As other state agencies experience cuts, Department of Children and Families Commissioner Linda Spears says an increased budget for DCF would allow her staff to continue much needed infrastructure improvements.

At a state budget hearing in Springfield, Mass., she told lawmakers, “We think this will enable us to do quite a bit towards what we need to have done. To make policies clear, to make training stronger, to make practice a higher quality.”

Most critically, to meet the goal of no more than 18 children per caseworker. Spears says the DCF is not there yet, especially in Central and Western Mass.

Is a 3.4 percent funding increase enough? State Senator Ben Downing says it’s a good start.

“The direction [DCF] is headed is where we’d like it to be, but certainly we’ve go more work to do,” Downing says.

DCF funding has increased in recent years, following the deaths of several children under its care.