WORKPLACE CHATTER...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

INDISCREET..."Having or showing too great a readiness to reveal things that should be private or secret".

 Walls have ears

In the end, the indiscreet chatter experience was painful, to say the least. It was a camp. We were each responsible for a group to talk about the night time beach experience of making and lighting candles on the shoreline. I was given a group of adolescent girls. For the life of me, I don't know how I got there. In an idle of guard moment, I asked one of the group, " Why is your brother rubbing his child care worker (Name), up the wrong way?" ( OR WORSE in physical bodily terms). 

Well, as you can imagine, it soon got back to the child and youth care worker and to the whole camp. Breakfast next morning, the child and youth care worker told the whole camp, publicly, that she was instituting disciplinary action against me. Based on loyalty, the camp split. Which meant that the Home split. Those for me said "Fire her !". Those for her said  "Fire him !"   

The charge was "Making personal critical insinuations to the young people about her professional practice and breach of confidentiality.

The child care worker let it run for a few days. Then at camp breakfast, as publicly as before, withdrew the threat of charges. This somehow strengthened loyalty groups, which on return from camp, didn't go away.

For me, this was an important lesson in guarding what I said in the workplace in any situation. In that instance, what I said, was said and I couldn't take it back. It was out there.

 Workplace chatter has serious implications in the... who? says to whom? where? and what?.

Let's talk about the who?

Casual talk with colleagues.

Social media issues advice and then a warning. "Keep workplace talk to work. Those you think of as friends "snitch"and then you can get fired". It would seem that colleagues in the workplace who become "friends"  need to have talk boundaries different from personal friends in the  community. I think that the social media comment has some truth in it. Experience shows that indiscreet, no boundary sharing in the workplace can hold employment risks. The sharing, in the workplace of things like relationships ( in and out of marriage), tavern life, drinking episodes... in workplace chatter , all too intimate and risky. All too often, I heard of staff fall outs and management gets an earful. "Do you know that she........Do you know he........ Oops !    Management stereotyping personal belief systems and prejudices can click in

Telephone talk.

There are among us at work, colleagues, some whose lives are hectic, some chaotic,and some deeply romantic. One of the colleagues I remember fell into the hectic, chaotic category. She found it therapeutic to constantly share all her problems with all her outside friends on the phone.Passing colleagues picked up enough to put things together. Then came malicious, harmful gossip. Personal life was getting in the way of effective practice....There's a workplace chatter lesson to be learnt here. 

The there is village gossip spread into the workplace.

We were interviewing for staff.The policy was that we employ 12 learners on stipend and invite 12 to be volunteers with an understanding  that  they are the first to be employed if there occur any vacancies. I said "Employ !'. Management said "Volunteer !". "Why"? "I have heard that she was seen dancing at a tavern in the village". Out of interview, the applicant said, "I was young, we all did that". 

Management.

Don't be influenced by hearsay and gossip. Staff talk to management can be loose talk. When talk with management becomes a moment of idle chatter, it's often what  management is wanting....the off guard moments. "You know, I heard she was struggling with assessments for the Certificate, so she went to two  learners in another project and offered them R300 ZAR each to to do them for her.
.. and they did. It's  difficult to believe Hey! She seems like such an honest person." Danger !!!. 

Advice to child and youth care workers.

Keep workplace talk to workplace talk. Guard the more personal stuff loose chatter and intimacy. Keep it for others. 

Advice to Management.

Avoid chatter, loose talk and gossip. It's only  when formal complaint is lodged that one can take allegations seriously. Otherwise, investigate the chatter. all for the chatterer to tell the story at an investigative consultative interview with both parties present.

INDISCREET " Having or showing too great a readiness to reveal things that should be private or secret." 
Dr Google.

   

LEAVING THE PRGGRAMME...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Robert Stott was easily 72 years of age when he told his story at a Board meeting. He had been in the'" Working Boy's House", so he had been working and earning for the time given. Having to leave, he did have somewhere to go...the parental home. He packed hie suitcase, said his goodbyes. When he got to the gate of the St Goodenough Boy's Home he stopped, stood for a long while. The leaving experience paralysed him with fear overwhelming. He picked up his suitcase and walked back into the Home and into the 'Working Boy's House. "I didn't have the courage to leave", he said. What happened after that he didn't say.

For all, in those early days that might have been done, Robert Stott was totally unprepared for the transition from Boy's Home to out there.
Instituionalisation had robbed him of his confidence to make it independently.

