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Provincial Budgets and Expenditure Review: 2003/04 – 2009/10 Chapter 4: Social Development. 17 October 2007. 2006/07 Outcome. Programme Spending. Programme Spending (cont.). Programme Spending (cont.). Real per capita expenditure on Welfare Services. Services to Older Persons.
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Provincial Budgets and Expenditure Review: 2003/04 – 2009/10Chapter 4: Social Development 17 October 2007
Services to children (cont) • Child Care Act (1983) – • registration of ECD sites • 6 508 • provision of subsidies to children from poor households. • 314 912 children @ a cost of R350 million • Expansion of ECD is planned over the medium term (however some key challenges remain) • capacity and bureaucracy around registration • aligning ECD provincial targets • cooperation and coordination with other departments especially Education • investing in infrastructure and equipment
Developments within the sector • With Social Assistance removed different approaches to developmental welfare services are evident: • Eg. Western Cape and Northern Cape continue to follow a predominantly welfare approach, whereas Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal tend to focus on community development • Strong reliance on Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) as partners to service delivery. • Government and NGOs are the largest employers of social workers. • competition for scarce resources causes significant challenges within the sector, of which Social Workers remains the biggest concern.
Developments within the sector (cont) • Shortage of Social Workers • hampers service delivery • Interim measure, • Social Auxiliary workers • increase Social Worker graduates with the awarding of about 1000 bursaries per year. • conducting an audit of working conditions, • Norms and Standards • Monitoring and evaluation
Developments within the sector (cont) • Development of a national information management system • New budget structure • Other projects are also under way such as • linking grants to sustainable livelihoods, • the National Integrated Social Information System and • the orphans register.
Developments within the sector (cont) • On the legislative front, • Regulations for the Older Persons Act (2006) • Children’s Act (2005) • The Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse Bill • The Child Justice Bill is yet to be passed by Parliament. • Social Services Professions Act (1978) • Provincial departments are in the meantime reorienting their services
Conclusion • There are some positive development in provinces • Funding for the sector has grown and is set to continue to grow over the MTEF period. • Focus should now be on improving implementation