them to your work.”
The importance of making racial equity a priority to drive impact within communities was addressed. Using data to guide systems in achieving their mission was emphasized as a key ingredient to success, along with a holistic approach encompassing increased accountability, resource development, and monitoring of system performance. Establishing common language and understanding of terms such as disproportionality, disparity, and equity are necessary to ensure that conversations stay focused on a common goal. Attendees were educated on the terms and definitions to facilitate “courageous conversations.”
The breakdown of disparity data in Circuits 9, 11, and 18 were shared. The data showed how children of color, who are the least represented in the overall child population, were the most represented in the system of care. The presenters encouraged attendees to review their local data.
the state was provided and acknowledgement of the youth who initially championed the conversation was highlighted. The importance of ensuring “experts” with lived experience being engaged in the conversation was emphasized as a key to successful change management.
It is important to note that disproportionality may not look the same from one area to another; therefore, it is important for jurisdictions to examine their local data to determine the extent of disproportionality in their local communities.
To demonstrate progress made over the last year, a review of the recommendations resulting from the 2021 Café were shared along with the statewide charter and framework that has been established to guide the work. The presenters stressed the importance of joining forces to lead a statewide initiative of this magnitude and the role of the FCC in facilitating the process. Presenters urged those in attendance to make a commitment to be a part of the solution and to focus on “doing what they can do” by letting the “data drive the conversation.”
Attendees discussed how current decisions and processes contribute toward disproportionately and the need for systems to think and act differently if they desire different results. Cross-system collaborations and efforts to engage communities is essential.
Attendees participated in group activities designed to strategize ways to advance work on REI with focus on Data, Policy, and Workforce. The following questions guided each groups discussion:
Is the assigned area a priority for your region or organization?
How is it contributing to disproportionality?
What are the challenges and barriers?
What are some strategies to address the challenges?
Who do we need at the table? How do we measure success?
The group activity was highly effective in creating table discussions on assigned priority areas which resulted in a series of recommendations. Each group documented answers to specific questions concerning goals, barriers, and overall steps needed for success. Each group felt the dialogue was “refreshing” and came away feeling assured there was an overall commitment to “do the work.” Due the time constraints, only one group for each subject was able to report out yet it was visible that interactions amongst attendees were impactful. Attendees gave valuable recommendations and suggested action steps that will inform subcommittees in the discussion on how to impact change. All teams provided written group activity notes/documents to the presenters to ensure all ideas were received because they were not able to report verbally in the time allotted. This group activity provided a space for discussion on uncomfortable facts and an opportunity to identify challenges as well as opportunities for improvement. Below are the recommendations and key discussion points resulting from each priority area.
There are notable differences between counties even within one circuit (Escambia vs. Okaloosa, Miami vs. Monroe); therefore, it is important to recognize as there are diverse issues within each county policy will vary based upon the unique needs of each locality.
Disproportionality is not present in all counties – the starting point is to examine the data to identify how local the issues are (or are not) being addressed, and decide what issue is most prevalent in each area.
“See the person for who they are, not just what their file says.”
Policy review committees need to look for language that may be contributing to decisions that lead to disproportionate outcomes especially in areas such as policies on background checks, accessibility of services, licensing requirements, etc. Identify areas of focus across CBCs.
Policy review workgroups should include partners with lived experience.
The use of a routine survey of parents for assessment of the quality of services and treatment by the system should be implemented as standard practice.
Clarify how data will affect policy.
Data should help assess which policies are relevant and where policy development or revision is needed to shape how Lead Agencies move forward.
Survey the resources that currently exist – what’s available to families? Housing, food, employment, mental health, transportation.
Identify the issues/barriers that exist to inform where the needs and gaps are to build capacity to wrap families with needed support.
Compare the resources that currently exist to ascertain if those resources are meeting needs? Where are the gaps? Is there an overabundance of unnecessary resources?
Recognize that all counties (and even areas within counties) will look differently (urban vs. rural).
Develop consensus on whether language around policy should exist across the state and explore how we can ensure all counties’ needs are met.
Need to ensure that eligibility and supports are consistent and accessible.