Is Robert Stott's story of roughly 1947 a story of today?

For sure in 1996, St Goodenough Boy's Home had what I called the "silly season". About three weeks before the end of the school year when the boy's had finished writing exams and/ or about to turn 18 and required to leave the Home...all Hell broke loose. Windows broken, graffiti, stones thrown, food riots. Damage to the facility's property was probably the main feature of the "silly season". At first I thought that it had to do with some kind of anger aimed at the Home and it's programme for having to be there institutionally in the first place. Eventually, I got to understand the "silly season" acting out differently. It was driven by the same Robert Stott instituionalisation syndrome of fear and uncertainty at having to leave the safety the "Home". In the "silly season", the thought was t "If I am unmanageable, then the social decision makers will say, "he is not ready to leave. We still have work to do."...and they did.

In the training and education of child and youth care workers today, we learn that at the point of entry, you are planning departure (disengagement and transitioning). Right? The question is: What is the  policy, programme and practice, not only to develop, but also prepare the young person for transitioning? 

There are any number of leaving the programme scenarios. Running down an incomplete list: there are young people who will return to the parents (presumably well- enough reconstructed), there are those who return to the nuclear family (reclaimed) and at 18 years of age there are those who have nowhere to go.

I had pleas from a young person. Her plea was that I take action against a facility which at age 18 applied the so called legal requirement that she be released. Her plan was to stay with her boyfriend, but in a very short period of time he sent her packing. She had nowhere to go, she said. So she bedded down under a bridge. She claimed having to beg and being raped. Her claim was that the facility in the first place should not have released her without a permanency plan and then distanced itself defensively when confronted. 

So, we are back as always to 'What do we do?"and "What are we doing?" There was a saying in the field that young people should be raised to be 100% independent but that young people in need of care  should be developed to be 150% independent as the circumstances when they leave often and most frequently require that. Programmes must then surely address this from the point of entry.

There are policy and programme models to prepare young people for transitioning.

In every-day life-space practice the programme sets out "Never do anything for a young person that they can do themselves and if they can't, then side by side with the young person empower them to do it. One of the policies I remember was that young persons over the age of 14 do their own laundry, including ironing. There are programmes that require young people to budget household expenses and go themselves as an age appropriate group to do the buying. All household expenses were explained in terms of a budget. In the dormitory system this was done as an exercise for breakfast and clothing. The programme also included meal planning and cooking.

Real budgeting is life preparation, so St Goodenough had a project in which young people 16 and over were given a paper budget of R2000. ( in those days...enough) Took public transport and given the names of second hand shops in the town. They were to come back with a list, showing comparisons, of the cost, within budget, of setting up a single room as a living space with the essential items. Using public transport varied. They had to be able to use, with support, as needed, taxi, train, and bus.

In one facility there was a policy, "nothing is given for free...no handouts for personal use" It meant that allowances were adjusted upwards to accomodate the young people's personal expenses. As the programme did get public donations, young people were given a choice of taking value loaded vouchers or cash. They could exchange the vouchers for second hand goods in the stock room. If they chose to buy new at a retail outlet they were required to discuss their purchases with the child and youth care worker and produce receipts.

Phased leaving over time is another model. Phased leaving is usually over three phases, but can be more. The phases are planned  to, over time, allow that the parents, nuclear family or the significant other to whom the young person is to be released to take more and more responsibility and reduce dependency on the programme.

Concern is shown that transitioning through semi-independent and independent living programmes (and living spaces)is a missing programme feature in South African child and youth care. There are some, but it appears that there are either not many or not enough.

In the 1960's Brian Gannon helped young people by giving  financial, social and child care support to transition into their own living places.  He said that he was never disappointed.  At that time 6 months after-care was a legal requirement as a responsibility of the facility. It is no longer legally required of the facility, but the external social service professionals can do it. St Goodenough had a coffee club every two weeks for leavers to attend as a support group if they wanted.

We are told that transitioning practice is thin on the ground. The warning lights are flashing in the social media. It is a call for policy makers, management and practitioners to put heads together for policy and professional implementation. Let not the Robert Stott syndrome prevail.


  









   

SACRIFICES MADE...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

In South Africa, social media abounds with posts and comments which either state outright that child and youth care work involves sacrifice or imply that it does.

