Trauma-informed strategies for staff recruitment and selection in public child welfare

Abstract

Trauma-informed recruitment and selection strategies have been slow to be developed in public child welfare. Recruitment of staff with educational background in trauma is highlighted, with special emphasis on an empirically supported course for child-welfare-informed practice, currently offered in many schools of social work. There has been significant work undertaken in reference to general recruitment and selection strategies. A number of these are reviewed including, the use of screening instrument, realistic job previews (RJP), and behavioral interviewing. Suggestions are made for how they might be revised to be more trauma informed.