SUNBURY, Pa. — Children and Youth Services departments face severe staffing shortages throughout Pennsylvania, and Northumberland County is no different.
"A lot of this can come down to wages, the type of work, long hours, things like on call," said Nathan Savidge, Northumberland County chief administrator.
Savidge says the agency currently has 19 employees.
"Fully staffed, I believe our agency would be looking at about 50 employees. You would have a mix of caseworkers, supervisors, directors, and the administrator."
Savidge says Northumberland County Children and Youth Services recently hired seven people. But those new employees must be trained, which does not take care of the current caseload. This week, the Northumberland County commissioners voted to bring in contracted employees from a private company to alleviate some stress on employees in the Children and Youth Department.
"We can bring contracted caseworkers in to supplement our existing county caseworkers, lower that caseload for our county, and then cap the cases our caseworkers have so that they can do their jobs better and better represent the children of the county."
The county is bringing in a fiscal director, a fiscal tech, and caseworkers through the company Service Access Management.
"What they're going to do is make sure we're meeting our needs-based budget, make sure we're meeting our reimbursements from the state to make sure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely, and that we're receiving the proper reimbursements. But it's also about capping the existing caseworkers so that we can give them some relief and more manageable caseloads," Savidge said.
The contract is expected to start within the next month.