 In 1923 The Revd Noel Aldridge recognised that there was a huge need for the care of boys either orphaned, or "pragmatically" orphaned (as he put it), in an area called Wichwood in Johannesburg, as a result of the loss of bread winning fathers in World War 1. At first he took boys into his own home ...the Rectory attached to his church. His pleas convinced the Anglo America Gold Mining Company to donate a flat, disused mine dump . No buildings. Noel Aldridge erected 6 large military tents on the land and took in boys.

 In that same year the great flu epidemic struck South Africa. Boys  had flu. Noel Aldridge gave his blankets to a boy with the flu, got the flu himself and died . It was the ultimate sacrifice.
For St Goodenough Noel Aldridge's ultimate sacrifice became the benchmark. Talk of "what I'm losing by doing this" and the Noel Aldridge story would always be raised to silence complaints. The work of the child and youth care worker was labelled "noble"....a "calling". It was expected . 

 Even now,  The deputy Minister of Social Welfare at the National Association of Child and Youth Care Workers (NACCW) said to child and youth care workers that they should not complain if they don't get paid, or if earn only a stipend.

 Noel Aldridge gave up his life, so what do you give up?..It's an unfair comparison. Organisational management Government policy and good  governance should eliminate at least most of our disadvantages as child and youth care workers
Noel Adridge did have a genuine "calling". But professional specialised knowledge, professionalisation and the career choice to use this, is legitimate reason to do child and youth care work. Being professional is not an add-on to a calling.The calling idea is used as an excuse to justify sacrifices because the calling idea is linked to money.

I was once told by a  Board of Management member "We don't want professionals.- they only want money like soccer players. We just want people who love the children"
But, 'Love is not enough"and professionals should be paid for what they are worth.

It really shouldn't mean sacrifice.

All this goes together with the other sacrifices. TIME... Day shift, night shift, 24/7, long hours - sometimes 12 hour shifts. The effects are not only fatigued brains and bodies, the money and the time issues have an effect on our own family life and our own children. We should never have to sacrifice our own children's parenting and care...but frequently we do. Living -in with our own children has its own particular sacrifices. Seldom, if ever, does management ask about how our own children are.
I once did a workshop presentation, discussion. The responses paralleled the concerns I had about having my own children raised in a residential facility. 

Much of this has, or is, changing as live-out staff and shift systems replace the old "Housemother" thinking. And yet in some places it still lingers on.

Living -in sounds like a bonus, but it has with it, it's own elements of sacrifice, It comes as a realisation , some time later, sometimes too late, that if you have need to change jobs or retire, you have no place to go. Cash salaries are reduced as the live-in accomodation and food are regarded as part of the overall package. This means that pension contributions are low aa are pension pay-outs. 

As I said, all of this can be changed. It doesn't have to be so. 

Now for the unchangeables. These really. I think, go with the territory. Dealing every day with the young people's emotional stress and tensions in the life-space has and does have an effect on our own emotional status This is where proper supervision is essential in child and youth care work. In addition repeated acts of verbal attack take their toll. Its a sacrifice against which employers should build in supportive measures to avoid emotional fatigue otherwise known as burn-out.

There is an up-side to all of this, Somehow the sacrifices can be experienced as worthwhile. Noel Aldridge saved a boy's life with his blankets, We save lives with our knowledge, skills and self - our professionalism.

A young man knocked on my door ,. Tall ...and he said "Mr Lodge. Do you remember me?"  I said "Yes" although I didn't recognise him at all. He came in. "I came to thank you." He said. I'm on my way to the Great Ormand Street Hospital in London to do an internship. I'm becoming a pediatric doctor and then a surgeon. Do you remember one evening you sat on the end of my bed and said "You are one young person I believe can really make it. You can rise above all of this. Well, that was a turning point in my life....from then..... I've come to thank you".

All the sacrifices faded in that moment. Somehow it all seemed worthwhile. Knowing what I know. Given a chance. I would do it all again.





  
  

A NIGHT OF PEER INFLUENCE... CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

It was to do with on-line, life-space development practice with young people. As a start I suggested the Life-space Interview (LSI), Positive Peer Pressure (PPP), Problem Solving, Problem Ownership, I messages ,the assertive communication style, Natural and Logical Consequences.

That night I didn't sleep well. Round and round in my head I relived incidents of peer influence, both negative and positive It probably started with the workshop opening. I said that what the child and youth care workers were doing was  group residential care - better - group residential development. It means that for the child and  youth care worker, the group, in itself, is a tool for development practice. In proceduralising Positive Peer Pressure (PPP), the difference between PPP and Peer Management had to be made. All this overstimulated neuronal energy......insomnia.

Someone once posted on social media, "I don't understand people  who, head on pillow, just fall asleep. Don't they have anything to think about?"

Came to mind arrival at St Goodenough and the programme's system. It was closer to Peer Management than perhaps I first realised. Three models, or systems of "care for boys" were used all at the same time. The private school model, the military model and the boy scout model. Boys managed boys by having Home Prefects, House Prefects, Platoon Leaders, Sargent Majors. Table Monitors, Dormitory Monitors.

When Masud Hoghughi stayed on a visit, he was unimpressed. "Where are the child and youth care workers?" he asked. "This is a formula for abuse. I want to see your Board Chairperson". He was right. Disturbed young people in that system were given authority to manage disturbed young people. "Where are the child and youth care workers?"

Group peer influence was hardly positive. Boys and Girls Town seemed to get it right. I couldn't.

In insomniac moments, moments were relived.

The mantra ...the repeated chorus was "This is the way we do it at St Goodenough". Child and youth care workers fell easily into the refrain.... the culture. "The boys have their own way of sorting things out"tBut the sorting out was hardly developmentally useful. It was the power of the group, but in this setting, it was negative. 

Long story short. Three boys were identified to the police having stolen petrol from the mini-bus and accidentally set fire to the rear of the mini-bust. It was in any case an insurance claim requirement. A very belligerent group delegation  "We don't do it like that at St Goodenough" The threats of assault were aimed at me. Interesting that the protection of the peers was put ahead of the convenience of their own means of transportation . It had nothing to do with the behaviour of the peers. It had everything to do with my response. The peer influence system was powerful enough to pressurise staff and attempt to pressurise the Director. The pattern of this type of incident was ongoing. 

Another image, another place another time.

Ten year old girl on a three story roof threatening to jump. Peer group at ground level chant "Jump ...Jump...Jump"

Then came the positive peer pressure images. Overtime, different setting , different facility culture. The anonymity of hiding in the crowd peer pressure thing changed dramatically when the same young people were shifted into small group residential settings. The child and youth care role become characteristically one of co-regulation and the orchestration of the group toward positive peer pressure.

The "We don't do it this way at St Goodenough "shifted 180 degrees to be supportive of the positive. The group was now fully a tool in itself toward more appropriate, more coping and more developmentally supportive.

In those  sleepless moments many events swirled Thinking back it all had to do with a deliberately designed and created culture. A designed environment if you like. Key words surfaced. Democratic, co-operative ,supportive, social equality. "We have to live together . We don't really have a choice so we have to make it work for all of us," It was not easy. The child and youth care worker was to, and did, call group meetings (called house meetings) at the drop of a hat. At first, unscheduled group discussions were very frequent, but became less and less frequent. Scheduled meetings were a standardised weekly procedure.

The"Ï feel...when you...because..." formula was found to be useful. This was usually the cue for the child and youth care worker to, what I called "orchestrate"the group. "How can we help each other to do this better?" Newcomers into the programme probably experienced the positive peer pressure the most.

Here's an image that surfaced that night.

What I call "food protests".  The "I don't like i, I wont eat it. It's not like my mother does it, It's not my culture"stories. The verbal protest is not the main issue. but the acting out in the group setting. Images surfaced of food throwing, plates overturned. into the mouth then spat out food, aggressive approaches to staff. "How can you eat this crap?" Quick, quick, group meeting.The group became quite good at exploring with the newcomer, and expressing their own, feelings, thoughts, content, alternative behaviours, support and feedback. Usually the group would kick off with "We don't do it like this at St Goodenough.

Those night time images confirmed:

Peer influence, is powerful. Positive Group Peer Pressure, especially, but not limited to, the more more intimate group residential settings is clearly a valuable if not an essential tool in our child and youth care work.









                               

A DISTURBING INCIDENT...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

This blog has never deliberately set out to paint pretty pictures of child and youth care issues and incidents simply to make us look good. South African reality has its fair share of incident and situation in need of confrontation and a call for accountability. We have to come out and admit to good and bad. 

An incident of forced removal hit the social media last week.

