HOW AFRICAN IS SOUTH AFRICAN CHILD CARE PRACTICE ?

Comment in the social media this week posed the question of the cultural relevance and so the effectiveness of South African child and youth care practice for black African children and young persons. The question was directly asked whether the present model, the "Circle of Courage" was a cultural fit as an  assessment profile and planning tool for the Black African child and whether it is now time for South Africa to find its own indigenous model that takes African traditional spiritual and other cultural practices into account.
A follow up comment contrasted the writer's perception of the culturally pervasive temperament of say, a Zulu child or young person with that of a Native American child from which the model originated  and so again the question of an African cultural fit.

Apart from the obvious euro-centric or "foreign" practices in some residential services such as language and food, the absence of interventions relating to traditional spiritual and cultural thinking around issues of healing, life events and causality were identified. One post merely said,"Spirituality as Therapy....my soon book.....a PhD"  That's all.... Simple but powerfully said.

I once asked Martin Brokenleg about the apparent absence of a spiritual component in the Circle of Courage. He said " It's there. Its a thread , you have to look for it.. It's not directly articulated in the book." I would think that is is most likely to be found in the Belonging quadrant but then also in any of the other three. 

The social media post suggested that the Circle of  Courage works better for the black African child if it is linked to the Bronfenbrenner ecological system of child development. Makes sense. In Bronfenbrenners 5 layers of ecological developmental influence, there is a circle of ecological influence which he calls the macro-system. This is the big world of the child which then shapes the child's development and includes societal and cultural attitudes and values as well as the economic and political social ecology. There is no doubt the prevailing cultural thinking (including spirituality) has a cascading effect into the child's community, immediate family ecology, into child rearing practices and home.

The question though, is whether the micro-system of the Treatment Centre and its culture is in anyway congruent or reflective of it. I think that religious and spiritual thinking is central to a black African child's meaning making and interpretation of life events.

John Mbiti, a highly respected African philosopher writes  "Because  traditional religion permeates all the departments of life, there is no formal distinction between the sacred and the secular, between the religious and the non-religious,between the spiritual and the material areas of life" He goes on to give examples of where traditional spirituality is carried by Africans - into the fields ,the beer party, the funeral, the school, the examination room, the houses of parliament.
By implication it is then carried into the Childrens' Home.

Lovemore Mbigi agrees ..." in spite of colonial domination ", he adds.

This is my observation as well......when good things happen, when bad things happen, when a baby is restless and crying a lot,when there is gain, loss, even for others, the African way is to find meaning , to interpret the signs, and to do so spiritually.

It was Tom Garfat in his doctoral thesis who said that an intervention is only as effective as it is experienced as effective. (by children and young persons then) 

I am as concerned as the social media posts that we can pay lip service to, or ignore the seminal place of spiritual and religious thinking in our interventive plans. For me, this has to do with the centrality of causal thinking in the child's Africanness If we dont address the perceived causality then our interventions and our models are out of kilter with the child's reality. They cannot be experienced as effective by the child.

I think that the time is right now for child and youth care in South Africa to put together distinctly African models for the ssessment and interventions....an African "circle of courage"  


   



   

WHISPERS IN THE STORM - A VOICE FROM RESIDENTIAL CHILD AND YOUTH CARE SERVICES IN SOUTH AFRICA

Amidst the cacophony over the last few weeks in the social media on salary issues,came a lone, somewhat quiet voice from a child and youth care worker in a residential setting. 

Listed were four comments made in the best interests of children and young people.These whispers amidst the storm need to be heard.

Broadly, child and youth care workers in residential settings tend to feel swamped by what they experience as a deluge of focus on community-based care services..... dominantly,.. Isibindi. The comment is that they seem to be forgotten. Certainly social media is seemingly quiet from the non-governmental sector.  Yes, passion and love of the profession and the children comes up time and time again, But, then, "If  you want to care for children, don't expect to be well paid." I hear it often, "It's a vocation, a calling, not a job."

The whisper in the social media, did not mention salary.

The first whisper was that residential services do experience instances of "inappropriate placements" of children "for shelter or convenience" when more appropriate placements could or should have been made. The comment went further to say that this meant that the service's programs and/or system in those instances did not meet the needs of  those children.

