Pivot report finds social workers quitting in frustration

A new Pivot report based on a survey of 109 social workers in the Ministry of Children and Families concludes that front line workers leave due to inability to do their jobs in the face of huge caseloads

Vancouver, May 6, 2009—Child protection workers are leaving the Ministry of Children and Family Development because of unmanageable caseloads, high stress levels, low confidence in leadership and management, and a lack of preventative and supportive resources for families, according to a new report by Pivot Legal Society.

Pivot’s report Hands Tied, based on the results of a survey completed by 109 current and former child protection workers, finds that more than half of social workers who left the MCFD felt that they were unable to consistently act in the best interests of children because they had too few resources and too many children in need.

“The best interests of the child should always be the most important consideration in child welfare cases,” says Lobat Sadrehashemi, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society. “A situation where almost 60 percent of former child protection workers say that they were only sometimes or were rarely able to act in the best interests of the children is just not good enough.”

“Retaining child protection workers is essential to the smooth functioning of the system,” says Darryl Walker, president of BCGEU, the union representing Ministry front-line workers. “High turnover means instability and delays for children and families, heavier workloads for remaining workers, and a loss of valuable experience for the system.”

The study concludes that changes are needed in keep child protection workers in their jobs. Respondents cited reduced caseloads and sufficient support services for families as the factors that would have been “very likely” to have kept them working in the child protection system. “People who took part in this survey went into social work to help marginalized people” explains Darcie Bennett, a researcher with Pivot Legal Society. “But without adequate time or support services they did not have the tools they needed to do their jobs.”

[ Executive summary with link to download report (PDF 1,402 KB) ]