With a high practical regard for our culture of rights, especially children's rights and our statutory code of professional ethics, children and families are said to be protected.The video on social media showed the forced removal of a child ( it was said to be in Wellington in the Western Cape?). Surely this is an isolated incident but it disturbed me greatly.

The video showed a contingency of what must have been about 6 uniformed armed police forcibly removing a child from off a mothers lap. Bad publicity for Social Service Professional,..bad publicity for South Africa ,or not, this deserves exposure and comment because in my view, this should never happen again. I viewed it twice in quick succession to be sure of what I saw and heard. The third time, access was not accessible "Content unavailable". Must have been somehow blocked. This happens if someone complains or if the content is of a disturbing nature. Below this is perhaps an anxiety that the visual may possibly go viral. Is it possible that there was fear of the South African Police Department and/or Social Services be portrayed in a poor light? 

The reasons for a young crying girl ( I think) to be forcibly removed from her mother's lap by armed police then accompanied away by two uniformed officials are not known. A screaming outraged mother...all of this raises questions.

The first , I guess, is whether there in hard fact, circumstances which would justify such wrenching force and such a large armed police contingent.    

I got a phone call one night from a mother of a 12 year old boy. She was as equally vociferous in her distress, but for a completely different reason."He's sitting on the window ledge of our flat in Hillbrow, It's 6 stories up. He has just again assaulted me. He always assaults me. He says he will jump. Please come now." I knew I would never find the place           ( before GPS!) My reaction "Call the police" But this video didn't indicate risk. This little girl did not appear to be at risk.

Two comments were made. One was not to judge too quickly as there are experienced situations in which Social Service Professional's presence in a possible drug, or violent situation puts the Social Service Professional at high risk of assault. 

Been there, done that, guns and all !! The video didn't suggest anything like that. Just a mother sitting in a chair outside the back door, child on her lap.

I have been accompanied by a single unarmed police officer on occasion, but not for a forced removal . I can however think of situations in which a child would have to be dragged away in what could be construed as a "raid". We used to have a Child Protection Unit  in the South African Police Department .One youngster was abducted by two young men. The unit took 3 months to find him. e was tracked to a child pornography film studio in the garage of some property. A storm in and grab scenario.

What we all want to know the circumstances around this incident. We want to be informed of the reasoning behind so many uniformed armed police using force to remove the child.

So then, if removal,placement and separation is really necessary, how can it be don differently?

First prize obviously is to avoid he removal, placement and separation. The need to do this is determined by what Anna Freud calls "Irretrievable harm"...harm beyond repair.It is an ethical move only if all other possible interventions have been tried and failed. 

This is where child and youth care workers come in. 

Child and youth care workers work alongside the child in its environment. In the living moments of the child's space. A good, tried and tested model of this is the community based programme known in South Africa as the Isibindi Project. I does just that. Trained, registered, supervised and mentored.child and youth care workers work relationally. Generally if placement is needed the child and youth care worker will use orientation and seek consent . One hopes that force then will be avoided especially if Social Service professionals work as a multi disciplinary team to provide a multi faceted integrated programme.... a carefully planned designed strategy to reclaim the life of the child and as far as possible maintain family preservation and restore some level of good enough, safe care 

It all sounds very idealistic but in the community based Isibindi model, it has proved to work.

Let's sum it all up. The visuals and the audio of the facebook video of a forced removal by police, for me, was very distressing, It looked,sounded and felt like secondary abuse.
As Social Service Professionals we are bound to accountability. We need to know the who, what and why of this incident. We really need to be given enough information to know if this was a protective move in the face of great risk or whether it was a violation of the rights of child and family.
We need to be convinced that there was really, really, no other way.
We need to know what was tried and failed. We need to know if any other approach may have been more professional or appropriate in Professional Social Service practice.

. 

HOW BRANDED??.....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

On Friday last week I spoke, in my private capacity at an Oath-taking Ceremony at IIEMSA ( Monash University South Africa).  They said dress comfortable but formal, so I needed a tie. At the venue, the Registrations Manager of the South African Council for Social Service Professions fitted me with a green tie embossed with the SACSSP logo. Comment "We didn't invite him as SACSSP but in his private capacity."... Oh Oh  incorrectly identified. Incorrectly branded for the occasion.

This spoke to me of the power of branding and its psychological capacity to market.

