Site Overview

Frontline Job Redesign

Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services

The Louisiana Child Welfare Division (CWD) of the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) is a state-administered child welfare system. In 2016, the Secretary of DCFS separated child welfare from economic security and child support enforcement, creating CWD. CWD is organized into a state office and three regional “super areas” composed of three regions each. (The super areas consist of regions 1, 3 and 4; regions 2, 5 and 6; and regions 7, 8 and 9.)  Though Louisiana has 64 parishes statewide there are only 48 parish/local CWD offices in the nine regions due to small size of some parishes. CWD has approximately 1,500 employees including about 640 frontline caseworkers. The local parish offices provide child protective service (CPS), family services (FS) (in-home), foster care (FC), and adoption services.

The Louisiana State Department of Civil Services (DCS) is the central human resources agency for the state. DCS is the regulatory and consultative agency that provides systems and services that enables CWD to make merit-based, quality decisions regarding the hiring, development, and retention of staff.

QIC-WD Project Overview

The Louisiana project site was composed of eleven parishes, including three intervention parishes (see map).   LA Intervention and Control Locations Map

Intervention Parishes

  • Calcasieu
  • Lafayette
  • East Baton Rouge

Control Parishes:

  • Caddo/Bossier
  • Ouachita
  • Rapides
  • West Jefferson
  • Lafourche/Terrebonne
  • St. Tammany

The QIC-WD’s site implementation manager (SIM) worked to support the implementation of the intervention, Frontline Job Redesign. The Frontline Job Redesign was designed to strengthen the child welfare workforce and allow caseworkers to better meet the needs of the families they serve. The intervention included the addition of a new position, the Child Welfare Team Specialist, who performed administrative tasks to allow child welfare caseworkers more time to focus on clinical tasks (e.g., case planning and testifying). In addition, the intervention included a teaming aspect that involved the restructuring of the child welfare work process and work units to achieve better outcomes for children and families. The project focused on staff in CPS, FS, and FC.

Turnover

Based on information provided in Louisiana’s initial QIC-WD application in 2017, CWD estimated its turnover rate across the state in 2016 to average 24%, with one region having a turnover rate of 51%, while another had a low of 8%.

2016 Annual turnover rate at 24%