Social workers protest caseloads at DCF

Social workers protest caseloads at DCF

Citing “skyrocketing” caseloads — amid greater scrutiny in the wake of a boy going missing on the department’s watch — social workers and investigators at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families were set to picket the DCF’s New Bedford office Tuesday afternoon. According to the department’s data, “more than four times as many DCF social workers are handling unsafe caseloads today when compared to the same time a year ago,” the social workers’ union, SEIU 509, said in a news release ahead of Tuesday’s event.