I was there as a child and youth care worker. Somehow just to say "I am a registered child and youth care worker and proud of it". doesn't resonate loudly enough to market what I do, what I stand for. I am poorly branded...if at all !   Sought after goods, even at a cost have a brand label, catchy slogan and identifying colours. Think LEVI, its sexy tick and "Just do it". Think our political parties in South Africa...  Yellow T-shirt "together we can do it". Blue T-shirt..."United South Africa", Red beret... "Economic transformation". 

Child and youth care ... jeans and takkies.

Advocacy makes out a case for recognition, a call for a buy-in to the real value of child and youth care work. Maybe if, at a high level advocacy fey slogans like "Nation Building" was coupled with an immediately recognised brand, we would reach our target market psychologically ready to hear 

Let's start with our brand name. Right now we are child and youth care workers. Certainly the child and youth care worker label has spread to be known internationally. But the South African Council for Social Service Professions met with a parliamentary committee for social development and the members didn't know what child and youth care was. Social work...yes.. But what is this?

Our field of study and even our job title does vary. Applied Psychology, Educateurship, Child and Youth Development and even Social Work 

What we are seems also to vary....an occupation, a calling       (rather like a God given ministry), a practitioner, a profession, a craft. In schools I heard "educational assistants", in justice "mediators". These are all better than "house mother, house father, uncle and aunt", as carriers of how we are branded.

Over the years we have thought over our title constantly.We sort of settled on child and youth care worker. When I think of tho concepts  raised in the minds of people with the words "Care" and "Worker" we have chosen, I become a little unsettled 

In an exercise to demonstrate branding , the facilitator said "Think of yourself. What do you do well for which you want to be known." Oh my word ( bad pun), he wanted an obituary key-word !  I wrote  "advocate". Considering that I no longer practice in the life-space of children and young people that seemed to be core for me. Ask me the same question when I was in direct practice and my word/s would have been different. I would not, for example, have said "worker" For me. it conjures up a picture of a trade worker. I would have hesitated to be known as a "carer". For me in the community mind, it talks of wiping of bums and counting underwear, feeding, clothing and keeping children warm -  - the physical aspects .  I would have said "Child and Youth Care Development". 

If then, I was to choose a title for myself it would be "Child and Youth Care Development Professional". (CYDP)"            I choose 'Professional" over "Practitioner. In the thinking of the new Bill for SACSSP there is a distinction made between occupations, emerging professions and professions. We have met all the criteria defining a profession.

Child and youth development professional. ,,,, hmmmm a brand.

Now for the catchy slogan. 

Apart from development, What are our key strengths, our key functions? I can't get away from...
"We reclaim the lives of children and young people at risk"... a bit lengthy. There should be a competition for our slogan .....any ideas?

We need to package ourselves. The Circle of Courage in all its colours appears to be internationally attractive.. I like its world wide appeal and recognition.

If this works then we can craft our branding approach with key-words.These come to mind: Developmental ( obviously), Strength-based, Culture of Child Rights, Participatory, Democratic. Relational, non-discriminatory, Restorative,......and more.

Statinf the positive of what we do and how we work is rather like the branding  "Makes whites whiter, colours brighter" It's the "We do it better" idea...and we do! In fact,...only we can ! 

Given all this, on Friday of last week, well branded ,they would have immediately said "Child and youth development professional ! That's exactly why we asked him to speak" . 



  

A MOMENT HISTORICAL...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

This week on Friday 18th October 2019 at the IIE Monash University of South Africa, the first year Bachelor of Child Care students, stood before witnesses to declare the pledge of commitment to uphold the child and youth care code of ethics. The code is embedded in the South African Social Services Professions Act of 1978 as amended. In our long history of professionalisation, this is a first.

This, in my private capacity, is the key-note address I made on this historical occasion.

Today you make history... the first to take the SACSSP oath of professional commitment to the child and youth care code of ethics. Congratulations.You are giants riding on the shoulders of giants.

Don't let anyone tell you that this is an "emerging"profession. It is well established, accepted world wide as a full profession and a field of study with it's own unique body of literature, skills, practice. and code of ethics. The roots of this profession can, for example, be traced as far back as the early Christian church when a special order was established called the Diaconate to do the work of diakonia. The Diaconate people were ordained to focus on identifying and meeting the needs of orphans (and widows). 

Our early pioneers and our earliest contributors to our knowledge were from psychiatry, education, psychology, religion, advocates for children and heroes of child protection. Noticeably in and after the great wars.