Ensure diverse perspectives are engaged in policy development.
Need to ensure that eligibility and supports are consistent and accessible.
Ensure policy is enacted and trickles down to frontline staff, and that supervisors continue the conversation. Should language around ongoing expectations be included in policy?
Policy should include expectations to reassess needs/services.
Review times need to be written in policy and include continuous evaluation.
There is a need to ensure rights to data collection is written into policy.
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Policies should be treated like living, dynamic documents that requiring constant review and revision to follow what the data is indicating.
There is a need for more interface between REI work and the operations of organizations.
Designate a forum where the work of local steering committees and thoughts on incorporating organization-wide are reported out.
Encourage quarterly meetings to be established with all staff to discuss, disseminate, and seek further participation.
Convene regular, smaller meetings per department to discuss policy issues.
Review policies with an REI lens in and outside of the regular REI work groups.
Workforce continues to be an area of priority for Florida regions. Unfortunately, due to the lack of staff and struggles with staff retention, regions must balance the need for hiring staff with the need for a diverse and equitable workforce.
Some organizations are utilizing the Civil Rights Checklist in the Human Resources (HR) process.
Is there an opportunity for CBCs to look at the diversity and equity of contracted providers as well?
What are the strategies to include persons with lived experience to the workforce, leadership, and boards?
Systems need to be engaged at all levels from frontline to top leadership and governance.
Authentic engagement is needed with those with lived experience in a safe space that encourages conversation rather than accusation and oppressive talk.
Can those with lived experience be included in the HR process from application to interviewing?
Are there any legal barriers to including individuals with lived experience to the application or interviewing process?
How are we defining lived experience?
How can we collect data on the demographics of staff and organizations?
Frontline Staff, Contracted Providers, Governing Bodies, Human Resources, and Training are needed at the table to strategize how we ensure a workforce that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
Training should be made available to other stakeholders such as Guardian Ad Litem/Attorney Ad Litem, Judges, and Children’s Legal Services attorneys regarding the best interest of youth to be with parents and within their own communities.
Highlight stories of successful parents. Storytelling is powerful and by placing more emphasis on successful reunifications rather than adoptions, culture will shift.
The system needs rebranding. Families have no reason to trust us as a system. Use lived experience to shape programming and promote the message that the system is here to support the community.
Data sharing is a challenge. Systems need to be transparent with communities and to make the data widely available.
Another challenge discussed is the perception of Sheriffs' Offices who are responsible for removals in several counties further perpetuating the oversurveillance and over-policing of minority communities.
Explore and ascertain if there is overrepresentation in these communities as compared to communities with Child Protective Investigators?
Data is needed on whether minority families are getting access to services at the proportion needed to support their communities.
Statewide consensus is needed on what data to examine, what that data tells us, and how to measure success.
There is a need to look at disparity data beyond the decision points and include other areas of disparities in Baker Acts, psychotropic medication, residential placements, etc.
Understanding how data impacts roles and entities; having a clear understanding of what is needed for each role to be successful, to make a difference, and to improve outcomes.
The overall takeaways were:
Systems must value families first, shift culture from frontline to executive leadership, and re evaluate policies that enforce practices which do not align with the values
Our policies, workforce, and data must be inclusive and have everyone at the table. Old and common practices must be reviewed and revised to ensure they have the “REI lens ”
Closing the session with youth voice sealed the commitment of having youth and families heard.
A shift is needed to move from a service to relationship-based system of care and from mitigation to preparation; we must also transition from a response to recovery approach.
Attendees were encouraged to be a part of the solution by signing up to serve on the action team. Final remarks were given, and attendees were reminded to start the conversation, define the experts, collect the data, get the community involved, ensure bio parents with lived experience are our partners, and bring everyone to the table.
“Know the biases you bring to the table.”
The Youth and Family Engagement (YFE) Café was convened by Dr. Elizabeth Wynter, Executive Director of Selfless Love Foundation, Patricia Nellius, FCC Vice President, and Corey Best, Founder of Mining for Gold. Present were 40 youth and young adults, parents with lived experience, system professionals, partners, and stakeholders with young adults facilitating the table discussions. In total there were 78 individuals in attendance.
