Child Welfare Worker Training Topics Survey

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Survey Center (UWSC) was hired by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) to conduct a series of brief surveys of the child welfare workforce. The purpose of these surveys is to identify strengths and challenges faced by the child welfare workforce in Wisconsin. Input from these surveys will help DCF,  counties, and tribes partner in their efforts to continually improve upon policy, process and practice standards, as well as training and technical assistance.

These surveys are intended to be very brief (e.g., 10 minutes or less), and are designed to gauge workforce knowledge of a particular issue or topic, professional needs and challenges, and strengths and gaps in practice and policy areas.

This initial Flash Survey served several purposes. First, DCF wanted to conduct a pilot test to determine whether there was sufficient response to justify using such surveys as a continuous quality improvement (CQI) feedback mechanism. Second, feedback from the child welfare workforce on training needs will assist WCWPDS in identifying training priorities for the next several years. This first flash survey is called the Flash Survey on Training Needs.

The survey was sent electronically by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Survey Center on Aug 20, 2015 to 2,129 email addresses representing frontline workers and supervisors (1,776 frontline workers and 353 supervisors) with job responsibilities in child protective services. Of those, 58 emails bounced back as invalid. A reminder email went out on Sept 2nd to 1,501 email addresses from whom no response had yet been received. The survey response window closed on Sept 17th. The final sample file included 837 workers and 179 supervisors (total N=1,016), for an overall response rate of 49.1%.