Official reply: 10 June 2010
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION 1286
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
Date of publication on internal question paper: 26 April 2010
Internal question paper no
Mr. E Marais (DA) to ask the Minister of Social Development:
1) What is the plan of action for the effective roll out and
implementation of the Childrenâs Act;
2) Whether any additional social workers will be appointed to ensure the
effective implementation of this act; if not, why not; if so, (a) how
many, (b) when will they be appointed, (c) what are the details;
3) What will be the allocation of (a) current and (b) appointed social
workers for each programme;
4) What will be the scales on which social workers will be appointed?
REPLY:
1) The National Department of Social Development in consultation with the
various national Departments and NGOs that have obligations to
implement the Childrenâs Act 38 of 2005 (the Act) and the nine
provincial Departments of Social Development, has prepared a plan for
the implementation of the Act. The implementation plan provides for
the following:
⢠Priorities which include services to children who are wards of
the state, children in partial care and early childhood
development (ECD) programmes, children in need of care and
protection. Provision has also been made for prevention and
early intervention programmes.
⢠Institutional issues such as the finalisation of norms and
standards, training guidelines, and the National Policy
Framework for the implementation of the Act.
⢠Human resources and infrastructure required to implement the
Act.
⢠Restructuring of the Departments and organisations in order to
respond to the new demands of the Act. There are proposed
organograms for the restructuring of the National and provincial
Departments of Social Development.
⢠Phased-in roll-out of services.
⢠5-year budgets.
⢠Management processes such as the management of new programmes
including ECD, prevention and early intervention programmes and
cluster foster care schemes. Management processes also include
the development of knowledge information system and the
monitoring and evaluation system.
Sixty five new obligations in terms of the Act have been prioritised
by all stakeholders for monitoring including training, recruitment and
retention of staff to implement the Act and financial requirements.
All relevant stakeholders will report quarterly as from July 2010 on
progress through the Child Care and Protection Forum which is a
National intersectoral Forum responsible for monitoring the care,
protection and services to children in terms of the Act.
(2)(a) Yes, additional social workers have been appointed to ensure
the effective implementation of the Act.
(b) A total of additional 763 social workers have been appointed as
from 01 April 2010. (c) The details of the appointed social workers
are as follows:
|PROVINCE |NUMBER OF APPOINTED SOCIAL WORKERS |
|Western Cape |72 |
|Free State |31 |
|Kwa-Zulu Natal |91 |
|Mpumalanga |50 |
|Eastern Cape |235 |
|Northern Cape |20 |
|Northwest |56 |
|Gauteng |92 |
|Limpopo |116 |
|TOTAL |763 |
|NB: Information provided by the provincial coordinators for service to |
|children. |
More social workers will be appointed as they graduate from
universities, especially those who are on the scholarship programme.
(3)(a) Social workers currently rendering service to children are not
allocated to specific programmes. They provide generic social work
services relating to early childhood development, prevention and early
intervention, foster care, registration, monitoring and funding of
facilities and child protection. The following are the details of the
social workers responsible for services to children before 01 April
2010.
|PROVINCE |NUMBER OF SOCIAL WORKERS CURRENTLY |
| |RENDERING SERVICES IN TERMS OF THE |
| |CHILDRENâS ACT (excluding newly |
| |appointed social worker) |
|Free State |282 |
|Kwa-Zulu Natal |700 |
|Mpumalanga |330 |
|Eastern Cape |967 |
|Northern Cape |179 |
|Northwest |402 |
|Gauteng |719 |
|Limpopo |579 |
|Western Cape |499 |
|Total |4657 |
|NB: Information provided by the Human Resource Directorate at the |
|National Department of Social Development. |
(b) The total of 763 additional social workers appointed also perform
generic child care and protection social work services. They are not
allocated to specific programmes.
(4) Based on the Occupation Specific Dispensation, social workersâ
salaries have been improved. The table below depicts the new salary
scales for social workers.
|RANK |REVISED SALARY SCALE PER ANNUM |
| |(entry level) |
|Social worker |R130 467 |
|Social work supervisor |R196 446 |
|Social work policy developer |R186 006 |
|NB: Information provided by the Human Resource Directorate at the |
|National Department of Social Development. |
Experienced social workers are remunerated according to their years of
experience.
End
Source: DSD CD Children[pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic]