RAPCAN Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect

1. A prevention approach to child maltreatment: A transformation imperative RAPCAN Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect

2. The ecological theory of prevention Society Community Relationships Child

3. The rights perspective to prevention • Justiciable Constitutional rights: • S12(1)c:Everyone has the right to freedom and security of the person which includes the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources. • S28(1)d: Every child has the right to be protected from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation. • Children’s Act 2005: • s145. (1) The Minister...must include in the departmental strategy a comprehensive national strategy aimed at securing the provision of prevention and early intervention programmes to families, parents, care-givers and children across the Republic. • s: 146. (1) The MEC for social development must, from money appropriated by the relevant provincial legislature, provide and fund prevention and early intervention programmes for that province. • Not subject to progressive realisation and available resources

4. The typology of prevention • Theoretical underpinnings: • Primary prevention: Promote social change and gender equality • Secondary prevention : Target groups or individuals that are identified as high risk • Tertiary prevention: Target perpetrators or victims of violence • Norms and Standards: • Primary prevention: Early intervention that enables households to avoid problems or dysfunctioning. • Secondary prevention: Identification of problems and early intervention into the lives of individuals, families and groups who are at risk of developing social problems. • Tertiary prevention: Intervention, healing, rehabilitation and the prevention of further problems or possible removal of children for placement in alternative care. • What is government’s conceptual underpinnings of prevention?

5. Integrated service delivery model Re-integration Statutory services Early intervention Awareness and Prevention

6. The budget analysis approach • Rights-based budget analysis: • Step One: Investigating the meaning and scope of the right; • Step Two: Identifying government’s programmes that deliver on the right –focussing on services and roll-out schedule; and • Step Three: Analysing the sufficiency of these programmes - programme reach, interrogating medium term budgets, spending patterns, programme roll-out, capacity to identify and solve implementation challenges. • Preliminary conclusions: • Scope of right: Constitution expanded on in the Children’s Act • Government programme: Child protection services is the current over-arching programme • Programme sufficiency: No clarity about specific prevention programmes

7. Key recommendations • Evidence-informed consensus on prevention to guide practice in South Africa • Zeal and capacity to transform the child protection system • Seize the opportunities for inter-sectoral collaboration within clear conceptual framework

8. References WHO (2006) Preventing child maltreatment: A guide to taking action and generating evidence. WHO Press: Geneva Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act no. 108 of 1996 Children’s Act of South Africa, Act no. 2005 as amended by Children’s Amendment Act no. 41 of 2007 Schwartz, J. P., Hage, S.M., Bush, I. and Burns, L.K. 2006, “Unhealthy parenting and potential mediators as contributing factors to future intimate violence: A review of the literature” Trauma, Violence and Abuse, no. 7, no. 3, pp. 206-221 Department of Social Development (2010) Norms, standards, and practice guidelines for the Children’s Act Makoae, M., Tamsane,T. & Mdakane,K. (2009) An appraisal of the 2007 integrated care and protection plan for children in the Western Cape. A report submitted to the Department of Social Development, Western Cape. Human Sciences Research Council Streak, J. (2003) Monitoring government budgets to advance child rights: A guide for ngos. IDASA: Cape Town