Don’t lose sight of top goals at DSS

Filling top executive positions at the state Department of Social Services might be a necessary part of revamping the agency. But we hope DSS Director Susan Alford and state legislators don’t lose sight of the primary goal of hiring enough caseworkers to take care of the state’s thousands of foster children.

Alford announced last week that she had hired at least six people for executive positions at the agency, most of whom will be paid $100,000 or more a year. In some cases, Alford was filling existing positions but others were newly created.

In all, the DSS now has 18 employees making $100,000 or more a year. Alford, herself, makes $159,130 annually.

Hiring good people for administrative posts costs money. And, we suspect, the quality of management could have been a significant reason for the dire challenges now facing DSS.

But the hiring of highly paid managers comes at a time when caseworkers in the field are unable to keep up with the children who need help. Despite the hiring of 262 new employees, the agency still can’t handle the skyrocketing cases.

Rising caseloads contributed to high turnover among workers and low employee morale in the past. If Alford can’t fix that problem, the case overload is likely to persist.

In August, Alford told state senators that 130 caseworkers statewide each were responsible for at least 50 children – more than double the caseload goals set last year. Ten employees each were responsible for at least 100 children.

Since then, DSS has adopted an interim plan to improve the way foster children are overseen by the agency. The agreement requires, among other things, reasonable workload limits for caseworkers.

Also under the plan, no children younger than 6 are permitted to be placed in non-family group homes. And the plan will phase out the use of hotels, motels and DSS offices as overnight havens for children in DSS care.

But it is important to note that this is just a stopgap plan, and one that was developed only after DSS came under pressure of a federal class action lawsuit. Agency heads and state lawmakers need to ensure that DSS can meet the needs of foster children over the long run.

That undoubtedly will require more money, specifically money to hire, train and retain capable caseworkers. And, apparently, the budget will include more for top-level management at the agency.

Although improved management should be a goal at DSS, the optics of hiring highly paid employees and even creating new management positions when so many other needs go unmet are questionable. But more caseworker hires, decreasing caseloads, higher morale and less turnover would erase many of those concerns.

Alford, to date, has been frank about the agency’s problems and the need to make big changes. State lawmakers also are well aware of the problems at DSS.

We hope that when the agency’s performance is analyzed again in a few months, real progress will have been made and DSS can look forward to having the resources it needs to protect thousands of the state’s most vulnerable under its care.

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 7:26 PM with the headline "Don’t lose sight of top goals at DSS."