Commissario
How effective do you expect someone to be if they're doing the work of 2 or 3 people?
Or the turnover of staff is so high that they never actually get a chance to catch up on the background of their cases, let alone do anything proactive?
My parents were foster carers for ~30 years from the 60's on, even back then they knew social workers who were burning out and getting overwhelmed because of case loads, and could see how that affected how well those social workers were doing.
I can't imagine it's got any better with things like the known cutbacks that affected other cases, where newly qualified staff were doing jobs that required experienced staff, some staff were dealing with the cases for 2 or 3 other people who'd left and not been replaced, and some were trying to do the job they were hired for and the job of their superiors who had left.
Oddly enough funding does actually have a major effect on how well things work.
I can't remember if you've ever mentioned what you work in, but could you continue to do your work and that of any 2 of your colleagues to a high standard for weeks or months or years without making any mistakes or missing anything? How about when one of your remaining colleagues goes on holiday or is ill and you're now dealing with a workload that is time critical and meant to be done by 4-6 people.
Most people can't even in "easy" jobs, let alone jobs that are as stressful as child safety.
There are exceptionally good reasons for minimum staffing levels.
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