Over the past year much has been accomplished to advance the lived experience inclusion movement forward. Dr. Wynter, Patricia Nellius, and Liz Oberman, FCC, have served as conveners of the FCC youth and parent engagement agenda in partnership with the Thriving Families Safer Children (TFSC) initiative co-lead by Tiffany Csonka, a Parent Professional with support and consultation from Jess Hanak-Coulter, Casey Family Programs.
The session opened with an overview of the recommendations and progress towards goals established in 2021. The goals and recommendations can be found in the 2021 Executive Summary HERE.
The opening remarks spoke to “compassionate accountability” (a recurrent key theme in the 2021 Café) to change the value of youth and family voice and create a blueprint to embed youth and family voice in the child welfare system.
Following the recap, the attendees broke into seven groups who discussed the next steps and strategies to move the system toward inclusive authentic partnerships.
The participants began by identifying strengths that exist across the state and shared signs of movement in a positive direction. They included but were not limited to:
Then the group moved into robust discussion about what they would like to start, stop, and continue, along with recommendations which were broken out by category: Youth, Policy & Practice, and Priorities. The following document outlines the findings of the Youth Engagement conversation.
Youth and Family Engagement (YFE): Led Youth and Family Engagement (YFE): Led by Dr. Elizabeth Wynter, Executive by Dr. Elizabeth Wynter, Executive Director, Selfless Love Foundation and Director, Selfless Love Foundation and FCC Foundation Chair Emeritus, Corey FCC Foundation Chair Emeritus, Corey Best, Founder, Mining for Gold, and Best, Founder, Mining for Gold, and Dr. Dr. Patricia Nellius, FCC Executive Vice Patricia Nellius, FCC Executive Vice President President
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Build relationships with mutual understanding, build trust and a shared vision to work together
More trauma-informed education for bio-family
Parents engaged in discussion surrounding policy changes
Compassionate accountability on upcoming changes
Time management and engagement between case managers and bioparents
Have bioparent success mentoring group
Have biofather initiatives
Create parent-peer partners
Educate families and all parties on their rights
Separate the criminal and dependency mindset
Focus on the community helping before dependency
Create more community-driven help
Educate the families and youth on all points of the process
"Meet parents where they are firsteducate parents and provide mental health access to parents, legal aid to parents, and review documents together with them so they understand.”
“There’s a need for more traumainformed care for bio parents and success mentoring.”
True assessment of family needs and provide services for gaps
“Nothing about us without us”
Have everything in the language we understand
Family-centered practice - where should youth and families be involved? In case planning, parents aren’t involved, just told what to doparents need real involvement
Engage and empower - help parents feel they have power
Support the parent to identify what they really need
Scheduling around youth and family’s needs
Building a consistent relationship
Next steps identified by Café participants included the following recommendations:
Foster and Build Connection!
Focus on children’s needs and what they express to you.
Carefully consider who is being hired to fill important roles in the life of children and youth. “Surround youth with people who are trusted. Take time to build relationships.”
Transparency for all decisions.
“Build authentic and real relationships.”
The Workforce Stability Café was led by John Cooper, CEO of Kids Central, with 80 attendees present where he reported the findings from a Case Manager Recruitment and Retention study conducted by Apex Research Group: “Case Manager Recruitment & Retention Study.”
Adapted study findings are outlined below. You can find the full study and PowerPoint presentation HERE.
Kids Central and five statewide partners, with the assistance of Apex Research Group (Apex) in summer of 2021 sought to explore actionable factors most relevant to improving recruitment and retention of case managers. The scope of work aspired to address the broad and systematic problems using an analytical approach to identifying a finite group of actions that held a reasonable probability of improving outcomes with recruitment and retention. Methodologically, the study process incorporated a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, including outcome data, focus groups, and incumbent surveys to isolate key, inhibiting factors.
Improving quality outcomes for children and families is directly aligned with an agency’s ability to build a high-quality, professional, and stable workforce with manageable caseloads. Child protective services (CPS) workers help children and families in complex environments that demand a skilled and professional workforce. The work requires a specialized set of intellectual and behavioral skills with appropriate and effective training.
