On the heels of a major state scandal involving hundreds of child welfare cases, Gov. Pete Ricketts today insisted things are getting better, but acknowledged improvements are still needed. 

Earlier this year the Ricketts Administration dropped its contract with St. Francis Ministries and moved to make child welfare workers employees of the state.

According to state officials, 205 St. Francis case managers have been hired by DHHS, which has also added 105 new case workers; another 49 spots remain open.

Gov. Pete Ricketts: One of the reasons why we moved away from St. Francis is we were not pleased with the way they were managing the Eastern Service Area. They were not hiring people fast enough to keep up with the caseloads and demand. And so, one of the things we've done is increase the pay by 20 percent and that has helped us reduce our attrition rates so where you can keep your attrition rate down that means you're holding on to people and you can have more stability for those kids so they can keep the same case managers.

Earlier this month Nebraska Examiner reported that the state’s inspector general for child welfare says her office is still receiving complaints about St. Francis and they are continuing to monitor the transition.