Statement of Ikeita Cantu Hinojosa, Associate Counsel, Legislative Affairs, National Association of Social Workers

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support
of the House Committee on Ways and Means

May 23, 2006

Chairman Herger and other distinguished members of the Committee on Ways and Means, we thank you for considering our statement as you prepare to reauthorize the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world, with over 150,000 members. NASW works to enhance the professional growth and development of its members, to create and maintain standards for the profession, and to advance sound social policies. NASW also contributes to the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through its work and advocacy.

Social work is the largest and most important social service profession in the United States. Social workers help people function better in their environments, improve their relationships with others, and solve personal and family problems through individual, social, and psychological counseling and support.

The most commonly reported practice areas of licensed social workers are mental health (37%), child welfare/family (13%) and health (13%).[1] Social workers also work with older adults, adolescents, in schools, and in various other settings and populations.

Ninety-one percent of NASW members hold master’s degrees in social work and 92 percent maintain some type of license, certification, or registration in their state; 70,000 also hold advanced credentials from NASW.

Overview

The social work profession has a long tradition of involvement with the child welfare system and welcomes the opportunity to participate in the process of reauthorizing the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program (PSSF). The program, formerly the Family Preservation and Support Services Program, is an important flexible funding source for an array of services for families with children. We recognize the importance of this program given that in 2003, an estimated 2.9 million cases of child abuse and neglect were reported and referred for investigation to state and local child protective service agencies because family members, professionals, or other citizens were concerned about their safety and well-being. After follow-up assessments, officials were able to substantiate 906,000 of these cases.[2] The program is also a critical component for reaching the goals of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). It helps build capacity in states and communities so that services are available for children and families.

Background on the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program

The PSSF program was created in 1993 and originally named the Family Preservation and Support Services Program. At that time, all funding was guaranteed or mandatory. PSSF was reauthorized in 1997 and renamed the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program. Prior to this, at least 90% of the funds were used for family preservation and community-based family support services. The 1997 reauthorization added two additional service categories: time-limited reunification services and adoption promotion and support services to the existing family preservation and family support services. The Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005, passed in February 2006, provides a one-year (FY 2006) increase in mandatory, or guaranteed, funding for PSSF, bringing the mandatory funding up to $345 million from the current level of $305 million.

In addition to the mandatory funds guaranteed for PSSF annually, Congress also has the ability to approve up to $200 million each year in additional discretionary funds. In FY 2006, Congress approved $89.1 million in discretionary PSSF funds, a decrease of nearly $9 million from the FY 2005 level – far short of the $200 million that Congress could have approved. Therefore, the net increase for PSSF funding in FY 2006 will be slightly less than $30 million, bringing total funding (mandatory and discretionary) for the program from $403 million in FY 2005 to $434 million in FY 2006.

The bill also amends the current Court Improvement Project (currently funded as a set-aside of regular PSSF funds), which provides grants to states’ highest courts to use to assess and improve their child welfare proceedings. The bill provides additional funding for two new grant programs – each funded at $10 million annually – aimed at strengthening the performance of courts on behalf of children who have been abused and neglected, including those in foster care and those waiting to be adopted.

PSSF funds are used to provide time-limited reunification services to address the needs of children and families who are involved in the foster care system. Services are provided within 15 months after the child enters foster care. Reunification services for the child and family include counseling, substance abuse treatment, mental health services, assistance to address domestic violence issues, temporary child care, and transportation services. Social workers serve children and families in many of these capacities.

Funds are allocated to states according to their relative shares of children receiving food stamps, subject to a 25% non-federal match. From annual mandatory funds, $6 million is provided for research, evaluation, and technical assistance to identify and expand on programs proven effective. The State Court Improvement Program receives an initial allocation of $10 million annually, with additional funds provided if Congress allocates funds in addition to the $305 million in mandatory funds. The law emphasizes the importance of using court improvements to promote the Adoption and Safe Families Act’s goals of safety, permanence, and well-being.

In addition to this reserved funding, if Congress opts to do so, the program could provide additional discretionary funds such as 3.3% for research, training, and evaluation; another 3.3% of discretionary funds could be available for state court improvement programs; and 2% of discretionary funds could be reserved for tribal governments.

Chairman Herger, we completely agree with your statement in the May 12 Committee’s press release that “It is important that we do all we can to help families receive services to prevent child abuse and neglect.” Further, we are pleased about the additional $40 million for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program included in the House draft bill. The bill allows for the use of funds to enhance caseworker visitation with foster care children, especially in the home. We know that increased client contact will yield better outcomes. However, we do caution that one of the challenges we hear from our workers that strive for more visitation is the mounting administrative burden imposed by the federal and state governments. Of course we know that data is critical to informing and improving outcomes, but these processes can drain time from worker visits. Agencies need access to technology to remain current with these systems and to reduce administrative time. That is why we are very pleased that funds can be used to improve “caseworker retention, recruitment, training, and ability to access the benefits of technology.”

