Social workers caseloads are a crisis waiting to happen, NDP Critic says in Legislature

Claire Trevena MLA, the Opposition Critic for Children and Family Development, stood up in the Legislature this week to speak about the importance of social workers, and how their caseloads are a crisis waiting to happen.

"Social workers deal with fragile lives, many fragile lives, and their workload is extraordinary and very troubling," Trevena said. "I find it very troubling that the average caseload for a social worker who is working with children and youth with special needs is 150. That's 150 children and young people. I've talked to some social workers whose caseload is 400. [...] caseloads such as these do not allow social workers to assess the problems, to make an honest and fair judgment of those needs."

Trevena went on to call the situation a crisis-in-waiting. "I do not exaggerate when I say that this is a crisis waiting to happen. For all the goodwill in the world, for all the ethical practice and professional standards and simple hard work, no individual can keep up with a caseload that is the average for social workers in B.C."

Download PDF file of Hansard Blues transcript of the November 14 debate on social workers in the Legislature