CPS workers provide a unique and essential service to support the children and families served by Florida’s Community-Based Care lead agencies and their contracted providers.
The role is a complex and challenging job that requires significant mental and emotional demands (Kothari et al., 2021; Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2003). As a result, the field has seen significant levels of turnover for more than three decades (Lipien et al., 2020).
High CPS turnover disrupts continuity and stability of service for the families they serve, but also creates instability in the workplace through increased workload and the depletion of skilled workers. Child welfare leaders know high attrition amongst the CPS workforce has a direct effect on the quality of services and a negative impact on service outcomes. Improving the recruitment and retention of skilled workers is of critical importance to ensure the continuity of quality services and maintaining reasonable stability in the workforce and workload.
The current labor market continues to present challenges to both private and public sector employers at all levels. The combination of the pandemic, changing perceptions of the workplace, structural changes in the economy, shifting employer needs, business practices, and life priorities all perpetuate skill shortages in key categories and industries.
A plethora of research indicates that unmanageable workloads are a key contributing factor in CPS turnover. High CPS caseloads drive both high turnover and poor outcomes for children. This produces a Freudian effect leading higher levels of turnover, lower satisfaction, increased workloads, and poor quality of service delivery (Clark al., 2011). In a 2008 report, the Child Welfare League of America suggested that, “No issue has a greater effect on the child welfare system’s capacity to serve at-risk and vulnerable children and families than shortage of competent and stable workforce.”
The project revealed a variety of observations. Most, if not all, provide confirmation of issues and concerns previously identified in other national studies or recognized based on workplace experience. The themes of the findings offer insight into the overlapping and complex root cause factors that create issues with recruitment and retention.
As stated earlier, the job of a case manager is complex and challenging requiring specific knowledge and skills developed over several years. However, case managers report that compensation and lack of career progression are significant contributing factors to turnover (KCI, 2021; FCC, 2014). The 2014 study found more than 80% of respondents felt compensation was a key factor that led to turnover.
Moreover, in 2021, when asked what they liked least about their job, case managers reported that compensation (54.13%) and lack of salary progression (67.7%) were the two top reasons for dissatisfaction. Similarly, when asked why their coworkers left their position, compensation (59.50%) was one of the top three reasons suggested for turnover. The survey results were validated with focus group feedback from lead agencies and case management organizations and Apex surveys to case managers, supervisors, and child welfare leaders.
A review case manager salary in states with comparable populations, revealed that Florida was considerably lower than most other states (average of seven comparable states – approximately $49,000 versus Florida - $38,000) including Texas, where the average salary was $51,000 (Cooper, FCC Leadership Summit, 2021). In Florida, as in many other states, compared to the average salaries of similar career areas such as police officer, teacher, and social worker, child welfare case managers are significantly underpaid. Moreover, since 2003, seven statewide projects and legislative measures have been conducted on child welfare professionals focused on addressing retention by improving
“Create an environment where all feel welcomed, heard, and included in decision making.”
compensation, creating job levels, and developing recruitment profiles. However, only one of those studies included case managers focusing turnover, training, work experiences, and recommendations to improve the employee experience (Florida Institute for Child Welfare, 2020).
All levels of staff in child welfare acknowledge that case managers perform complex, challenging, and worthwhile work. However, a review of case manager and supervisor feedback through the analysis process pointed to the following recruitment challenges:
Awareness and understanding of job – most potential candidates lack awareness of the opportunities available in child welfare as well as possess a lack of comprehensive knowledge of the day-to-day demands of the job.
Continuous need – high levels of turnover require near continuous hiring of new case managers, thus reducing confidence and morale of current staff.
Weak branding – lack of a strong marketplace image for child welfarerelated work. Employment branding focused on traditional sources of applicants and does not leverage social media and other non-traditional recruitment sources.
Strong labor market competition –changes in the level of competition in the labor market and opportunities for entry-level white-collar workers limit the ability of agencies to compete for case managers; and
Lack of candidate skills – the multitude of required skills necessitate careful evaluation of candidate’s capabilities and a commitment to skill development.
