BRIEFING REPORT: SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS (SACSSP) TO THE PORTFOLIO...

BRIEFING REPORT: SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL

SERVICE PROFESSIONS (SACSSP) TO

THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

President- Ms. Marilyn Setlalentoa

30 May 2007

FOCUS AREAS

INTRODUCTION ACHIEVEMENTS, STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND

CHALLENGES RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION OF SOCIAL

WORKERS ALIGNMENT OF SOCIAL WORK AND CHILD

AND YOUTH CARE TRAINING COUNCIL’S DATABASE- REGISTERED PERSONS PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICS RESEARCH ON DEMARCATION REVIEW OF SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS

ACT CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION South Africa like many countries in this continent is

plagued by many social and economic problems. There is great need for social service professions to deal with these problems. The Council on the other hand, is the statutory body that is responsible for maintaining standards for different social service professions

Minister Trevor Manuel in his budget speech said “human life has equal value” thus emphasising the need for more social workers to provide professional services of high quality and standard. He also recognised social work profession as one of the oldest professions.

INTRODUCTION (Conti….. The Department of Social Development is at the centre

of the mission to reach vulnerable groups, and the need for more social service professionals is also addressed in the budget speech of Minister Skweyiya

Council appreciates the opportunity given by Portfolio Committee to –

SHARE THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COUNCIL AND PROFESSIONAL BOARDS

PROVIDE INFORMATION ON NEW DEVELOPMENTS

SEEK SUPPORT OF PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE

ACHIEVEMENTS

Developed and implemented the strategic plan for 2007/08 – 9/10

Restructuring of the Council to address equity and improve operations to promote efficiency and responsiveness to the sector

Commissioned research on the Demarcation of the fields of services, Professionalisation and Specialisation

Review of the Social Service Professions Act, 110 of 1978, jointly with the Department

Implementation of learnerships pertaining to social auxiliary work and auxiliary child and youth care

ACHIEVEMENTS( Conti…

Implementation of a system for continuing professional development (CPD) is significant to ensure that social service professions remain in line with new developments and deliver quality services.

A policy for the utilisation of ecomeric measuring instruments by social workers and social auxiliary workers have been accepted for piloting

Established two Professional Boards - PBSW and PBCYC

Developed Regulations to register Child and Youth Care workers

Skills development Indaba

STRATEGIC PLAN 2007/08

STRATEGIC PLANSACSSP

Serving the interest of social service professionals

Education and training Ethical conduct and Professional service

In presenting the strategic plan for the 2007/08 financial year, we outline our intention to streamline social service professions, to promote efficiency, prevent duplication and to maximize service delivery in respect of social development; as well as positively contribute to “social interventions of joint efforts among all South Africans to improve social cohesion” as mentioned by President Mbeki in his State of the Nation Address.

SACSSP employees to excel

Client centricity Foresight and Visionary

thinking Positive

attitude/optimism Trustworthiness Respect for the

individual Understanding as well as

buying into the strategic vision/ mandate of the Council

PROGRAMMES AND PRIORITIES 2007/08

CEO’S/REGISTRARS OFFICECEO’S/REGISTRARS OFFICE

Policy development to govern the relationship between Council and Boards

Processing of Regulations

Professionalizing other occupational groups

Financial sustainability of the Council and the Professional Boards

Expansion of registers of the social service professions

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCTPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

Create awareness amongst the public about the code of conduct expected from social service professionals

Educate communities about their rights and recourse if social service professionals violate these rights

Educate social service stakeholders about ethics and the role Council plays in ensuring adherence to the ethics by social service professionals

Research into trends pertaining to disciplinary hearings

Compile a compendium of previous cases for social work students to use during training

PROGRAMMES AND PRIORITIES 2007/08 (Conti…

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Determine more specialised fields in Social Work

Learnership in Social Auxiliary Work (SAW), Child and Youth Care (CYC) etc

Develop minimum standards for the education and training of social auxiliary workers and social workers

Finalise and publish the regulations for registration of child and youth care workers

Compliance with norms and standards for IHL

POLICY AND ADVOCACY POLICY AND ADVOCACY

Enhance image profession

Development of Communication strategy

Constituency consultation

Management of media

RETENTION AND RECRUITMENT OF SOCIAL WORKERS

This matter is of great concern to Council and it is working closely with the Department on the several programmes, such as:

Conference to launch the unified professional association in September 2007

Skills development indaba

Setting standards for social auxiliary workers, and facilitating work with the HWSETA for the training of these workers to support social workers in service delivery

ALIGNMENT OF SOCIAL WORK TRAINING

Standards Generating Body (SGB) for Social Work SGB was initiated by the SACSSP during 2000, in line

with the requirements of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) Act, 1995. The SACSSP played an active role in determining the minimum standards for the education and training of social workers and social auxiliary workers.

