BRIEFING REPORT:

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BRIEFING REPORT SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL FOR
SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS (SACSSP) TO THE
PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Pres
ident- Ms. Marilyn Setlalentoa
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INTRODUCTION

• Topics to be discussed
• Introduction
• Objectives and Role of the Council
• Role and Functions of Professional Boards
• Transformation Agenda of the Council
• Activities of the Council
• CEOS/REGISTRARS OFFICE
• EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT
• POLICY AND ADVOCACY
• PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
• Partnering with the Department of Social
  Development and other social service partners
• Challenges
• Conclusion

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INTRODUCTION

• The Council is indeed very grateful for the
  recognition given the social work profession in
  the budget speech of Minister Trevor Manuel, as
  this is the oldest profession of the social
  service professions. As psycho-social problems
  in our country increase, so is the demand for
  more social service professionals, especially
  social workers that are in the coal face of
  services to vulnerable groups.
• 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

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INTRODUCTION (Conti

• Salaries for government are still not attractive,
  in spite of recent increases in the salaries and
  improvement in opportunities for a career path
  for the profession
• NGOs are paying far less than government
• Working conditions are not conducive
• The challenge however is for all social services
  professions and stakeholders to work together
  towards ensuring the achievement of social
  cohesion and human solidarity.

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INTRODUCTION (Conti

• The mere fact that Minister Trevor Manuel
  repeated the statement made by the former
  President Nelson Mandela that peoples lives
  hold equal value. The 2007 budget placed the
  people of South Africa therefore in the centre.
  The challenge however, is for all social
  services stakeholders to work together towards
  ensuring the achievement of social cohesion and
  human solidarity.
• By its nature social development is concerned
  about bringing people together. Because human
  life has equal worth, Government is building the
  social work profession to contribute in assisting
  people in achieving social and economic
  development.
• The Department of Social Development is at the
  centre to reach vulnerable group and the need for
  more social service professionals is well
  addressed in the budget speech.

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INTRODUCTION (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.
• 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.
• Multi-disciplinary approach of is critical in
  the rendering of holistic services to
  communities.

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OBJECTIVES AND ROLE OF THE COUNCIL

• In terms of the Act the Councils comprehensive
  role can be summarised as follows
• Council is the determining, guiding and
  regulating body in South Africa. Council
  therefore fulfils this role by setting the
  standards for education and training of
  practitioners and by taking policy resolutions as
  guidelines for the practice of social service
  professions under its auspices.
• Council is the protector of the interests of the
  clients. This role is executed by Council,
  leading the social service practitioners, in
  maintaining the ethical standards of practice (by
  giving guidance and by taking disciplinary action
  when necessary, in terms of the Act).
• Council also promotes the interests of those who
  are registered with it, for instance,
  practitioners may obtain advice from the Council
  regarding the handling of situations in their
  practise.

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Role and functions of Professional Boards

• The role and functions of the professional boards
  are as follows
• Establish registers for the practitioners under
  their auspices
• Establish the criteria for their registration
• Determine the acts or omissions which shall
  constitute unprofessional conduct
• Formulate the code of ethics to be followed in
  the practising of the profession concerned.

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Transformation Agenda of Council

• The Council appointed a Transformation Committee
  to
• attend to transformation matters including the
  ff
• Restructuring of the structure of the Council to
  address equity and operations to promote
  efficiency and responsiveness to the sector
• Demarcation of the fields of services i.e.
  Professionalisation vs Specialisation
• Review of the Social Service Professions Act, 110
  of 1978, jointly with the Department

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STATISTICS OF REGISTERED PERSONS
STATISTICS STATISTICS STATISTICS STATISTICS STATISTICS
Registered persons 2003/2004 2005/2005 2005/2006 2006/2007
Social workers 10645 10676 11414 11525
Student- Social workers 1591 1848 2189 1045
Student- Social workers 976 976 1126 1063- registration in progress- closing date June 2007
Student Social Auxiliary workers Student numbers incorporated in above statistic, June 2006 Council no longer provide its own training course and SAWs register in the FET training programme offered by the HWseta, Student numbers incorporated in above statistic, June 2006 Council no longer provide its own training course and SAWs register in the FET training programme offered by the HWseta, Student numbers incorporated in above statistic, June 2006 Council no longer provide its own training course and SAWs register in the FET training programme offered by the HWseta, 1755- FET Learnerships
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STRATEGIC PLAN

• 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.
• The Social Service Professions Act, 110, 1978 is
  the guide to ensure true collaboration.

VISION AND MISSION A professional Council
striving for social justice through guiding,
enabling, and empowering the social service
professions to promote and enhance developmental
social welfare in the interests of their various
social service client groups.

• Serving the interest of social service
  professionals
• Education and training
• Ethical conduct and
• Professional service

STRATEGIC PLAN SACSSP

• 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

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PROGRAMMES AND PRIORITIES 2007/08
PPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
CEOS/REGISTRARS OFFICE

• 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 play in ensuring adherence
  to these ethics by social service professionals
• Research into Trends pertaining to Disciplinary
• Compile a compendium of previous cases for
  social work students to use during training

• 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

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PROGRAMMES AND PRIORITIES 2007/08 (Conti

• EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

POLICY AND ADVOCACY

• 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

• Enhance image profession
• Development and implementation of Communication
  strategy
• Constituency consultation
• Management of media

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PARTNERSHIPS WITH VARIUOS SOCIAL SERVICES
STAKEHOLDERS
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Future partnering projects

• Joint strategy for mitigating impact of HIV/AIDS
  on professionals
• Accelerating education and training of more
  social workers and social auxiliary workers
• Continuous professional development
  (reorientation of social service professionals
  e.g. on customer care)

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Future partnering projects (cont.)

• Establishment of more specialities in social
  work, in line with the recruitment and retention
  strategy for social workers
• Registration of new professions e.g. development
  practitioners
• Provincial visits to employers of social workers,
  to assess compliance with norms and standards
• A conference for the sector where the unified
  professional association for social workers will
  be launched

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CHALLENGES

• To enhance the image of the social service
  professions, through marketing and 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
• To create awareness amongst civil society about
  the code of ethics of social service
  professionals

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CHALLENGES (cont.)

• To professionalize various unregulated groups of
  occupations that render inferior services to
  vulnerable groups
• To ensure financial sustainability of all
  professional boards
• To clarify the roles and responsibilities of the
  Council versus the Professional Boards in
  relation to the Councils role as the juristic
  person and the accounting institution
• Registration of child and Youth care workers
  Acceleration of the consultation process to
  enable the finalisation of the regulations and
  database to be able to register them

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CONCLUSION

• Council sincerely appreciates this opportunity to
  present to the Portfolio Committee on issues of
  common interest that are meant to improve the
  sector and challenges faced by our country

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THANK YOU