Extent, trajectory, and determinants of child welfare turnover and exit destinations

The high-stakes nature of child welfare work together with hostile clients; high caseloads; and extensive, time-sensitive documentation requirements contribute to high levels of worker turnover. Turnover impacts families through less contact with workers and disrupted worker-client relationships. This study uses an organizational social capital framework to examine extent and trajectory of child welfare turnover and the destinations of those who exit. Method: We used data from the Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (FSPSF), a longitudinal cohort study of frontline child welfare workers hired in 2015–16 (N = 1,285). After describing turnover and destinations, we used multinomial logistic regression to examine how organizational supports contributed to exits from child welfare and exit destinations. Results: By three years, almost 60 % of workers had left child welfare with very few returning to the field. Of those staying in child welfare positions, 50 % had switched agencies at least once. One exit path did not dominate. Those who left child welfare were relatively equally divided between exiting to a different health and human service (HHS) field, another employment sector, or without a plan for employment. Relative to staying in child welfare, organizational support decreased odds of exiting to other HHS fields, and supervisory climates emphasizing goals increased odds of exiting to a different industry. Discussion: Findings identify that although child welfare workers exit the field largely due to job- or agency-related reasons, their destinations, including many without plans, suggest agencies can address aspects of workers’ responsibility and support challenges to improve retention.