CHILDREN IN CRISIS....OUR CRISIS...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

In one way or another the programmes and settings in which children and young people are placed are either funded or at least partly subsidised by the state. There are reasons for this. The State is the ultimate parent...the final well-being/welfare of the Nation's children is the State's responsibility which in truth it does not have the financial or human resources to provide. Even the so called fully financed Child and Youth Care Centres and the community based services of the Isibindi project are clearly under financed. Just listen to the noise... Vacant posts unfilled or frozen, salaries ceilinged and more and more! We are doing what the State can otherwise not really afford to do.


We keep on saying that Child and Youth Care Work and child and youth care workers in the country right now are in crisis There is no doubt ...we know ...it is so. No need to go over it all again. The question now is whether we are experiencing in South Africa, crises in the well-being and lives of our nation's young people and children.

Let us focus on the state of our children and young people for a moment. Dare I say that the effects of under-service and possibly the standard of service is showing. I think of it as a crisis.    It must be addressed. The signs and the symptoms are there.
Here are but a few:
Gangs, gang violence in some communities;
In Gauteng alone i know of 42 organisations which provide diversion programmes to young people in trouble with the law. Some have residential with terms ranging from 6 months, a year and up to five years. Why are so many needed? ... And it's said that juvenile statistics are under reported.
I saw a comment in social media from a highly respected social service practitioner that our recivisity rate is high. I don't have statistics but I am aware that statistics of the return of children or young people into the same programme from which they were disengaged are not always kept "Oh it's you. You back again!" I used to call them the "many happy returns". Return rates into the system are masked especially when the child or young person was subsequently placed elsewhere. I trust the comment that they are high. If young people return, it's the programme quality and appropriateness which has to interrogated.
Comments are constantly made that children and young people are not showing the benefit of programmes and that young people often have  extended stays in institutions.
We have a very concerning problem of assaultive behaviours in Child and Youth Care Centres .. among young people themselves and toward staff.
Assualtive behaviour in schools.
Major behaviour management issues in schools.

Where is all this going?

Surely as child and youth care practitioners and professionals we have an obligation to voice our concern with the highest possible national welfare authority. I'm thinking of course ideally with the Minister of Social Development. How good it would be if we could capture the ear of the President! 

To get there I'm thinking that if the main players in the child and youth care field in this country were to have a co-ordinated voice, surely, a cry on behalf of the children cannot be ignored....and we do have such child/client focused structures. Let's call it something like National Co-ordinated Body for Children.

There are a number of existing entities which we, and the 
State may have perhaps come to misunderstand as a voice only for the social service professional worker. In this instance obviously..the child and youth care worker. Independently,  individually and with a misinterpretation of their agenda, these just don't seem to have impacted enough on strategy and planning for the countries children and young people.

Let's have a look at them. Their very names I think, mask their  purpose for existence.

The mission statement of the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) reads "to serve the best interests of the Social Service Professions and service users by regulating, leading and promoting the Social Service Professions in an innovative and responsive manner.  ( My italics). 

And the National Association of Child and Youth Car Workers (NACCW) has a vision. "Healthy,development and improved standards of care for vulnerable children" It further describes itself as "an NPO which is "a training provider and an advocacy body for children".

I'm suggestion that, put these bodies together with others into a      co-ordinated voice for the state of our countries children and perhaps we stand a chance of being heard

Here are some ideas for the participants in such a envisioned National  Co-ordinated Body for Children:

The SACSSP, which will include the Professional Board for Child and Youth Care Work, the NACCW, the Department of Social Development - especially in it's role as the National Youth Development Plan (NYDP) and the National Development Plan (NDP). Together with Isibindi, the NPO and Community Based Organisations sector, the Human Rights Commission, Child and Family Welfare. The main players in child welfare like The Children's Institute ( University of Capetown ( and others).

The question then is, who or what could co-ordinate such a body. This could be somewhat naughty but how about UNICEF or the SA Community Chest. Right now it seems that I am dreaming dreams - any suggestions?

Now to the child and youth care worker crisis. If the current situation of the children and young people is addressed in a time-framed National strategy The critical role of the child and youth care worker cannot be ignored nor put onto the back burner.  We have to be part of any National solution in the best interests of the child.