This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for Good Day, Berks, a daily dose of essential local stories at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/gooddayberks.
READING — The agency tasked with helping keep children safe from abuse and neglect in Berks County doesn’t have enough caseworkers, a shortage it says is fueling staff turnover and forcing the privatization of certain services.
The county’s Children & Youth Services has seen staff shortages grow since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It currently employs about 73 direct service caseworkers and has 31 vacancies.
The vacancy rate “consistently hovers around 30%,” Jennifer O’Neill, deputy administrator for the agency, said at a July 11 public hearing.
To manage a shortage of people who investigate abuse, the agency has shifted duties to employees in other departments, a practice O’Neill says has led to departures.
“That, of course, put some strain on those departments, and this past spring, we saw — particularly in the in-home department, [which provides services so children can stay with their families] — a loss of staff,” O’Neill said. “Doubling up on the workload became a little bit too challenging for them.”
The agency has focused its hiring effort on the intake department, which is almost fully staffed, O’Neill said.
Still, it has had to privatize duties such as licensing for foster parents, foster care oversight, and “family group decision making” (FGDM) conferences. At the latter, caseworkers and facilitators help families deemed at risk for abuse or neglect create a plan for their children to remain safe in their home.
The agency started outsourcing all FGDM work to private providers this spring, though it still has one caseworker and one supervisor trained to oversee these conferences in case of an emergency.
There have been four conferences so far this calendar year. Three were run by the county and one by a provider agency.
“Turnover in our FGDM unit has been a challenge, and this is the cause for a reduction in the number of conferences offered,” read a presentation the agency shared during the hearing.
Staffing issues are not unique to Berks County. Children and youth agencies across the state have been struggling for years to recruit and retain workers
Before the pandemic, a 30% vacancy would have been considered a “pretty serious crisis,” Brian Bornman, executive director of the Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators Association, previously told Spotlight PA.
Now, many counties face shortages that are bad or worse.
Between fiscal years 2018 and 2023, 3,500 county children and youth caseworkers, including supervisors, left their jobs, according to a study by PFM Group Consulting commissioned by the state’s Office of Children, Youth and Families. Almost half of the employees left within their first two years on the job.
In a survey conducted as part of the state’s study, more than 9 in 10 caseworkers from 10 county agencies said pay levels are “very influential” or “influential” on their decision to remain in their jobs. More than half of the respondents said they had to work a second job to supplement their income.
Caseworker salaries are set by a collective bargaining agreement between Berks County and SEIU Local 668, the union that represents children and youth employees. The starting salary in 2025 for “Caseworker 1,” the most entry-level position, is $45,619 a year, according to the agreement. For the “Caseworker 2” position, the starting salary is $50,667 a year.
O’Neill said changes involving the department that investigates child abuse allegations have improved overall retention and increased professionalism.
She said the agency saw improvements when it began hiring through the intake department. The county intends to follow that hiring model going forward because it helps all new hires gain investigative experience.
Intake Department Manager Olivia Torres said being close to full capacity is great, but a lot of the staff are new and could find the work very challenging.
“It's difficult work. You're working with socially complex families and needs from a community,” Torres said. “So it's important to have skilled staff members that are responding to these crucial situations and completing a federal investigation so we can determine a family's needs overall.”
One of the main needs is housing, Torres said. Over the past year, the department has seen a lot of new families come into Berks that have unstable housing situations, which can complicate keeping track of families getting assistance from the agency.
Many families also lack transportation.
“Every single day we are looking for transports for children, for families, for belongings, trying to get them to work, to appointments, to visits, any of their needed services,” Torres said.
To boost morale, agency Administrator Barbara Jakubek said the agency is trying to get funding for a referral bonus program for current employees who recommend new candidates for hire. The agency also hosts a monthly meeting with its staff to talk about recruitment and retention.
“We often have some very spirited conversation and discussion in those meetings, ideas about how we can recruit new people and also how we can keep the people that we have from burning out and leaving us,” O’Neill said.
BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.