During the process of determining new minimum standards, the SACSSP consulted widely and aligned the standards with social needs of the country and benchmarking the minimum standards internationally.

ALIGNMENT OF SOCIAL WORK TRAINING (Conti…

In line with the minimum standards, new qualifications were designed for the education and development of social workers and social auxiliary workers, with reference to the four year professional qualification in social work namely the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and the one year social auxiliary work qualification namely the Further Education and Training Certificate (FET) in Social Auxiliary Work.

The exit level outcomes of both these qualifications were aligned with the developmental approach to social welfare in South Africa.


Benchmarking of qualifications with new requirements:

To ensure that all training providers meet the new requirements, the SACSSP undertook site visits to universities with a view not only to assess whether existing learning programmes meet the requirements, but specifically to empower the universities to align existing qualifications with the new requirements.

Self-assessment reports were also required from all the providers, to be submitted to the SACSSP


A 100% participation rate was received from the universities and the implementation of the new programmes was effected from 1 January 2007, with a phasing in approach through all four years of study until 2010, when the first learners will graduate.

Social auxiliary work training: As far as the learning programme of the social auxiliary workers is

concerned, the Department of Labour approved the learning programme as a learnership.

The new programme is developed to not only address the developmental approach, but to ensure career pathing since it is an FET Certificate on NQF Level 4, which should provide learners access to further learning in higher education with specific reference to social work. The department has raised concerns about the exit level outcome and this matter is being addressed jointly with the department and HWSETA


Since private institutions may form part of the provider sector in this regard, the SACSSP developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Health and Welfare SETA (HWSETA) to ensure that quality education and training is conducted.

Both the BSW and the FET Certificate in Social Auxiliary Work must meet the specific exit level outcomes as formulated by the Standards Generating Body for Social Work. The Professional Board for Social Work, under the auspices of the SACSSP, is currently developing a policy on how providers could be monitored to ensure that the outcomes that are supportive of the developmental approach be met.

ALIGNMENT OF CHILD AND YOUTH CARE TRAINING

(Conti….

CHILD AND YOUTH CARE Similar to the Social Work profession, the SGB for

Child and Youth Care formulated the standards for the Further Education and Training Certificate in Child and Youth Care, which is a one year training course and a registered learnership with the Department of Labour.

All learning on this band is now aligned with the specific outcomes of the unit standards as formulated in the qualification.

ALIGNMENT OF CHILD AND YOUTH CARE TRAINING (Conti…

The SGB has also submitted to SAQA their proposed requirements for the Bachelor of Child and Youth Care. Approval of this qualification is awaited from SAQA.

The members of the Professional Board for Child and Youth Care, under the auspices of the SACSSP, participated actively in this process.

DATABASE OF COUNCILCHILD AND YOUTH CARE WORKERS It is estimated that there are ±4449 child and

youth care workers in the country, of whom most are at an FET level and volunteers.

This occupational class is not yet on the register of Council, as the Regulations to register them is not yet submitted for approval to the Minister of Social Development

Figures of the demographic spread is attached as an annexure to the presentation

DATABASE OF COUNCIL (Conti..

STATISTICS Registered

persons2004 2005 2006 2007

Social workers

10645 10676 11414 11962

Social auxiliary workers

1591 1848 2189 1485

Student- Social

workers

976 976 1126 1061 Registration in progress- closing date June 2007

Student Social Auxiliary workers

Student numbers –incorporated in above statistic, June 2006. Those currently still in the process of completing the Councils course:1739 Council no

longer provides its own training course and SAW’s register in the FET training programme offered by

the HWseta,

FETLearnerships

210

Figures of the demographic spread is attached as an annexure to the presentation

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICS

The process of addressing issues of professional misconduct is clearly articulated in the regulations (as well as the policy guidelines) of the Social Service Professions Act, Act 110 of 1978.

Council has made concerted efforts in promoting professional behaviour on the part of its constituency by:

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICS (Conti..

placing the Code of Ethics on the website, compiling a booklet on the Code of Conduct for

social workers/social auxiliary workers and student social workers

personally presenting workshops to social workers and student social workers nationally, explaining the Code of Ethics

by being readily available telephonically to offer advice to social workers who find themselves in situations of conflict with the ethical demands of the profession


The implementation of the regulations forthe professional conduct of social serviceprofessionals is a challenging undertaking,with the following points for deliberation:

There is an increasing number of complaints being received from the general public who feel cheated out of a professional service by a limited number of social service professionals.


