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CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

This programme provides social welfare services to children and their families including the protection of children from abuse and neglect, residential care of children and the subsidisation of early childhood development.

January 1 2004 saw the commencement of the celebration of the International Year of the Family and all Departmental programmes will have a focus on the family during 2004.

Developmental Quality Assurance has continued at certain state and private facilities in the province including Newcastle School of Industries, Princess Mkabayi Children’s Home and St Martin’s Children’s Home.

Children’s Homes

During the year under review the Department subsidised 49 Children’s Homes which are run by private welfare organisations. Of these homes, 14 are situated in rural areas and 35 in urban areas.

The Department also runs one departmental children’s home, namely Princess Mkabayi Children’s Home in Nqutu. The capacity of this home is 85 children of all ages.

Shelters for children in especially difficult circumstances

The primary aim of these shelters is to provide services to street children and promote re-integration into the community. Some shelters also provide a place of safety for children awaiting placement in alternative care.

The provision of these shelters has been necessitated by the migration of children from rural to urban areas causing many challenges for welfare services in the province. The movement of such children is a consequence of family dislocation, poverty and death of parents mainly through the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This is a growing phenomenon in the major urban centres of Newcastle, Ladysmith, Estcourt, Pietermaritzburg, Durban, Empangeni/Richards Bay and Port Shepstone.

The Department is attempting to improve co-ordination of services to street children by developing a provincial policy and plan to provide services to street children.

Welfare organisations

The Welfare Organisations are subsidised for service delivery by financing social work posts and administration costs. Places of care for early childhood development (crèches)

The primary aim of these places of care is to promote early childhood development by ensuring adequate care, nutrition and stimulation for pre-school children during the day.

Crèches are viewed as a measure to alleviate poverty since unemployed mothers are enabled to seek employment in the open labour market. They also ensure effective and appropriate care and thus prevent neglect and abuse. There is a need for these services to be available in previously disadvantaged communities and the Department faces a challenge in this respect.

Places of safety

Places of safety are run by the Department and provide temporary care for children while Children’s Court inquiries are pending and also for children awaiting trial.

A deed of donation for a property at Ingagane near Newcastle has been finalised and this property will now be converted to a place of safety for the Midlands region. The cost for the conversion is estimated at R12, 6 million and the site is expected to be ready for handover in February 2005.

Child Protection

Section 42 of the Child Care Act, 1983 makes it mandatory for health care professionals, social workers, teachers and staff in children’s homes, places of care and shelters to report suspected cases of child abuse to the Head of the Department. A national Child Protection Register is being piloted in the Ladysmith District Office, the Midlands Regional Office and the Provincial Office of the Department. The Provincial office is also electronically linked to the national Department of Social Development. Staff in the regional offices and the head office has been trained on the use of the programme. The register will be rolled out to other regional offices in the near future. In the meantime, the registers are kept manually which is a large task. For example, the Durban Region received 1200 notifications of abuse during the year under review. These were from hospitals, welfare organisations and district offices. The Provincial and Regional Child Protection Committees which are inter-sectoral in nature but chaired by the Department met regularly during the year to co-ordinate child protection services and monitor service standards.

Statutory Services

Each Regional Office of the Department has a statutory unit whose function is to monitor and evaluate the care and protection of children placed in alternative care in terms of the Child Care Act, 1983 and to undertake the delegated tasks associated with the powers vested with the MEC for Social Welfare in terms of this Act. These units are particularly busy due to the large number of children requiring alternative care as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Thus in the Durban region alone 2800 children were placed in care for the first time and 5304 orders were issued for children already in care. The increase in children requiring placement due to the abovementioned pandemic has also greatly increased the load on all social workers in the State and NGO sector. This has resulted in a backlog of children requiring foster care placement and the Department is increasing its efforts to address this. The above issue has also resulted in new demands on residential care facilities for children and the Department has thus begun the development of a provincial policy on alternative care for children which will be completed in the next financial year. Efforts are also under way to improve the management of information on children in the child care system through a more comprehensive electronic system.

KZN Department of Social Welfare

Services for our Communities