Social Development

Yes, DSD participates in the provincial Child Death Review Panel which is chaired by the Department of Health’s forensic pathology services, and in the provincial criminal justice structures such as the Provincial Joint meeting on Murders, chaired by the SAPS.

It also collaborates with the province’s universities and civil society organisations in gathering both qualitative and quantitative data regarding the circumstances of child murders in the province, as well as risk and protective factors involved in child murders. This information is used to inform DSD’s policy and operational priorities.

Within our mandate to provide comprehensive social development services, we have the following mechanisms in place:

• Continuum of services from prevention and early intervention, statutory and aftercare,
• Provision of alternative care where a competent court has made a finding that a child is at risk, if returned to the circumstances,
• Early Childhood Development,
• Child & Youth Care facilities,
• M & E on the norms and standards.

Where a child was murdered, and it was reported to the Department, an internal investigation is done to establish whether the NGO followed legislation in attending to the matter. Where a child in alternative care died, the Form 40’s were processed, and where indicated, M & E was done to look into processes followed against the norms and standards.

Where a From 22 was received, safety and risk assessments are mandated and in the 2018 financial year, 94 social workers in DSD and NGOs were trained on the implementation of that tool.

SIU was specifically tasked to play an overall quality check role.

The Department participated in the Child Death Review Process to identify gaps. Referral pathway between the Panels, Departments of Health, Education and DSD were also addressed.

The Department’s Research Unit specifically looked at the challenges around the use of Form 22 (reporting abuse and neglect).

On a quarterly basis, the Department analyses the data for the Child Protection Register, and the trends are reported to the Provincial Children and Families Forum.

 

(2) (a) What is the total number of children who have been killed in the province from 2009 to date, (b) what were the contributing (i) factors and (ii) motives behind each murder and (c) what has his Department done to prevent the scourge;

 

Reply:

(a) – (b) The Honourable Member should direct this question to the Department of Health and the National Prosecuting Authority, since the Health Department’s Forensic Pathology Services carries the legislative mandate to determine the causes of unnatural deaths, and to keep records on this information.

(c) The Department of Social Development has a legislative mandate to provide child protection services in terms of the Children’s Act. These services are broadly categorised by the Act as prevention, early intervention, statutory services and re-integration/re-unification.

Since 2009, in response to the growing need for child protection and other welfare services, DSD has more than doubled the number of social workers in its employment, the majority of whom provide child protection services. Child protection also takes up the bulk of DSD’s annual transfer funding budget. The Western Cape Department of Social Development, in line with legislation requirements, currently has 38 725 children in its child protection system. These children have been placed in the child protection system to shelter them from harm, due to neglect, abuse or being orphaned.

 

The province also provides early intervention services for children and families at risk, and reintegration services to children in alternative care who can be reunified with their parents. In spite of this, the high rate of child murders in this and all other provinces indicates the need for a stronger response from the child protection system, especially DSD, the police and the courts, as well as other key role-players such as Health, Education, civil society organisations, communities and parents. In cases where the Department has found that child deaths could have been prevented by the department but were not, whether due to social work negligence or mismanagement, it has acted decisively to hold the relevant parties accountable.

The matter is escalated as a standing item on the Provincial Children and Families Forum quarterly meetings. Research findings were shared and statutory requirements in terms of follow up was addressed.

Our emphasis on inter-departmental co-operation has strengthened service delivery on the mandate of DSD. We started to look at how we co-operate with multi-disciplinary teams to ensure that we use our resources optimally. Existing forums and quarterly engagements with stakeholders were specifically used to remind them of their statutory mandate, empower stakeholders and engage around their duties.

In ECD, and as part of the 1 000 Days project, awareness was raised around child safety.

In our engagements with the Department of Justice, we also encouraged our partners to move to Chapter 4 of the Children’s Act to order parents to attend parenting skills programmes.

The DSD continuously addresses gaps in inter-sectoral collaboration as provided for in Section 5 of the Children’s Act.

Where the National Department did not comply to the 21 day turnaround time on requests for Form 29 & 30s, the Provincial Department put a process in place to assist service providers. That helped in finalising court matters.

Metro South and the MEC introduced a focussed trauma and grief support group to parents who have lost their children through unnatural deaths. In two areas social workers were trained and mentored and the outcome report was overall positive.

 

(3) Whether his Department has plans to respond to the scourge of child murders in the province; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?

 

Response

Yes, in addition to the services mentioned above in response to question 2(c), DSD is in the third year of a project to improve services to children and families at risk, which includes the implementation of a new child protection strategy for the province and a range of human resource and governance interventions aimed at improving DSD’s internal capacity and capability, and its co-ordination with other government departments, criminal justice stakeholders and civil society.

For example, the DSD is currently collaborating with the Child Death Review Panel on mapping child murders geographically so that more intensive, targeted prevention services can be rendered in high risk communities.

The provincial DSD is also participating and supporting the national DSD in its review of the national child protection policy and an amendment bill to the Children’s Act which would significantly reduce the existing administrative burden placed on the foster care system, freeing up social workers to focus on identifying and intervening in high risk cases. Standard Operating Procedures around the removal of children without court orders (sec 152) and the screening, vetting and training of safety and foster parents are in a final draft.

The full implementation of the canalisation process will also add value to the process of reporting and compliance to legislative requirements. DSD initiated discussions around an inter-sectoral Provincial referral pathway for child protection and that is still a process in the making.

The Child Protection Programme will also be funding Eye-on -the-child projects in specific communities to increase protection of children. It is a Community-based early identification service for children at risk. For that purpose volunteers are trained on reporting and referring (e.g. Ocean View and Masiphumelele). Strengthening of Regional Forums aligned to the Provincial Referral Pathway.