As she gets ready to leave office, state Child Advocate Gail Garinger released a scathing report Wednesday concluding that high caseloads and ineffective management is a curse in the the Department of Children and Families.
The Ripples Group of Boston wrote the report, commissioned by the Child Advocate. It is based on interviews with DCF executives, supervisors, caseworkers, and other staff.
The report describes a department without a shared sense of vision that makes reactive decisions in the face of crisis situations.
It also says workers are overwhelmed by caseloads that have grown 35 percent since 2011. But, says Garinger, the biggest issues are in management.
During the recession, she says, front-line social workers were saved from budget cuts, but that led to fewer resources at the managerial level.
According to Garinger: “By eliminating some of the managerial positions, some of the policy positions, it really created less than a cohesive structure to implement the policies in a cohesive way.”
This report is just an interim one. The final version isn’t due until November. Garinger’s last official day, however, is this Friday -- and the Governor’s office has not announced a replacement.
“And that’s very concerning,” says Garinger. “And I felt it was my responsibility to do what I could to make sure this report is seen. And hopefully action will be taken.”
The report shows internally, there’s not much hope of that. DCF staff were asked if they believed management would act on the results of the survey they were participating in. And they scored that likelihood at less than 3 on a scale of 1 to 7.
Read the report:
