SC child-welfare agency requests millions for pay raises, other needs
Roughly six months into his new job, South Carolina’s child-welfare chief is hoping to turn around an embattled agency criticized for years by state leaders for low morale, high turnover and children falling through the cracks.
To combat those trends, in his first budget request to state lawmakers, S.C. Department of Social Services Director Michael Leach has asked the General Assembly next year to spend almost $127 million next year to cover, in part, the costs of raising staff salaries by 5% and hiring more caseworkers.
Social Services wants the state to spend $8 million to help pay for about 85 new, full-time positions to help deal with the increase in children and families who need state services; $23 million to raise the starting pay for caseworkers to between $46,000 and $50,000; and $6 million to increase pay by 5% for 2,200 employees across the agency.
But state budget writers say they aren’t yet sold on spending millions to fix an agency that has been slow to show results.
On the other hand, those same legislators say they are enthusiastic to work with Leach, who they say has made efforts to repair a relationship with the Legislature and has shown an eagerness to change the culture at the agency.
That is “refreshing,” said state House budget chief Murrell Smith, a Sumter Republican whose budget-writing committee in the House gets the first crack at the state’s spending plan each year. “But as I’ve expressed to him: I don’t fund promises. We fund results.”
Social Services has struggled for years.
Heavy caseloads and high turnover among child-welfare workers has dogged the agency for a long time, coming to a head under then-S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s watch, when revelations about children dying in the agency’s care came about.
The agency’s current caseworker turnover rate is 13.9% as of July — down from 16.4% last July.
In 2015, the state was named in a federal class-action lawsuit accusing the state of lacking basic health care and other services for vulnerable children while under the care of Social Services. A year later, the suit was settled and DSS has since worked with federally-appointed court monitors to oversee its progress.
After 20 years, Social Services announced in September its federally mandated system for enforcing the collection of child-support payments is now running statewide. Developing the system, which up until this fall wasn’t in compliance with a 1980s federal law, cost the state tens of millions of dollars in development costs and fines.
Social Services’ budget request is one of dozens of state agency budget requests posted publicly this month ahead of the Legislature’s return to work in January.
Lawmakers have $1.8 billion extra to spend next year in its $10.2 billion spending plan that starts July 1.
Social Services would like a small chunk of that change as it actively looks to fill 300 vacant child-welfare frontline and supervisor positions — many of which aren’t funded in the agency’s current budget because of declines in federal entitlement money, it says.
And as the agency looks to actively fill those jobs, it also wants to raise beginning caseworker pay above the mid-$30,000s.
Nationally, the average social worker salary was more than $48,000, according to 2018 data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
Across the region, average pay varies — from about $46,000 in North Carolina to about $37,000 in Alabama and $43,000 in Tennessee.
“To do this well, we ... need professional staff with the knowledge and credentials necessary to do this complex work,” Leach said in a provided statement to The State. “This will require the department to have a sufficient number of staff to manage caseloads and the ability to provide competitive salaries to recruit and retain experienced and quality staff.”
A ‘magic formula’ for DSS
Lawmakers will be looking to Social Services for evidence the agency can act on its spending plan.
Not every lawmaker is convinced, particularly after House budget writers intentionally left out millions in the budget this year for the agency to hire caseworkers. Lawmakers complained DSS wasn’t answering their questions, including how many children in its custody had died over the previous year.
“I just don’t know if the magic formula is giving them $127 million to spend,” said S.C. House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee. “Do I think they can get it right? Yes. Right now have they proven themselves to get that much in taxpayer money? No.”
But lawmakers say they do see a path forward under Leach.
“I’m encouraged,” said state Sen. Thomas Alexander, an Oconee Republican who chairs the Senate Finance panel responsible for DSS’s budget. “We want him to be successful. We want the agency to be successful.”
And so does Gov. Henry McMaster.
Leach “has proven to be an innovative and passionate leader,” said McMaster’s spokesman Brian Symmes. “And Gov. McMaster is proud to continue supporting his efforts to enhance DSS’ services to the young people and vulnerable adults in South Carolina.”
Some lawmakers remain skeptical.
“At this point, we’re going to demand results,” Smith said. “The burden is going to be on them.”