Child welfare positions are particularly demanding and stressful, often involving unreasonable workloads and low pay in comparison to jobs in other sectors that require comparable amounts of education and responsibility. Consequently, it becomes difficult to attract and retain the most qualified employees – those with professional training and experience. We hope to work with Congress to identify solutions to these complex problems and we offer the following recommendations:

Improve Education and Training Opportunities for Frontline Workers

The public has high expectations for the child welfare system, as it should. Everyday, these agencies make life and death decisions for children and families with complex needs, striving to meet extensive legal mandates. We know that proper staff training is a critical component of this system. A number of studies have documented the critical connections between training, competency, and quality services.

A report in the Journal of Education for Social Work found that workers with social work education were more effective in service delivery than workers with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree or other graduate degrees.[3] The connection of workforce quality to family outcomes was further documented in a March 2003 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office which states, “A stable and highly skilled child welfare workforce is necessary to effectively provide child welfare services that meet federal goals. [However,] large caseloads and worker turnover delay the timeliness of investigation and limit the frequency of worker visits with children, hampering agencies’ attainment of some key federal safety and permanency outcomes”.[4] The issue of high caseloads will be addressed later in this document.

It has been shown that a well prepared staff is more likely to remain in the field of child welfare, thus reducing worker turnover and increasing continuity of services with the family. Some social workers are able to take advantage of Federal assistance through the Title IV-E and Title IV-B programs of the Social Security Act. These funds are used to upgrade the skills and qualifications of child welfare workers through their participation in training programs specifically focused on child welfare practice. While these programs serve a useful purpose and must be preserved, we know that these two programs alone cannot support the entire field of child welfare workers. Specific recommendations to enhance Title IV-B and E will follow.

A new national study from NASW, “Assuring the Sufficiency of a Frontline Workforce: A National Study of Licensed Social Workers,” shines a bright light on issues related to workforce retention.[5] The study warns of an impending shortage of social workers that threatens future services for all Americans, especially the most vulnerable among us, children and older adults. Key findings include:

• The supply of licensed social workers is insufficient to meet the needs of organizations serving children and families;
• Workload expansion plus fewer resources impedes social worker retention; and
• Agencies struggle to fill social work vacancies.

Recommendation: Congress should provide the 3.3% in discretionary funds to allow for research, training, and evaluation of services in the child welfare system. Also, greater investments are needed to provide social workers with professional development preparation and ongoing training opportunities, particularly in the area of cultural competence. We believe that valuable employment incentives, including pay increases, benefits, student loan forgiveness, and promotional opportunities are essential for the development of a highly skilled human services workforce.

Strengthen the Cultural Competence of the Child Welfare Workforce to Improve Outcomes for Children

Nationally, and in most states, children of color, especially African American children, are overrepresented in the system. Although African American children constitute 15% of the U.S. child population, they represent 34% of all children in foster care. White children, by contrast, represent 61% of the U.S. child population but 40% of children in foster care.[6]This disproportionate representation continues despite research indicating that there are no differences in the incidence of child abuse and neglect by racial or ethnic groups.

The child welfare workforce plays a critical role in ensuring that children and families of color receive quality services and that appropriate decisions are made to ensure the safety, well-being, and permanency of children. It is largely caseworkers and supervisors who make decisions regarding the placement of children in foster care and permanency outcomes for children. At each decision point, culturally appropriate action or inaction can profoundly influence the trajectory of a child’s life. Social workers in child welfare are expected to be knowledgeable about cultural competency practices and standards as described in the NASW Standards for Cultural Competence (2001).[7]

The child welfare workforce has a thirst and a need for cultural competence training.  There are many workers that lack cross-cultural communication skills because of infrequent interaction with other cultures. Therefore, the importance of having workers that reflect the community they serve cannot be overstated. We know from our workforce study that social workers’ young clients and their families face an array of challenges. These youths are more likely to be children of color and to come from environments that are plagued by socioeconomic disadvantages. Meanwhile, there exists a shortage of social workers of color to serve these families.  In racial and ethnic diversity terms, the social work profession has not kept pace with the general population trends because of its inability to attract workers of color, resulting in a workforce that is not as diverse as the population they serve.[8]

The aforementioned 2005 NASW workforce study of licensed social workers states that 89% of social workers desire additional training.[9] Further, social workers in agencies in the public sector (which employs the greatest number of new social workers) were more likely to report limited training opportunities for new workers. It is critical that social workers in child welfare receive adequate training early in their careers and on an ongoing basis. Public policies must support agencies’ ability to offer their staff additional training in cultural competence.

