Minister of Social Development

(a) The total number of children in the province is 36 480. 

 (b)  The current number of outstanding foster care orders requiring extension is 2 930.

(c) The Department of Social Development (DSD) files foster care extension reports with children’s courts before the order lapses, but there are often waiting periods for court dates and court orders to be issued (particularly during the COVID disaster period where courts were regularly closed due to COVID cases being detected among staff at the court).

• Errors/Flawed foster care orders made by the court need to be sent back for amendment by the courts.
• Childrens courts sometimes issue interim foster care orders for less than two years.
• Outstanding birth certificates from the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) delay the finalisation of the foster placements involved.
• Time lags in the capturing and updating of foster care orders submitted to SASSA on the SASSA SOCPEN database result in the SOCPEN database reflecting outdated statistics on outstanding foster care orders.
• Inter-provincial transfers also impact the SASSA list. These cases often remain on the SASSA list for long periods as these foster families do not report to SASSA in the new province, contributing to the foster care backlog numbers in the province as reflected on SOCPEN.
• Undocumented inter-provincial foster care transfers - foster families move from other provinces to the Western Cape without notifying the social worker. In most of these undocumented transfers, the WCDSD needs to file new Children's Court Inquiries which take time and require court dates etc.
• Social workers have high caseloads due to increasing population numbers without more funds to increase the number of social workers employed at DSD. Amendments to the Children’s Act and Social Assistance Act will assist with this since around 65% of foster care cases are family placements that do not need full children’s court inquiries, and are mostly done in order to secure foster care grants. In terms of the amended legislation, a new system of ‘child support top-up grants’ will enable family members caring for children other than their biological children, but where the child/ren in question is/are not at risk, to access the funds they need without foster care orders from children’s courts. The passage of the Children’s Amendment Bill through parliament has, however, faced repeated delays.
• Western Cape DSD's efforts to eradicate the foster care backlog largely depend on all its stakeholders' support, commitment, and accountability in the foster care management process.

(d) The target is to clear the foster care backlog prior to 12 November 2022