Hon Chairperson, again the committee set on 5 September 2019, with the Minister of Social Development looking at the executive undertakings and hon Chair, I am sure you have gone through them. We will go straight to the recommendations of the committee.
In noting the progress report made by the Minister in relations to the implementation of the executive undertaking under review the committee made the following observations and key findings: There were many issues that were hindering success of the social workers graduate programme. Some provinces were hiring the social workers after they have graduated and some did not. A good example is the Western Cape. It is taking those social workers on contract bases.
The second one is the Ministerial Committee on Social Welfare, brought critical recommendations that the department would have to implement to strengthen the foster care programme which is very important for those who take care of the kids. The Department of Social Development wanted to have a specialised unit that would monitor the success of the programme namely "You Only Live Once,"
Yolo, which teaches sexual and reproductive rights to children and also to the youth in high schools.
The other one was the approval in principle of the idea of creating a social security retirement fund for every one who is working. A proposal for a comprehensive international framework to ensure not only that no one fell through the cracks, but also make sure that there was no double- dipping of the benefits.
The introduction of the Social Assistance Bill which is meant to address current backlog in foster care, the Bill will create immediate grant children who stay with guardians who qualify for foster care, but could not wait for the long period it took to have a foster care grant executed.
The committee concluded that a timeframe of three months within which the department should report back to the NCOP on the implementation of pay points infrastructure by providing the NCOP with a progress report in this regard because it was one of their undertaking.
The department to provide the NCOP with Excel provincial figures in relation to the early childhood development grants from 2017-18,
2018-19 and 2019-20 financial years, the condition for the implementation of the grant by the province.
All provinces are requested to apply and align a uniform approach regarding the employment of social workers. In this regard the committee recommended engagement between the Department of Basic Education and the province to create a uniform in the implementation and retention condition of services of the social workers.
The Department of Basic Education and the Department of Social Development are to provide the NCOP with a report indicating who the custodian of the Early Childhood Development, ECD, programme is. The report should outline the role and the responsibility of both the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Social Development, because out there, there is confusion as to who is the custodian of such programme. Thank you very much, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Question put: That the Report be adopted.
In favour: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape.
Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.