Recommendation: Given the demographic trends of children of color in the child welfare system, the need for more workers of color, and the need for child welfare worker training, particularly in cultural competence, we suggest that each state participating in the Title IV-B and Title IV-E programs include within their federally approved plan:

• Guidelines for developing and/or strengthening the cultural competence of child welfare staff;
• Specific steps that the state will take to identify the extent to which racial disproportionality exists at key decision-making points,  if any (to include the following: substantiation of reports of child maltreatment, decisions to place children in foster care, decisions to seek termination of parental rights, and terminating parental rights and freeing children for adoption;
• A plan for addressing disproportionality at key decision points, when identified;
• Increased resources to enable social workers to enhance the recruitment and retention of potential foster families and adoptive parents consistent with the Multiethnic Placement Act; and
• Increased resources to enable child welfare administrators to hire culturally and linguistically appropriate staff to meet the needs of the community at competitive salary rates.

The state’s implementation of these plan requirements could be assessed through the Child and Family Service Review.

 Establish a National Caseload Size

The Child Welfare League of America recommends a caseload ratio of 12 to 15 children per caseworker, and the Council on Accreditation recommends that caseloads not exceed 18 children per caseworker. However, a national survey found that caseloads for individual child welfare social workers range from 10 to 110, with workers handling on average 24 to 31 children, each double the recommended number.[10] As was noted, high caseloads lead to increased worker turnover and reduced service capacity.

Recommendation: We ask Congress to consider ways to establish a national caseload size. Federal policy incentives that encourage states and counties to improve their human services workforce by building a comprehensive and integrated continuum of services, fostering innovation in program design, and developing consistent leadership, are desperately needed. Federal statutes, policies, and funding streams can help make important and lasting improvements in the ability of social workers to meet the needs of the consumer. Methodologies for calculating average caseload sizes, taking into account state variations in the definitions and assignment of caseloads, could be developed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with NASW and other national organizations. Benchmark measures could include: increased percentages of caseworkers and supervisors with BSW and MSW degrees, percentage reduction in caseworker turnover rates, and the development and adherence to a state plan that all supervisors in child welfare receive ongoing, consistent competency-based training on child welfare supervision and administration.

Conclusion

Social workers are an integral part of the child welfare system as is the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program. For the system to be improved, adequate funding and supports for the program need to be made, and the program must be fully funded to its authorized level of $505 million for FY 2007 through 2012. Also, social workers who care for children and families must receive adequate salaries, appropriate training, and manageable caseloads if the system is to be truly reformed. Further, states must make diligent efforts to reduce the disproportionality of children of color in the child welfare system.

We look forward to partnering with you on this important legislative initiative. To discuss any of these issues in detail, please contact me. Thank you for considering our input.

[1] Whitaker, T. Weismiller, T. & Clark, E. (2006). “Assuring the sufficiency of a frontline workforce: A national study of licensed social workers. Executive summary.” Washington, DC: National Association of Social Workers. Available online at

http://www.socialworkers.org/resources/workforce/files/NASW_SWCassuring_3.pdf

[2] U.S. Children’s Bureau. (2005). Child maltreatment 2003: “Reports from the states to the national child abuse and neglect data system.” Available online at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm03/index.htm

[3] Olsen, L. and W. Holmes. (1982). “Educating child welfare workers: The effects of professional training on service delivery,” Journal of Education for Social Work, 18(1).

[4] U.S. General Accounting Office. (March 2003). “HHS could play a greater role in helping child welfare agencies recruit and retain staff.” Washington, DC.

[5] Whitaker, T. Weismiller, T. & Clark, E. (2006). “Assuring the sufficiency of a frontline workforce: A national study of licensed social workers. Executive summary.” Washington, DC: National Association of Social Workers. Available online at

http://www.socialworkers.org/resources/workforce/files/NASW_SWCassuring_3.pdf

[6]  Casey Family Programs. “Foster care fact sheets.” Retrieved online http://www.fostercaremonth.org/FactsAndStatistics on May 10, 2006.

[7] National Association of Social Workers. (2001). “Standards for cultural competence in social work practice”. Washington, DC: NASW Press.

[8]  Whitaker, T. Weismiller, T. & Clark, E. (2006). “Assuring the sufficiency of a frontline workforce: A national study of licensed social workers. Executive summary.” Washington, DC: National Association of Social Workers. Available online at

http://www.socialworkers.org/resources/workforce/files/NASW_SWCassuring_3.pdf

[9]Ibid.

[10]  Alliance for Children and Families, American Public Human Services Association, Child Welfare League of America. (2001). “The child welfare workforce challenge: results from a preliminary study” presented at Finding Better Ways, 2001, Dallas, Texas.