In this regard the Act does not make provision for certain issues in relation to professional conduct

Increased number of social workers practising and remain unregistered. The public, is because of these actions, not protected


administering disciplinary tribunals/hearings against defaulters where applicable

Listing and reporting of those found guilty in the Council’s newsletter as well as the Government Gazette as well as the penalty imposed, to serve as a deterrent.

Council is presently working on the regulations and the code of ethics for child and youth care workers/student child and youth care workers, and auxiliary child and youth care workers

Professional conduct cases received and attended to

Professional Conduct Division : StatisticsJanuary 2007- May 2007Cases finalised RCPC (complaints

processed at RCPC level)

CPI Disciplinary Hearings

Appeal Hearings

Number Finalized 34 1

Number Currently being attended to; execution of resolutions

45 3 1

Number Pending (awaiting documents etc)

42 3 1 (possibility of withdrawal of disciplinary proceedings)

RESEARCH ON DEMARCATION One issue that the Council is confronted with is an

increase in the number of other occupational groups applying for professional status.

This necessitated research on demarcation of services which is currently underway, and done in partnership with the Department of Social Development.

The rationale for this action is the following:

RESEARCH ON DEMARCATION( Conti….

Professionalizing the social service occupations, ensuring a high level of professionalism in the social service professions

Categories of professionals targeted in the research:

15 social workers and social auxiliary workers 15 community development workers 15 youth workers 15 child and youth care workers 15 social workers- focusing on specialities 15 probation officers

RESEARCH ON DEMARCATION (Conti….

The research results on demarcating the fields of service will be incorporated in the new Social Service Professions Act

The 2nd draft research report was debated at the Council and Board meeting on 29 May 2007

REVIEW OF THE SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS ACT, 110 OF 1978

The said Act was amended from the Social Work Act. It also does not address the current challenges of the social services sector.

The research findings of the Demarcation of fields of services are very critical as they will be filtered into the Act, in that it will address matters such as –


(Conti..

The development of specialisations and their registration in the act, with a view to career pathing as mentioned in the Retention and Recruitment Strategy for Social Workers

Determining the roles, responsibilities and scope of practice, of different occupational groups

Developing guidelines for employers of social service professionals for conditions of service


(Conti.. Cheadle Thompson and Haysom Attorneys

have been appointed as the legal drafters

The 3rd draft Social Service Professions Bill was debated by the Council and the Boards on 29 May 2007.

National and Provincial meetings are scheduled from 11- 22 June 2007 to ensure stakeholder participation.

It is envisaged that the Bill would be tabled before the Portfolio Committee in July 2007

CHALLENGES

To enhance the image of the social service professions

To encourage continued professional development

To provide guidelines to the various occupational groups in terms of scope of practice, standards for education and training and the code of ethics

CHALLENGES (Conti… To identify and professionalize where

possible various unregulated groups of occupations.

To ensure financial sustainability of all professional boards

To clarify the roles and responsibilities of the Council versus the Professional Boards.

CHALLENGES (Conti… Number of learners needs to increase due

to the provisions of the new Children’s Act and the requirements pertaining to human resources needed.

Additional providers are required specifically for the education and training of social auxiliary workers.

Buy-in by workplaces at both public and NGO level into learnerships

CHALLENGES (Conti… Training of assessors and moderators is a challenge, since

social workers and child and youth care workers must provide the learning.

Due to huge workloads, this is an additional burden on the professions, which result in even a greater demand for human and financial resources.

Universities can only accept a particular number of social work students.

Workplaces for social auxiliary work learners is a problem

New posts need to be developed for social auxiliary workers.

CHALLENGES The Council noted with concern a decrease

in the number of newly qualified social workers and others leaving the country. Some of the reasons expressed are:

Salaries for government are not attractive

NGOs are paying far less than government

Working conditions are not conducive

WAY FORWARD Registration of child and youth care

workers’

Creating awareness amongst civil society about the code of ethics of social service professionals

Ensure that Social Services Bill is tabled before Parliament during this financial year

CONCLUSION (Conti…

The challenge however is for all social services professions and stakeholders to work together towards ensuring the achievement of ”social cohesion and human solidarity”.

Involving communities in developmental programmes would reduce dependency on the state and would contribute to economic growth because the approach will provide job opportunities.

Social service professionals should be trained in a way that would contribute economic development of our people, hence the critical role Continued Professional Development (CPD) would play.

CONCLUSION (Conti…

As poverty remains still one of the challenges in our country, social security and social welfare services are of paramount importance to improve the social functioning of our people.

Council sincerely appreciates this opportunity to present to the Portfolio Committee some of the achievements and challenges faced by Council.

THANK YOU

BRIEFING REPORT: SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS (SACSSP) TO THE PORTFOLIO...

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