3.3. Child welfare work experience

Experienced child welfare workers are thought to provide more effective services to children and their families than less experienced workers (Munro, 2011). The evidence base for this assumption is both sparse and weakened by conflicted findings. Workers with more years of experience have been found to have significantly stronger family preservation attitudes versus workers with less experience (Fluke, Corwin, Hollinshead, & Maher, 2016). Conversely, Davidson-Arad and Benbenishty (2016) found no significant difference between years of experience and workers’ attitudes towards child welfare system issues or the decisions they make. Similarly, worker experience has not predicted the placement decision (Graham, Dettlaff, Baumann, & Fluke, 2015) or the assessment of risk (Sullivan, Whitehead, Leschied, Chiodo, & Hurley, 2008). Authors of a prospective study found no differences between less and more experienced workers’ out-of-home placement assessment; less experienced workers, however, were significantly more likely to act on their original assessment and place a child in out-of-home care than more experienced workers (Davidson-Arad, Englechin Segal, Wozner, & Gabriel, 2003). Importantly, this study illustrates that years of experience may not necessarily influence child welfare workers’ assessment, but that it may influence child welfare workers’ readiness to act on their assessment and decision-making processes.