A survey sponsored by KCI (2021) of tenured Florida case managers revealed additional insight on pre-hire job experience and educational training. Specifically, the survey showed that approximately 70% of case managers with three or more years of experience had previous work experience, in many instances in areas other than child welfare. Additionally, the survey captured education background. The evaluators found that the top majors of case managers were psychology (29.46%), criminal justice (20.33%), social work (17.01%), and other (22.82%). In the past,
some states, including Florida, have advocated for specific degree requirements for child welfare professionals. However, numerous studies from both the child welfare and business management literature suggest that specific educational and work experience are weak predictors of turnover in most organizational contexts (Van Iddekinge et al., 2019; Perry, 2006; Nissly et al., 2005; Rosenthal et al., 1998).
The project participants revealed that each agency utilized its own approach with
varying practices for screening and candidate transition support. In many ways, the on-going need to fill positions to alleviate higher caseloads results in agencies hiring quickly to prevent addition turnover. While agencies experience similar recruitment challenges, the combination of a lack of standardized and effective practices as well as the volume of turnover and new hires generates both a recruitment/selection and operational dilemma.
Lack of consistent criteria for selection (no single selection method)
Absence of a success profile
Retention is the outcome of multiple actions taken by an organization. Job as well as environmental factors impact an organization’s success with employee retention. Typically, the most common challenges for retention fall into three categories: nature and level of work, rewards, and culture. Data collected as part of this study points to a significant gap in employee expectations and reality
pertaining to the nature and level of work and inadequacy of rewards. The major retention challenges associated with the work performed include the following:
Nature of work – case manager work includes several stressors, including conflictual interactions with multiple parties, thus necessitating a broad set of critical competencies.
Level of work – current workloads, lack of automated tools, and the multifaceted nature of the work creates a work environment that leads to higher turnover; and
Value proposition – when considering continued employment, employees desire predictable as well as escalating rewards and opportunities for advancement.
Increase compensation to align with job demands
Focus on early career education of child welfare opportunities with high school and college students
Develop and deploy a community awareness campaign to increase understanding and desirability of case manager employment
Develop a digital-based employment branding plan to increase the size and quality of candidate pools
Create recruitment partnerships with educational organizations to offer job shadowing and internship opportunities
Strengthen and standardize the hiring process to improve applicant quality and timeliness of hire
Implement screening procedures based on relevant occupational factors and competencies
Job Design - Create paraprofessional support positions below the case manager to improve efficiency and effectiveness
Promotional Track - Align compensation with career demands and offer opportunities for salary progression
Workload - Implement a scalable staffing model to improve workload management
Culture - It has a direct effect on people factors such as employee engagement and motivation, productivity, quality, and retention.
Historical data and current trends predict child welfare will continue to have higher than average attrition rates and implementing a scalable staffing model to improve workload management is paramount. The emphasis should be on anticipating turnover and keeping positions filled.
Higher compensation is a critical element for recruiting and retention success in more challenging careers and positions. The lack of a strong compensation strategy and salary progression signals to potential applicants limited opportunities and the unpredictability of rewards.
Understanding market trends and the shifting dynamics of the workforce –there is a shrinking tenure of Millennials and now Gen Zs. This workforce desires escalating rewards (flexibility and higher income) for advancement and this correlates with a low need to be affiliated with one organization for long periods of time
Develop and deploy a community awareness campaign to increase understanding and desirability of a CPS career to include digital-based marketing, and
The job design should include dedicated paraprofessional support positions below the case manager to improve efficiencies and effectiveness.
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In conclusion, over 300 FCC members, stakeholders, and individuals with lived expertise came together at the 2022 Community Café Forums to review progress towards goals and priorities established in 2021 and to identify and set strategic direction for 2023.
It is estimated that since 2021 more than 1,248 hours of work, investment, and convenings have occurred to advance the REI, YFE, Workforce Stability, FFPSA agenda and priorities. This is a testament to the capacity to affect change when a group of people who have a common agenda come together to make a collective impact.
Respectfully submitted, Dr. Patricia Nellius-Guthrie Executive Vice President of Knowledge Management and Innovation Florida Coalition for Children
