What makes a good caseworker and how can we retain the most qualified and quality child welfare caseworkers?: The Untold Opinions of Youth in Foster Care

Background: Researchers and professional experts suggest that individual caseworker factors such as education, experience, specialized IV-E training, perceptions of self efficacy, human caring, professional commitment, and demographic characteristics are correlated with caseworker turnover and positive client outcomes in child welfare agencies nationwide. Although researchers and professional experts have identified qualifications and personal qualities that result in longer job tenure for child welfare caseworkers and positive outcomes for children, the voices and opinions of the true experts in the field, the youth, have been missing from the conversation. This study attempts to give voice to foster youth in regards to caseworker recruitment, selection, and turnover.

Methods: Focus groups were conducted with 25 youth in the child welfare system. Data were collected in two focus groups consisting of 12 and 13 participants each. The focus groups were run by two trained social work researchers who collaborated with youth to develop the questioning route. Content analysis was used to analyze the focus group data. Two researchers separately reviewed the data content and developed preliminary categories and coding structures. Following the initial development of coding structures, two members of the research team utilized these categories to assign specific codes to the data. Inter rater reliability was greater than 95%.

Results: According to the youth, quality workers will: (1) believe in the youth's potential for success, (2) be competent about case practice and (3) be culturally competent in the youth culture. Further the participants also shared suggestions and implications for interviewing and selection practices. The participants provided insight into the qualities that they believe will help them achieve their goals. Participants presented specific implications and suggestions for hiring and selection practices of child welfare caseworkers. The youth emphasized that child welfare agencies need to recruit and retain the “right” workers; those who are dedicated to the work and also have the experience and temperament to provide quality services to youth. As a result they provided a set of suggestions to improve the hiring process. For example, the youth suggest that interviewees respond to specific scenarios representing real life challenges that caseworkers encounter when working with foster youth. This idea is congruent with findings from other workforce studies that emphasize the affects of turnover.

Conclusion and Implications: The findings from this study are consistent with much of the literature on caseworker recruitment and selection. Youth want knowledgeable caseworkers who believe in their abilities, care about their outcomes, support them in achieving their goals, and understand their culture. Child welfare agencies and partnering researchers should be challenged to harness the knowledge and experience of foster care consumers by collaborating with them on the development of interventions and innovations that aim to decrease turnover and ultimately seek to revolutionize systems of child welfare care. Administrators and human service professional may find that hiring caseworkers with the qualities described by the participants in this study will result in a more stable and effective workforce.