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South Africa: Minister to Tackle Foster Care Grant Challenges |
| Source: |
The New Age Online |
| Source Date: |
Monday, November 17, 2014 |
| Focus: |
ICT for MDGs
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| Country: |
South Africa |
| Created: |
Nov 17, 2014 |
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The order effectively placed a moratorium on the lapsing of the grants. This meant social workers were allowed to extend grants administratively until December 2014 by which a legal solution must have been in place to prevent qualifying families for losing their grants.
Dlamini announced that a ministerial task team has been appointed to determine the contributing factors to the challenges with the foster care system. The 24-member team to be co-chaired by Bongi Ntuli and Mbuyiselo Botha will report back within 18 months.
“The committee will be expected to consult with the respective provincial heads of social development and Sassa regarding the status of the foster care programme and conduct a gap analysis of the available psychosocial programmes within the social welfare programme,” Dlamini said:
A lack of capacity and social work supervisors had led to short cuts with many social workers opting to process a child support grant instead of the applicable foster care grant, among others.
Dlamini said there were about 200000 children receiving foster grants in the year 2000. The number has increased to more than 553000 by September 2014.
“From the amount of backlogs that exist, it is clear that the arrangements in the provinces to implement foster care programmes are not adequate for the demand that exists,” Dlamini said.
“An efficient foster care system requires synergy to exist between the various role players.
QUICK FACTS
» A foster care grant is given to someone who cares for a child who is not their own by birth
» The amount is R840 from April 2014
» A foster child may be placed in the custody of foster parents as a result of being orphaned, abandoned, at risk, abused or neglected
» Last year, a court order was granted allowing grandparents to qualify for foster care grant
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South Africa: Minister to Tackle Foster Care Grant Challenges Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini yesterday moved to tackle challenges in the foster care grant system especially the backlog in the processing of applications and extensions in all the provinces Dlamini moved to comply with a court order in 2011 that stipulated the foster care court orders that had expired or that were to expire in the next two years must be deemed to have been extended until June 2013
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