Other Key Issues for Workforce Enhancement

The following are additional recommendations made by the synthesis groups.

Supervision

• Support collection and dissemination of existing knowledge regarding effective, evidence-based supervisory models. Develop a central resource center depository on child welfare supervision.
• Establish learning circle laboratories for supervisors to share specific information on how supervision can affect their staff and the clients with whom they work.
• Enhance career advancement or redirection by providing post-masters programs for supervisors desiring supervisory, management/administration, and community-practice training and education.
• Promote the supervisor's role in the community and communicate the importance of mission and values to workers.
• Promote a balance between caring and competency in child welfare supervision.
• Create a dialogue and relationship between universities and agencies on the factors that contribute to the successful recruitment and retention of a quality child welfare workforce, as well as factors that contribute to the professionalizing and stabilizing of the current workforce. Strategies may include:
  • Establishing a curriculum that supports the supervisory roles and leadership development of case workers in universities;
  • Establishing interdisciplinary academic partnerships;
  • Addressing clinical supervision in universities to promote learning organization culture, worker practice and retention, and positive client outcomes in child welfare.

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Research Needs Identified

Some areas in which further research is needed were noted during the synthesis groups' discussions, including the following:

• Comparisons of child welfare systems to other fields and their organizational practices
• Effective implementation strategies for transitioning to a new organizational culture
• The impact of leadership on outcomes
• Definition of the baseline or foundation for "best practices"
• A formal collection of research on best practices in supervision in child welfare

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