Children's Bureau Express

Spotlight on Workforce Issues

This month, CBX highlights issues affecting the child welfare workforce. Staff from the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute contributed a guest article, and we explore research on performance-based contracts and worker retention.

Strengthening the Workforce for Systems Change
By Mary McCarthy, Co-Principal Investigator, Katharine Briar-Lawson, Co-Principal Investigator, and Nancy S. Dickinson, Project Director, at the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute...
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Building Cultural Competence
Researchers have proposed that developing cultural competency in caseworkers might be an effective means of addressing the issue of overrepresentation of children of color in child welfare. An...
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NASW Standards for Social Work Practice
In 2012, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) released a new version of the NASW Standards for Social Work Practice in Child Welfare (the Standards). The Standards, which were first...
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Performance-Based Contracts and Worker Retention
An article recently published in the Administration in Social Work journal examines how employment with private child welfare agencies operating under performance-based contracts can affect worker...
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Worker Experiences With Child Maltreatment Fatalities
Between 30 and 40 percent of child maltreatment fatality victims, or their families, were known to child welfare or social service agencies prior to their death. A new study suggests that, given...
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Secondary Traumatic Stress
Child welfare workers, therapists, case managers, and other professionals working with children who have experienced trauma can suffer from emotional duress after hearing about firsthand trauma...
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