In South Africa after the first world war when many servicemen returned and when many did not return, there was an obvious need to build what were called orphanages. Then, in 1923, just at that same time,came the big flu epidemic which claimed the lives of many parent as well as children. Faith-based organisations and government built large dormitory styled buildings to provide 300 beds or more for children and young people. Child and youth care workers were called all manner of names like, house mother, house father, uncle, aunt, sister, nurse, house master, care giver. Whatever the name, what they were doing was child and youth care work. 

An example of this is a faith-based Children's Home in Johannesburg. It had beds for 450 boys. In the early 60's our South African guru, grandfather of child and youth care and pioneer worked there as an "assistant house master". He was doing his Master's degree in Psychology at the time.He, together with the then so called "Headmaster", Father Eric Richardson realised that real child and youth care work was stressful. that an exchange of support and practice was needed. Together they formed what they called The Transvaal Association for Child and Youth Care Workers.  Please note the term "child and youth care workers"  It produced and distributed a regular newsletter. (A journal), and held conferences.

Through the work of Brian Gannon it became the National Association of Child and Youth Care Workers..the NACCW. It is from here that many of our giants grew. 

To develop Child and Youth Care as a profession, much had to be done.

It needed Education and Training - especially a degree in Child and Youth Care. It needed recognition as an independent. stand alone (but integrated) social service profession, a code of ethics, international recognition, equality of services for all children.

I came into child and youth care work in 1983 when these were our aspirations. We were in the height of the struggle against apartheid.That in itself was a huge focus and a sapper of energy. We had to struggle for equality of service delivery for all children irrespective of colour. The world , quite rightly regarded South Africa as the pariah, the skunk of the world. We were banned from everything. We couldn't get books. Publishers would not import to South Africa. We couldn't get visiting academics as they put there jobs at risk. We couldn't get international recognition for what we had already achieved. We were banned from the  International Federation of Educative Communities ( FICE) under the auspices of UNESCO. South Africa had not signed the UN Charter of Child Rights. 

These barriers had to be broken. Amazingly but slowly, they were. Barrier breaking in the 80's rested mainly on the shoulders of the NACCW which was organised and had a non racial membership.  Brian Gannon published and advocated. The next NACCW Director was Leslie du Toit who I think is often forgotten  as our hero. She managed to get some literature into the country and to establish early training programmes to the then Basic Qualification in Child Care level. She got some academics to come, address conferences, conduct seminars, run courses and seminars.

The first I remember was F Herbert Barnes who brought with him the concept of the child and youth care worker as educateur and child and youth care work as a craft. In 1992 Martin Brokenleg and Larry Brendtro came. They later introduced the Circle of Courage.  Masud Hoghughi ran courses on the problem Profile Approach ( PPA)and allowed that the NACCW publish his books for South African availability. Prof James Anglin (University of Victoria, Canada) helped With Leslie du Toit to persuade and develop a curriculum at the University of South Africa for the introduction of a University Certificate, then a Diploma and finally a degree in Child and Youth Care.

There were others. Professor Norman Powell in the midst of the struggle introduced us to  cultural competence. Prof Nick Smiar introduced Professional Assault  Response Training    ( PART)

Meantime domestically the leadership and advocates for the field  were able to get, on paper at least, recognition of child and youth care work as a profession in the South African Council for Social Services Professions Act 110 of 1978 as amended. This was in 1998. But the first Board met only in 2004.( why the delay?) The regulations and the code of ethics was drafted 18 times  (Over 10 years !) Finally submitted for approval in 2013 and 14 months later signed into law by the Minister of Social Development in October of 2014. Now it's October of 2019 and you make history by being the first child and youth care group to take the solemn oath of commitment to the code of ethics... Congratulations.

You are entering an exciting and challenging future in child and youth care work. All and everything will be ethically and values driven. There are some early indications of movements in the field that you will carry as giants on your shoulders.The 4th Industrial revolution is apon us with huge implications for you and the young people in programmes. Larry Brendtro is taking a strong interest in neurological aspects as a driver of child and youth development. Rick Kelly is leading child and youth care thinking into Radical and Restitutional child and youth care practice.

Today I have taken glimpses int o the rear view mirror whist still driving forward. You are riding on the shoulders of giants. It's true. Now, I'm looking forward and I see you. Today marks the moment. I is you who become the giants of tomorrow.

Congratulations.