WHY WE LEAD.....SOUTH AFRICAN CHILD AND YOUTH CARE

A telephonic comment made this week was that South Africa is regarded by many countries in the world as a leader of some aspects of child and youth care work ...That's good news for a change !!

Why so ?? It's worth some thought, some talk

The registration of child and youth care workers in South Africa puts us ahead of many countries world wide. It's interesting that much of the noise we made about  non-recognition as professionals is still being made on international social media by many other countries.

OK, we do still complain about non recognition because of the disparity of salaries. But registration as professionals is a statutory requirement to practice. It is a legal requirement that we adhere to a professional code and policy of ethics and conduct that  guarantees the protection of our clients. The accreditation of our qualifications by a Professional Board and Council is a field leader.We get requests from Africa, Canada, South America  and from the East for our regulatory framework and information into the process we followed.

An invitation has been extended to the Registrar of the South African Council for Social Services Professions (SACSSP) to attend an international conference in Europe. This raised a comment that it is important for the international community to know about South Africa's regulatory system. It appears that we may be unique in having field specific Professional Boards for all the social service professions and occupations with a single integrated co-ordinating Council. Right now it could well put us even further ahead here. Right now there is social work, child and youth care work, with community development, early childhood development and care workers coming down the track. Youth development work could well be hovering in peripheral vision.

Conceptual thinking within the social services professions could well put us further ahead in the leadership stakes Thinking such as  Integrated Case Management, and specialised child and youth care auxiliary work.

Another leadership feature in South Africa are the rigorous checks and balances in place to ensure.....Yes... GUARANTEE  that our qualifications meet international standards. What I like about this ( although it can be very time consuming) is that it's not just our qualification exit levels that are  interrogated. Content, learning materials, didactics (methodology), facilitators guides, learner guides,and workplace relevance .....all carefully evaluated and interrogated against minimum quality norms and standards. Again, together with a number of other regulatory bodies, the Professional Boards and the South African Council plays a seminal role.

Way back, in the days of the Basic Qualification in Child and Youth Care  (BQCC) at level 2 or 3, child and youth care workers who immigrated to the United Kingdom in particular were accepted and employed  on the strength of their qualification. We have grown considerably since then.

Let's get away from the SACSSP for a moment.

South Africa leads because of it has great leaders, nationally and internationally.I'm afraid to list them lest I offend someone through an unintentional omission. Still, for me, Brian Gannon stands out. His pioneering work in, for example, founding the National Association  of Child and Youth Care Workers(NACCW) in South Africa, his contribution to CYC-discussion network, his publications and his international status is of undeniable significance.
The  NACCW has spawned many significant leaders over the years...43 years to be exact. From this leadership came our registration as a profession after 25 years of active struggle.From this leadership and within teams was born our internationally acclaimed and unique South African models of child and youth care work...... The whole transformed South African system of child and youth care, our continuum of care from prevention to detention, our early models of excellence in residential care, group foster care , the Isibindi Project model of community based care, the Safe Park model with all it's add-on programmes.  Have I left any out? probably !

Then, our own internationally recognised NACCW South African Journal Child and Youth Care Work , our contribution in editorial teams to international journals and e-journals like CYC-Net e-journal, Relational Child and Youth Care Work . This gives us international credibility and puts us in the international spotlight.

Our Conferences. South Africa hosted a Federation of Child Educators Conference ..an international conference. Even so, international leaders in the child and youth care field make a point of attending and contributing to our NACCW Bi-annual Conferences, Next year 2019, the Conference will couple also with CYC-Net International.

Le me say....it's not just little old me trying to make out a case for our leadership in the child and youth care field. Comment on social media, messages, and comment in various media and global web-sites confirm thinking around our leadership in various aspects of the child and youth care field. 
Only recently there was a comment on this blog-site that If only we had leadership such as you have. We would be much better off.
It was an East Asian country I think....not sure.

Yes, we do have shortfalls....the struggle continues, ..it really does.
Yes despite all African and international leads,we don't seem in our own country to experience the rewards of our recognition....especially in the issue of salaries. Remember a prophet is seldom recognised in his own hometown. But we continue our struggle with a certain pride, dignity and passion.

And that's another accolade. South African child and youth care workers are recognised internationally as persistent, diligent ,hard working and we put the the best interests of the country's children  first.

That is why we lead.



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