Social Development
1. Whether his Department supports crèches; if not, why not; if so, what support is given;
2. whether his Department is addressing the lack of fencing at the St Blaize Crèche, Mossel Bay, and whether a fence is going to be erected; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
1] DSD enables early childhood development centres to provide services that promote the emotional, cognitive, sensory, spiritual, moral, physical, social and communication development of children from birth to school going age as well as after school care to children in the age cohort 5 to 16 years through the following:
[a] Provision of financial support for 68 100 children birth to school going age in the province calculated at R15.00 per child per day for 264 days per year at 938 ECD sites.
[b] Provision at R8.00 per child per day for 8 201 children (ages 5 to 16 years) in 90 after care centres.
[c] Support to encourage compliance with the prescribed minimum norms and standards through on site monitoring and reporting as well as assessment of the quarterly progress reports submitted by all funded centres.
The department further supports 8 Non Profit organisations that specialise in the field of early childhood development to provide out of centre programmes in respect of 14 363 children and their parents/caregivers. These services include;
- Toy library services,
- Home visiting programme to ensure provision of age appropriate developmental stimulation to children and their parents in their homes.
- Play groups
- Community based structured stimulation programmes provided to children and their parents/caregivers at public open spaces.
2] The Department conducted an on-site visit to St Blaize Crèche in Mossel Bay during June and October 2017. At the time of the visits it was observed that a diamond mesh fence and a lockable gate surrounded the property. At the entrance a fence separated the parking area and crèche, the first gate allows entry only to the parking area and the second gate allows access to the crèche.
It has been confirmed that part of the fence was stolen during January 2018 and the management of this centre together with the parents are now in the process of securing funds to re-erect the part of the fencing that was stolen. The estimated cost of the damage has been quoted at R330 000.
