AN AGILE SOCIAL WORK NEEDED FOR THE ARRESTED CHILD

By Cuma Pantshwa

• A review of the Department of Social Development’s (DSD) secure care policy is underway.This follows a report by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) highlighting inadequacies in caring for children with diverse needs, including pregnant girls, LGBTQIA+ youth, and those with disabilities.
• The current profile of children entering secure care demands a new approach.Social workers require retraining to effectively address these complex needs and ensure the safety and well-being of all children.
• The DSD acknowledges the need for swift action.Retraining social workers, exploring multi-stakeholder partnerships with health and education sectors, and developing clear protocols are crucial steps towards creating a more responsive and inclusive secure care system.

Birchwood: – The profile of the child who is getting arrested and entering the social development’s secure care centre requires a new cadre of social work with new skills to deal with the new challenges of the country. These trends require an agile department of social development and retrained and skilled social worker.

This came after, secure care managers and provincial coordinators met in Gauteng following the report by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) that identified gaps in DSD’s current secure care policy. The two-day session aimed at updating the 2010 policy blueprint to reflect current challenges, ensuring comprehensive protection and rehabilitation for children in secure care centres in line with the Children’s Act.

The SAHRC report found anomalies in ten critical areas namely: basic care, safety, dignity, management of challenging behaviour, treatment and development of children and youth, provision of education to children with learning barriers, vocational training, the facility infrastructure that is not compliant, lack of preparedness for pandemics or crisis and that developmental quality assurance was not carried out in all provinces.

The secure care managers and provincial coordinators gathered to rectify these anomalies and to formulate a way forward for Child Youth Care Centre (CYCC)- Secure care.

The regulations that will be formulated will be consulted and then gazetted for further consultation. The meeting identified that the profile of the child who is in conflict with the law can be:

• ⁠ ⁠a pregnant girl who requires specialized care and support;
• ⁠ ⁠LGBTQIA children require sensitive and inclusive services;
• ⁠ ⁠Disabled children who demand tailored approaches to meet their unique needs;

-Children with substance abuse problems who display different behavioural patterns;

-Children with different cultural practices and beliefs who require inclusive services and understanding.

In light of these trends social workers agreed that there is a greater need to retrain all social workers working in the facilities so that they can adequately care for all children who end up on the wrong side of the law.

Deliberating on the challenges, social workers tabled scenarios that require innovative solutions.

“As we adapt to these shifts, it’s clear that our social workers need enhanced skills to effectively support vulnerable populations” said Mr Steven Maselesele, Director of Social Crime Prevention at DSD.

“Rehabilitation can become a huge problem if we do not develop our people with modern skills and training. In order to ensure we are catering and doing our best for the children, we have to remain responsive to the changing landscape” expressed Ms Patricia Ramere from the Soshanguve Secure Care Centre.

Ramere further stated: “our facilities are not conducive for a pregnant child, our staff is not trained and we need to fast track finding a solution because we have had pregnant teenage girls awaiting trial in our facility. We can never turn away a child but a solution is needed”.

With the widely researched and benchmarked Blueprint Norms and standards of 2010 that is currently under review, Mr Maselesele agreed that the department must now respond with agility.

He stated that DSD has sufficient evidence and data to report during the consultations and processing of the regulations.

“We need to now develop standard operating procedures on how to care and manage the child who is pregnant who is in our facility. If it means we need to train our staff on midwifery, then this we need to explore. There is a multi-stakeholder engagement that needs to take place with health and education on the matter” stressed Maselesele.

The meeting agreed that ongoing support, education and professional development is required on to capacitate personnel to ensure that social workers responsible for children in conflict with the law are equipped to address the complex needs of this vulnerable population, ultimately promoting safer and inclusive communities.