Post by ck4829 on Sept 24, 2017 14:02:10 GMT
Some of the people hired to help families in crisis in Pennsylvania need government assistance themselves to buy groceries.
That’s one of the shocking revelations in a scathing report issued earlier this month by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale after a six-month review of the state’s system of child protection.
As Pennsylvania policymakers struggle to figure out how to fix a child protection system the auditor general describes as “broken,” almost everyone agrees that one nettlesome aspect of the problem is keeping caseworkers on the job.
To begin with, the caseworkers -- hired to recognize when children are being harmed and help decide what to do about it – aren’t paid enough, DePasquale said.
His investigators learned that in some of the state’s counties, starting pay is so low caseworkers are eligible for food stamps.
That’s no surprise to Tom Herman, president of the Service Employees International Union, Local 668, which represents many of the county caseworkers across the state.
“The auditor general’s report is spot-on,” Herman said. “Caseworkers and child protection advocates are grossly underpaid and have been for years.”
If counties and the state took a serious crack at addressing the poor pay, it would go a long way towards solving the state’s struggles with turnover among caseworkers, a crisis that’s hamstrung child protection in counties across the state, he said.
“If the system was adequately paid and adequately staffed, we would not be dealing with the problems the auditor general’s report outlined,” he said.
www.ncnewsonline.com/news/low-caseworker-pay-hampers-child-protection-in-pa/article_cd2693dc-a8b6-589b-9cde-0034bc09723e.html
That’s one of the shocking revelations in a scathing report issued earlier this month by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale after a six-month review of the state’s system of child protection.
As Pennsylvania policymakers struggle to figure out how to fix a child protection system the auditor general describes as “broken,” almost everyone agrees that one nettlesome aspect of the problem is keeping caseworkers on the job.
To begin with, the caseworkers -- hired to recognize when children are being harmed and help decide what to do about it – aren’t paid enough, DePasquale said.
His investigators learned that in some of the state’s counties, starting pay is so low caseworkers are eligible for food stamps.
That’s no surprise to Tom Herman, president of the Service Employees International Union, Local 668, which represents many of the county caseworkers across the state.
“The auditor general’s report is spot-on,” Herman said. “Caseworkers and child protection advocates are grossly underpaid and have been for years.”
If counties and the state took a serious crack at addressing the poor pay, it would go a long way towards solving the state’s struggles with turnover among caseworkers, a crisis that’s hamstrung child protection in counties across the state, he said.
“If the system was adequately paid and adequately staffed, we would not be dealing with the problems the auditor general’s report outlined,” he said.
www.ncnewsonline.com/news/low-caseworker-pay-hampers-child-protection-in-pa/article_cd2693dc-a8b6-589b-9cde-0034bc09723e.html