WHO KNOWS? THE GROUND SHIFTS...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

This was to  have been a stinging blog on the lack of knowing by decision makers in the social services about the serious  situation of child and youth care workers in South Africa and so the serious situation of Child Care. I had two questions. Who knows our plight? The other, who knows what child and youth care IS, what we DO and the importance of our profession. 

But there is good news...and hope. The ground has recently shifted. 

In the first meeting of a delegation of the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) to the Parliamentary Portfolio committee for the Social Services, I was led to understand that the committee asked "What is this? We know of Social Work , but Child and Youth Care...Whats that? 

This has changed. A meeting directly with the Director General and then with the Minister addressed exactly that. Not only who and what we as child and youth care workers are, but also the seriousness of the situation we are experiencing. 

So it was that at the second meeting with the Portfolio Committee of Parliament attended by the Minister, a full presentation on what is Child and Youth Care, the need to recognise the profession and its plight was given by the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW) The SACSSP also made a presentation. Major high level decision makers said.. "A most interesting two days".

Again recently, the National Department of Social Development held talks to develop a National Human Resources Sector Plan. Expressed there was the need to renegotiate the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) and Conditions of Service.

The Registrar of the SACSSP attended a meeting of MINMEC Which is the Minister together with her relevant  Members of the Executive Councils of the Provinces. ..a door opens to an ideal platform for information sharing on the social service professions.

Again recently the Registrar with a team from the registration Department of the SACSSP met with Social Service professionals in the Western Cape. The meeting, I was was very well attended vibrant,and concerns were discussed.

The answer to my first question is that the ground has shifted and will continue to do so.

Now for the second . Who knows what child and youth care workers DO?  What is the national value of the field its professional practice, its knowledge, skills, use of self and its literature. Not in the form of heavy coursework, but in broad strokes with enough to allow a grasp of the professional field. Some of this has been presented in the foundational ground shift but I think we have work to do on a wider scale now.

Let's stay with the high level decision makers for a while. The what do we actually DO and the success of what we do in the reclaiming of young lives would be useful to be heard in forums such as the Provincial Departmental Heads, Heads of Programmes, and Child and Youth Care Facilities. Better perhaps to say Employers, Managers and some Supervisors. All to frequently we see in the advertisements for Child and Youth Care posts, a misunderstanding if what it is we do. Here we cannot rule out the Non-government Organisations. When job descriptions trivialise our practice, the salaries are equally triviaised. I can go so far as to say that I have seen some advertisements for posts where there no clue as to what the child and youth care really is.  

It would be hoped that an awareness campaign would cast its net wide enough to encompass the other social service professions also. And I'm talking about a need to know among all the helping professions Including Education , Justice, Mental Health, Health, Correctional Services and Psychiatric Services.
 I sat next to a stranger in the airport recently. He asked me what I do. He said he had never heard of that. Social workers.. yes, but child and youth care workers..No. A whole spectrum of people with a need to know opened up for me. The public, the parents and even the young people we serve as well.

What I think we have not done well is to publicise ourselves as a profession through the media . We seem to get little coverage in newspapers, on the radio and TV. social media. We have not really made use of  every available resource and every available opportunity to build awareness about what we REALLY DO. 

We obviously need a strategic plan. An awareness campaign
The big question is who will do this. One simple on the ground response is that we must all be involved in some way. It will take a planning and leading and it can and should no longer wait. large scaly awareness about the field and what we Do needs to happen.

The ground has shifted. This is an ideal moment for us to make our work as professional known

Let us grasp the moment.