In response to several recent high-profile incidents involving children, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday announced reforms for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families that will include stronger supervision policies.
Baker’s administration will be working with Massachusetts State Legislature Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg to execute the reforms.
“Systemic policy reforms are necessary to support the efforts of our social workers, supervisors and managers who are on the front lines protecting the Commonwealth’s children,” Baker said in a Monday press release.
Baker said these new reforms must occur in order to make sure that children remain safe under the organization’s care.
The DCF has made progress in implementing changes such as the Criminal Offender Record Information background check system, the release stated, but more work remains to be done.
“The Department will also augment efforts to increase the number of safe foster homes and families available to children by reducing the applicant backlog safely and efficiently,” the release stated. “DCF will also work with social service providers to review applications in the interim as new foster home social workers are recruited and hired.”
Mary Elizabeth Collins, a professor at the Boston University School of Social Work, said slow policy changes are a common trend.
“The fact that [some policies haven’t been updated in 12 years] is not that important. Some old policies can be very good policies and some new policies may not be very good,” Collins said. “It’s really more important to look at the effects of policies. This is hard to do.”
Collins added that while a case like the death of Dorchester child Bella Bond highlights the faults of the department — some speculate the DCF could have prevented the child’s death after investigating her parents for child neglect in 2012 and 2013 — such cases distract the public from the department’s successes during the majority of the year.
“One case does not really say anything about DCF as a whole. Typically DCF only gets attention, from the public and policymakers, after a tragedy,” Collins said. “On a daily basis they do a lot of excellent work that goes unrecognized.”
Collins added that the reforms appear to be a good idea for the DCF, and that increasing the number of social workers is important. Improved health services could help ensure child safety, she said.
“There are a lot more reforms that are needed,” she said. “In particular, there need to be more services and supports to poor families, as well as access to substance abuse services and mental health services. And there needs to be evaluation of interventions so that we can learn better what works and what does not work.”
Several residents said improving the DCF is should be a priority for the state government.
Mark Winkeller, 68, of Back Bay, said the government should be attentive to the DCF’s understaffing.
“It’s probably a good thing,” he said. “The DCF, all these agencies are staffed by nice young people who are underpaid and overworked. So improving that in any way is going to be beneficial.”
Robert Wulfsohn, 21, of Allston, said while Baker’s announcement seems logical, it is hard to tell if the policies will actually be implemented.
“It makes sense that they’re doing that, I feel like it’s always going to be reactionary, so let’s see if this stuff actually makes it to the end of this process,” he said. “I don’t think you’re ever going to be able to prevent a situation like [the death of Bella Bond] from happening again, ever, but updating laws to 2015 is almost never a bad thing.”
