The BC Association of Social Workers (BCASW) is calling on the BC government to address current workforce shortages and improve working conditions.
Specifically, they want the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) to implement recommendations addressing chronic recruitment and retention problems as soon as possible.
The BCASW is calling for this now because of a recent report published by BC’s Representative for Children and Youth, Jennifer Charlesworth.
This report was published just one week after Charlesworth published another report on the Province’s missteps that led to a boy’s death while under their care.
“BC’s Representative for Children and Youth Jennifer Charlesworth released a report today that calls on the BC government to immediate [sic] address a wide range of human resource issues within the [MCFD],” said Michael Crawford, President of the BCASW.
“These issues and recommendations to improve the child welfare system were identified largely through a survey of child welfare workers and are grounded in lived day-to-day work experience.”
According to Charlesworth’s report, over 80% of social workers working in the child welfare system say they are unable to properly do their jobs because their caseloads are too high.
“Social workers in this province have incredibly difficult jobs and to see how understaffed and overworked they are is truly disturbing,” said Representative Charlesworth.
“We have known about chronic understaffing at this ministry for decades, yet successive governments have not addressed these challenges. Now, here we are yet again, reeling from the death of a child that was entirely preventable.”
The report calls on the Province to:
- Develop a workload measurement tool to help determine required staffing levels
- Ensure funding is available to staff up to the levels indicated by the workload measurement tool
- Work with the social workers’ union to implement better compensation incentives to support the recruitment and retention
- Enhance training and case management support those working with Indigenous children, families and communities
- Develop and implement a robust plan to better support the health and wellness of child welfare staff
- Commit to refrain from criticism of social workers in circumstances where there are known systemic inadequacies
According to the BCASW, the most recent report regarding these staff shortages did not properly address the gravity of the situation faced by social workers working in the province.
“Although the Representative supports mandatory registration for all social workers with the BC College of Social Workers, the report fails to address this issue adequately,” said Crawford.
“Treating social workers as professionals and having their practice superintended [sic] by a regulatory college has the potential to professionalize child welfare, address recruitment and retention issues, and enhance protection of the public through external oversight of social work practice.”
Related:
Ultimately, the BCSWA says that if the MCFD would remove exemptions from Social Workers Regulation to protect the title of “social worker” and require all social workers to register with the BC College of Social Workers, some of the concerns could be better addressed.
Ministry of Children and Family Development’s response
Following the report being released, Minister Grace Lore of the MCFD said she is grateful for Representative Charlesworth’s work and the report that was published.
Lore says that over the past two years, staffing of frontline social workers has increased by 17% and that recently, 99% of children under MCFD care have been getting visits from social workers within the required 90-day window.
“That is essential, we need to connect and see kids, both to know they are safe but also so they have the services and support they need,” she added.
“It’s been a priority of mine as a minister to meet directly with our frontline teams and I hear from them the same thing [Charlesworth] did—they’d like to be better supported, for us to hire more folks, and that’s work I’m committed to.”
Lore says there are promising initiatives being implemented across the ministry to support workers mentorship, social worker assistants and remote teams to help with administration work.
When asked about the BCASW call for the requirement of workers registering with the BC College of Social Workers, which is not happening currently, Lore said it is critical to have transparency, oversight and accountability when dealing with the children in their care. However, she did not directly answer the question of what the barriers to this matter are.
The BC Representative for Children and Youth says a more detailed second part to the report will be published this fall.
