Nobody needs to tell you that the child welfare system is facing many changes and challenges. To some degree this is always true: the field will always be in motion as new evidence, policies and practices continue to emerge.

But what makes your work more challenging today is that all of this change is happening in the context of what is being called a “national work force crisis”. In the case of child welfare, this crisis is driven first by a lack of new child welfare professionals coming into the field and second, by the imminent retirement of the most experienced staff at all levels of the system.

You’re probably already feeling the impact of work force challenges in your everyday work; it is certainly harder to recruit and retain qualified staff. But you may not know what the research says about the impact of workforce instability on outcomes for children and families.