If you want good government, you don't rotate in and out those who are in the key positions dealing with the delicate members of your society. It is the same as it is with teachers, if you want to keep them, you need to pay them better.
If we see the need to pay our teachers better, we should see the need to pay better those who work for the Division of Child and Family Services. . . . And, perhaps to also pay better many others who are in other such state agencies.
Is $17 an hour enough?
Our foster care workers are critical. They deal with the child. They make the decisions for the care of the child. If you have a turnover of your workforce every three years, if you lose 30 percent of your case workers annually . . .
You have a problem.
Continuity is critical in such a position if the child is going to get proper care. Not to mention that such turnover runs counter to running a sound government, period. If every three years, a new person is learning what needs to be done, and the experience of the out-going worker is lost, that may not be good government. I could be wrong: It might be that a new person can come in every three years, sit down at the desk, and learn the job perfectly well; No harm done. But, I think we can see there is reason to suggest that isn't the case. Experienced workers learn what does work and what doesn't work. They get better and more polished at dealing with problems as they go along. They see mistakes, and they learn from them. Perhaps most important, they get to know the children better.
It is critical that we have the processes for dealing with children in good order, speak nothing of good government. If nothing else, we just want the care of the child to be the best. But, that continuity does make for good governance also makes this vital.
Let us pay the workers better.
(Index: Campaign website, Foster Care and Child Abuse)
No comments:
Post a Comment