I used to call those placements "pap en pampoen" (porridge and pumpkin) placements. In my first appointment to a residential service, a calculation based on an analysis of  the situations surrounding the children was that well over 40% of the children didn't need residential care. - some other community-based, family-based solution could be made. As a non-governmental organisation it was possible to orchestrate, with some success, a program of disengagement and family support for most of those children especially as the old Child Care Act required that there be at least a 6 month period of "after care"which was frequently undertaken by the residential facility itself. When, in my second appointment, 16 children were discharged at one time, I cried. Not because I would miss the children (as the staff thought) but because of their deinstitutionalisation.

The issue of removal and placement of children in alternative forms of care , especially residential facilities is well explored in a classic book by Anna Freud and others, Beyond the Best Interests of the Child  (the Free Press NY 1973 ) - note the year!, ...and the issues of removal and placement still persist. 

Four placement considerations expressed in this classic work are worth mentioning.
1. Removal and placement is a Moral Issue--it is an ethical decision. Is it ethically right? This means, equally, that an admission decision is an ethical decision.
2. Removal and placement decisions are based on the "least detrimental alternative".  I quote "Placement should provide the least detrimental available alternative for safeguarding the child's growth and development"   In South Africa we use the term "least restrictive, most empowering". 
3.Residential placement is a Last Resort. It  only morally defensible she says, in instances when the child faces "irrevocable harm" 
The concept or criterion of "irrevocable harm" applies only when NO other form of intervention would prevent PERMANENT damage to the child's psyche. 
4. Lastly, there must be advocacy available for the child's own view on removal, placement.and program. Adults view of ethical placement, she says, frequently differs from that of a child.  Such an advocate for the child must be a person who can express, for the child, its understanding, perceptions needs and decisions. 

There was this whisper of residential services admitting children and young people in order to maintain its numbers. If subsidisation is based on a "heads on beds" calculation, it can be enticing to keep the numbers up no matter what. - enticing to entertain placements and prolong stays.

The final whisper shouted that a "one size fits all" system and program was not meeting the needs of inappropriately placed children.

It has been my experience that admission criteria in some residential facilities have either not been established in policy, or is given to the facility from "above". This inevitably leads to inappropriate placements. On arrival in my second appointment in a residential care facility, I inherited a very simple admission policy. It had no criteria for admission at all. The policy was: " We don't refuse any boy " Well that certainly kept "heads on beds" but couldn't be defended ethically. sounded good, especially from the church perspective. It meant that the young person had to fit the program, rather than the program fitting the child.

This is what the whisper was shouting. Whats the point of having an Individual Development Program (IDP) if the system is not based on the individual..? The motions are gone through as required but the practice in the life-space, on the ground, doesn't always match the intention 

I always thought that the "hot house" for the growing of child and youth care practice was to be found in the residential facility. I thought that as the Grand Prix leads the way for the improvement of passenger cars, so residential care leads the way for child and youth care in any setting, especially community- based care. Isibindi as a model, has proved me wrong. We have a lot to learn from this now nationally and internationally accredited model of professional child and youth care .

It is time, I think, that we start again to rethink residential care and grow a South African indigenous model of best practice  for residential settings . One that can be rolled out, adapted as contexts require, and provide high quality developmental treatment to children and young people who would otherwise experience irrevocable harm,

Let the whisper become a shout for excellence in South African residential care.     

SWINGS, ROUNDABOUTS, ALUTA CONTINUA .. CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Social media has been unusually quiet on child and youth care issues this week. Winnie Mandela's death, Memorial and funeral dominate.
 UP..... A significant function outside her house in Soweto was the gathering of social workers to pay their respects to South Africa's first black social worker. They took together the oath/declaration of ethical practice lead by the Registrar of the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP). On the swings and roundabouts, this was a huge "UP".
DOWN.... Made me think however that this is yet to be done by child and youth care workers. 

The silent week is an opportunity to visit some previous weeks comments.

