Child Protection Workers Picket Unsafe Caseloads

Representatives of The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families say the agency’s workers can’t do their jobs effectively when they’re overseeing the well-being of as many as 40 or 50 children simultaneously.

But that’s exactly what the state is asking of one out of three such social services agents and inspectors based out of the DCF Cambridge/Somerville office.

Thursday afternoon, overburdened and frustrated DCF employees gathered outside the Cambridge DCF regional headquarters - which oversees at-risk families in Somerville - to conduct what they call an “informational picket,” to alert the public to their dilemma.

Rightly, the ugly circumstances surrounding the demise 5-year-old Fitchburg boy Jeremiah Oliver in 2014 brought about public backlash and an increased caseload onto DCF employees.

But as a result, Massachusetts child protection workers currently have to keep track of an average of 18 potentially problematic families each, according to the Boston Globe, and lack the funds to hire new workers to reduce individual caseloads.

The Child Welfare League of America puts the cap of cases an individual agent can effectively handle at 15.

The Massachusetts DCF says the number of its agents asked to handle a 20-case workload, has doubled since this time last year, and is well into the hundreds.

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Photos Via Massachusetts DCF