SOCIAL WORKER WORKLOAD COMMITTEE ISSUES PROGRESS REPORT

The Children’s Services Workload Committee mandated by the 2008 Legislature on July 1 issued its required progress report.

The panel has met four times and plans eight more sessions before issuing a final report by Nov. 15.

In the progress report to the Legislature, the joint union-management committee spelled out the top issues the committee is honing in on:

• Child Safety continues as the top priority for everything we do.
• Increased permanency planning will yield positive child outcomes and help reduce caseloads.
• Recognize the gap between available resources and workload requirements.
• Increased communication with staff is necessary.
• Recognize and respond to new competing external/internal requirements.
• Recognize that workload impacts cannot be efficiently mitigated by efficiencies alone.
• Staff retention and recruitment impacts workload issues.

You can read the full text of the progress report by going to the Federation website at www.wfse.org and choosing “CA Social Workers” under “Local Unions, Committees and Bargaining Units” on the top left side of the main webpage.