Social Development

[a] The norm we use for DSD social workers is 1:9,000 at provincial level due to the fact that the Department also funds social worker posts in the NGO sector on an approximately 50/50 basis to the Department’s own employees. This enables the department to sustain a much greater reach of social workers in communities than would otherwise be possible with only departmental employees.

[b] Breakdown per municipality and suburb. Note that in some areas there are higher numbers of funded NGO social workers than in others. Also note that in rural areas there tend to be higher numbers of departmental social workers due to the greater distances that they have to travel in order to carry out casework, which reduces the number of cases each social worker can manage at any given time. Furthermore, rural areas have fewer NGOs operating than in urban areas, requiring the department to employ more of its own social workers in order to ensure communities can access social work services.

[c] What is the number of vacancies for social workers in the province?

[d what is the number of unemployed social work graduates in the province, including those who received bursaries from her Department?

The department only has records of the unemployed social work graduates who received bursaries from the National Department of Social Development. The department currently has 336 social work graduates on its database who are not employed in the Department. The Department does not have information on how many of these graduates have found employment in the NGO sector, private sector, or in other government departments.