An independent review of staffing levels within Dane County’s child protective services unit shows the unit is overstaffed in some areas and understaffed elsewhere but overall needs to add 1.65 social workers.

Lynn Green, director of the county Human Services Department, which includes child protective services, said she’ll likely fill the gap by moving two social workers to the unit from the department’s Joining Forces for Families program. That program, which tries to prevent problems before they flare up, is not mandated by any state or federal laws, unlike child protective services.

"We basically have the right number of staff, it’s just a matter of redeploying some of them," Green said.

Release of the study follows three incidents in two years in which the state has criticized or questioned the county’s actions involving children who later died. Last fall, as county officials put together the 2009 budget, social workers said they were worried they wouldn’t be able to protect abused children without more staff members.

The union that represents them sought 12 more social workers but said it could live with five. The County Board approved five additional social workers for the child protective services unit, as well as an additional supervisor. Those new positions are reflected in the study’s findings.

The six-month study, conducted at the department’s request by the Children’s Research Center, a national nonprofit agency based in Madison, found the county is overstaffed in two of the three areas that constitute child protective services but understaffed in the third.

Specifically, the study’s authors, using national guidelines, said the county needs 2.5 social workers to take in and screen reports from the public of child abuse and neglect. The county has three social workers doing that task. In the area of investigating complaints, the county needs 17.4 social workers. It has 22.

Together in those two areas, the county is overstaffed by 5.1 social workers. But in the area of ongoing caseloads — instances where maltreatment is substantiated and services are needed — the county is understaffed by 6.75 social workers. It should have 31.5 social workers but has only 24.75.

The net difference, after shifting social workers within the unit, creates the 1.65 deficit that Green said she’ll fill by reassigning two employees from the Joining Forces for Families program. Consequently, no new department hires will be needed, she said.

Green said she was pleased that the study found the county has sufficient staff handling the initial task of fielding allegations and investigating them. "That’s actually very encouraging because that’s really the frontline safety gate for kids," she said.

The study, released late Wednesday afternoon, looked solely at staffing levels and did not address the possible consequences of being understaffed in a particular area.

In the most thoroughly analyzed of the recent county cases involving child deaths, a social worker in 2007 allowed a bruised infant to return home following a hospital visit. The infant, Anastasia Vang, died two weeks later. Her mother has been charged with murder.

A state review found multiple failings by the county, including an inadequate safety plan. But, as Green notes, the failings occurred during the initial investigation phase, where the county is not understaffed.

County Executive Kathleen Falk’s office referred calls on the study to Green. Neither a union representative nor Dane County Sup. Sheila Stubbs, chairwoman of the board’s Health and Human Needs Committee, could be reached for comment late Wednesday.