BRIEFING REPORT:

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BRIEFING REPORT SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL FOR
SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS (SACSSP) TO THE
PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Presi
dent- Ms. Marilyn Setlalentoa 30 May 2007
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FOCUS AREAS

• INTRODUCTION
• ACHIEVEMENTS, STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND CHALLENGES
  
• RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION OF SOCIAL WORKERS
• ALIGNMENT OF SOCIAL WORK AND CHILD AND YOUTH CARE
  TRAINING
• COUNCILS DATABASE- REGISTERED PERSONS
• PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICS
• RESEARCH ON DEMARCATION
• REVIEW OF SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS ACT
• CONCLUSION

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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STRATEGIC PLAN 2007/08

• 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

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

STRATEGIC PLAN SACSSP
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PROGRAMMES AND PRIORITIES 2007/08
CEOS/REGISTRARS OFFICE
PROFESSIONAL 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

• 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
POLICY AND ADVOCACY

• 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

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

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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

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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.

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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.

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ALIGNMENT OF SOCIAL WORK TRAINING (Conti

• 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

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ALIGNMENT OF SOCIAL WORK TRAINING (Conti

• 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

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ALIGNMENT OF SOCIAL WORK TRAINING (Conti

• 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.

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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.

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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.

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DATABASE OF COUNCIL

• CHILD 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

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DATABASE OF COUNCIL (Conti..
STATISTICS STATISTICS STATISTICS STATISTICS STATISTICS
Registered persons 2004 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 course1739 Council no longer provides its own training course and SAWs register in the FET training programme offered by the HWseta, Student numbers incorporated in above statistic, June 2006. Those currently still in the process of completing the Councils course1739 Council no longer provides its own training course and SAWs register in the FET training programme offered by the HWseta, Student numbers incorporated in above statistic, June 2006. Those currently still in the process of completing the Councils course1739 Council no longer provides its own training course and SAWs register in the FET training programme offered by the HWseta, FET Learnerships 210

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

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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

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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

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PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICS (Conti..

• The implementation of the regulations for
• the professional conduct of social service
• professionals 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.

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PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICS (Conti..

• 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

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PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICS (Conti..

• administering disciplinary tribunals/hearings
  against defaulters where applicable
• Listing and reporting of those found guilty in
  the Councils 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

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Professional conduct cases received and attended
to

• Professional Conduct Division Statistics
• January 2007- May 2007

Cases 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)
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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

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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

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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

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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

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REVIEW OF THE SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS ACT, 110
OF 1978 (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

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REVIEW OF THE SOCIAL SERVICE PROFESSIONS ACT, 110
OF 1978 (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

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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

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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.

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CHALLENGES (Conti

• Number of learners needs to increase due to the
  provisions of the new Childrens 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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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THANK YOU