South Carolina opens Allendale County DSS director job, salary up to $92,900

South Carolina has reopened the search for the top leadership post at the Allendale County Department of Social Services, a position that sits at the center of child welfare, economic assistance and case handling for county residents. The Allendale County Director I job was posted June 4, and applications are due June 11 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

The salary range runs from $79,334 to $92,900 a year. The posting describes a full-time weekday role based in the county office, with the director responsible for managing and directing the office’s operations, including financial operations, personnel practices and service delivery through Child Welfare Service Programs and Economic Services Programs.

In practical terms, the new director would oversee how the county DSS office functions from the inside out. The job description also calls for maintaining working relationships with other service providers, presenting a positive image of the agency in the community and working under the regional child welfare director. It further assigns responsibility for creating a safe workplace culture, coaching staff, aligning office practices with agency policy, responding to constituent inquiries and convening Child Welfare Improvement Team meetings to identify barriers and gaps in community services.

For Allendale County families who depend on DSS for child welfare or economic support, the opening matters because it places a single leader at the center of service delivery and accountability. The state’s listing shows the agency expects the hire to handle more than administration. It is a front-line management role tied directly to how quickly and consistently residents can get help.

The county office is located at 521 Barnwell Hwy in Allendale and is listed as open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. South Carolina DSS currently names Robin “Holly” Morris as interim county director. The agency also says abuse and neglect can be reported around the clock at 1-888-CARE4US, or 1-888-227-3487.

The opening comes against a backdrop of formal state oversight. South Carolina DSS publishes county annual reports under the Public Welfare Act of 1937, and the most recent Allendale County child welfare quality assurance review available online covered seven cases reviewed July 8-11, 2024, from the period beginning Oct. 1, 2023. That review used the federal OSRI instrument and the state’s CAPSS child-welfare system.

Allendale County’s child-support workload has also been sizable. A February 2023 dashboard snapshot showed 688 total open cases and 546 non-custodial parents. The county has seen leadership changes before, too: South Carolina DSS announced Salley Branch as Allendale County director in late September 2022, saying she began Sept. 2, 2022 after a career that started in 1985 in Economic Services and later included work in Bamberg and Aiken, performance coaching and six and a half years supervising Child Welfare Services policy. That history makes the new opening more than a routine vacancy. It signals another test of continuity in one of the county’s most important service offices.