February 2008

Child Welfare Staffing Study

This child welfare staffing study, conducted for the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) by McKinsey & Company, found that activity-based staffing for the State's child welfare caseworkers may help the DHS be more responsive to children and their families and implement quality improvement and efficiency reforms. The corresponding survey of over 1,000 caseworkers found that on average, caseworkers were only able to perform case-related work for 70% of their work hours, about six hours per day. The remaining 30% was used for time off, vacancies, sick leave, paid breaks, paid on-call time, and training. General administrative duties took about 6% of each day. Researchers also noted that meeting the critical child welfare performance targets would increase caseworkers' workloads by 17% to 23%, which would necessitate the hiring of 35% to 53% more caseworkers to meet federal standards. Regular training was recommended for all caseworkers as a way to increase efficiency and effectiveness.