City Hall has lately found money to hire more child welfare caseworkers and reduce caseloads.

He has made improvements, most notably by hiring more than 400 new workers, reducing average caseloads to 18 and introducing a statewide computer system.

City officials quickly responded with a letter of their own, noting that they had already reduced caseloads for workers, improved training and increased supervision.

Social service departments, involved during the first years of the Pataki administration with reducing caseloads and searching for welfare fraud, welcomed the budget.

As a result, since 1996, the department has reduced caseloads for child protective workers from an average of 26 cases per worker to 11.

Theoretically, the most promising options are efforts to make probation (release under court supervision) more effective by drastically reducing caseloads.

The most often-cited example is an effort to reduce caseloads among workers who investigate charges of child abuse and neglect.

City officials have already reduced caseloads, increased the number of adoptions and increased caseworkers' pay in an effort to slow turnover.

The panel questioned the state's plans to reduce caseloads for workers and find placements for children in the system.

Mr. Davy has said that reducing caseloads is a priority.