Reviewing these, my impression is that social media reflected swings "ups", "downs"and "roundabouts"in the child and youth care field in South Africa.
DOWN...The struggle to have child and youth care recognised in South Africa started well before 1998 when the then Social Council for Social Work (SACSW) became the South African Social Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP). Even then, the recognition of child and youth care as a profession was formally recognised by the installation of the Professional Board for Child and Youth Care only in 2005... seven years later!
ROUNDABOUTS...  the regulations for the registration of child and youth care workers signed by the Minister for Social Development in October of 2014. 
UP ....today we are recognised!!

Child and youth care workers over the last weeks have been using the Winnie Mandela language and activist cries of the struggle and its icon... Amandla!, Viva!. Aluta Continua! (the struggle continues!).

Pity... Why? - - Let's explore some of the ups downs and roundabouts as expressed in the social media

EDUCATION  QUALIFICATIONS AND TRAINING.
THE UP   -  The Further Education and Training Certificate in child and youth care work (FETC CYC) at NQF level 4 has been completed by many thousands of child and youth care workers. The training continues and it is the minimum qualification in the regulations for the registration of child and youth care workers at the auxiliary level. A number of service providers have been accredited to provide this qualification and have been accredited to do so by the SACSSP, The Health and Welfare Standards, Education and Training Authority (HWSETA) as well as SAQA (the South African Qualifications Authority). Learners credits are captured on the NQF (National department for social Qualifications Framework)..... BIG UP!!!
THE DOWN - The state through the then Minister of Social Development undertook to train 10,000  child and youth care workers in 400 Isibindi projects in a period of five years. These targets were however not fully reached.   
Child and youth care workers, having completed the qualification,  are frustrated by the long delays in the issuing of certificates Some say the have been waiting since 2016 and some even longer.  The hold up is not due to the service provider but in the processes of validation and accreditation by the quality Assurance Authorities and their final issuing of certificates.
THE ROUNDABOUT
Standards for the recognition of professional qualifications are under constant review and the trend is to set the bar higher. The Council for Higher Education raised the entry qualification into its professional degree structures from Level 4  to Level 5. The original intention of government was always that the level 4 would give university entrance to certificate holders. 
. End result....thousands of child and youth care workers at the auxiliary level expressing the view that they do not have clear career pathways. This is coupled by the present situation in which there are only two universities offering a degree in child and care (more of this later).
 The requirements for a professional degree into the Social Service Professions was raised from Level 7 to Level 8. The Regulations for the registration of child and youth care workers at the professional level was therefor set at level 8 with an escape clause allowing for Level 7 graduates to submit a PoE (portfolio of evidence).  It resulted in 4 year degree holders at level 7 registering at the auxiliary level. There has been considerable frustration expressed by child and youth care workers caught on this roundabout.
A level 5 FETC qualification curriculum framework has been approved and course material has been approved as has the assessment guide for that material. There is as yet no indication as to when it will be introduced, The Level 5 qualification will allow for university entrance and opportunity to upgrade will undoubtedly be made available .....ROUNDABOUT.

UNIVERSITIES
DOWN......as was mentioned there are only two Universities offering a four year degree in child and youth care . They have both upgraded the degree from level 7 to Level 8. the result is a rather obvious paucity of child and youth care workers with senior degrees in the field. It means that when other Universities come to offer the Level 8 degree there may be difficulty experienced in finding child and youth care workers to positions of lectureships and senior lectureships. The cry on social media is a cry of child and youth care workers feeling trapped in static career paths

UP....The University of South Africa UNISA which offers degrees through distance learning has committed to the project of offering an integrated four year degree in child and youth care. The University of the Western Cape has shown considerable interest in doing the same.
ROUNDABOUT
It can take a university up to 5 years to have a degree approved and ready to admit students.

CONFERENCE
BIG UP ! Social Media in the last few weeks has featured news of the upcoming 22nd NACCW Conference to be held in early July in Durban... warm sunny Durban. The organisation for this conference as reflected in the social media is obviously well underway. A recent Facebook announcement was that it will be coupled with the 4th CYC-Net World Conference. I quote "delegates can look forward to a spirited professional experience blending diverse child and youth care work experiences from across the globe in engagements on practice, programs and child care work policy " end of quote.
DOWN...- Child and youth care workers express their interest in attending the conference but express reservations connected with the cost of travel accommodation and attendance.
ROUNDABOUT... The only roundabout is he comment in social media that Durban has summer all the year round.

