Hennepin County recently issued its Annual Child Protection Report.
Since 2015 it increased:
- Budget from $75 to $100 million
- Caseworkers from 385 to 647
- Staff retention to 91.4%
- Caseworkers of color to 40% of staff
The County also expanded several prevention and early intervention initiatives.
This Star Tribune editorial gives Hennepin well-deserved credit for County Board and top management leadership.
Predictably, challenges remain. Service integration and improved responsiveness aren’t yet happening consistently at the operating level. But managers recognize this, and know that change will require persistence and time.
The bigger picture is… It’s hard to know whether improvements are working because child welfare programs don’t measure outcomes for individual children – not just in Hennepin, but nationally. Until that’s possible we won’t be sure which changes are effective, or why.