OTHER UPS DOWNS AND ROUNDABOUTS
The other social media comments over the last few weeks which express the ups downs and roundabouts  have to do with the termination of government contracts with the NACCW , Issues around the demand of employers for registration and frustrations with that process, and issues connected with residential care centres being put on the back burner whilst there are concerns about inappropriate placements and the quality of service.

 All these seem to be issues for another blog

SO THERE IT IS....UPS DOWNS SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS

ALUTE CONTINUA.....VITORIA  E  CERTA


                

DAY ZERO....A ''DRY (SALARY) SEASON'' IN SOUTH AFRICAN CHILD AND YOUTH CARE

Social Media this week abounds yet again with very serious harangues around the salary issue.

The water crisis (drought) in some provinces in South Africa has been declared a national disaster. No rain, severe water restrictions and a day zero has been proclaimed.   

Well, there is another drought in South Africa.

Salaries/stipends have not been paid in the Eastern Cape in what has been called by provincial government - "a dry season".!!!
This so called "dry season" has meant THREE MONTHS WITHOUT SALARIES/STIPENDS FOR CHILD AND YOUTH CARE WORKERS. I don't see mention on social media that they have yet been paid, nor for how long this situation may, or may not continue. 
"Day Zero "in my opinion arrived on the very day that the first salary was not paid.

Its a child and youth care crisis.'

In the Western Cape the drought and the water crisis is in the lips all Capetonians and people in other affected towns and villages.

The salary drought is on the lips of all affected child and youth care workers. Words in the social media are "pain", "suffering", "no respect", "no regard", "children starving", "witchcraft" and even "Satan". Emotions are running high, pockets are running on empty. We all know that if you want to really hurt someone, hit them where it hurts the most.... their children and/or their pockets.

It seems from the social media that the Isibindi projects are the hardest hit. Isibindi is not just a national government model for community-based professional care but an African and Internationally recognised "best practice" model of community-based care. Can Provincial government really afford to shoot itself in the foot as the world watches?  It reaches millions of children and young people at risk n South Africa . Now I am concerned that the model in those provinces is at risk.....and children... and child care professional too.

But from what I gather on social media this week, ...it's not only  that is experiencing the so called "dry season". Reports are that some non- governmental organisations (NGO's) are also without the funds to buy food for children.

If then, what I am seeing/hearing on the social media this week is objective and true, then I must say;....TO WITHHOLD A PERSONS MEANS OF SURVIVAL IS IMMORAL......whether its a stipend, salary or a grant to an NGO.  "Disregard " and "disrespect" are not strong enough words....it's IMMORAL.  And yet the work is still being done....again, there are no words big enough to express what this says about child and youth care professionals.... the children are still being served .  But one wonders for how long this can continue?

It is far from suprising then, that signatures on the on-going petition for a face to face with parliament are swelling in numbers and gaining momentum. There was a call on social media for child and youth care workers to organise themselves provincially to meet with provincial government authorities on these issues and to have their voice heard. 

The outrage has brought other issues to the surface in the social media this week. I relate only two, One is that at least one of the  the child and youth care workers forums operating for government employees were told that salaries can't be discussed. The other was that a child and youth care worker complained of having completed the FETC qualification as a learner but is still receiving a learners stipend. This has meant, she said, that she has been on the learners stipend for FIVE YEARS.

What must be done? 

It is clear that the Minister for Social Development must be informed and advised either directly, or through the parliamentary committee. The immediate situation has to be rectified....never again must there be a "dry season"of how ever long and for whatever excuse. The payment of outstanding back pay is an imperative.

Comment on social media poses a question. The language and championing of child and youth care is not happening in government they say, as there are no child and youth care workers in the senior staff structures at provincial or national level. There appears to be a glass ceiling. Who then drives any strategy for the best interests of the child and youth care professional and thus for  the children? As there doesn't appear to be a time-framed strategy to deal with the issues and upliftment of  child and youth care work .. then one must be formulated and formalised. This must be done with and for child and youth care and in it purview must include the NGO sector and child and youth care residential services.

No "dry seasons" No   "no go" and no "no go" salary payments and a fair and equitable recognition, among and for, ALL social service professionals in the best interests of the nation and its children.