PROGRESS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF

THE CHILDREN’S ACT 38 OF 2005 AS AMENDED

25 AUGUST 2009SELECT COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL

SERVICES

2

Overview of the presentation

• Background and summary of the Act

• Regulations

• Costing

• Implementation of the Act and plans

• Backlog in current service delivery

• Intesectoral steering committee and the National Child Care & Protection Forum

• M&E

• Training

• National Policy Framework & strategy

• Communication material

• Norms, standards and practice guidelines

• Way forward

• Conclusion

3

Background

• 1997: Minister for Social Development requested SALRC to investigate and review the Child Care Act, 1983, and to make recommendations for the reform of this particular branch of the law

• June 2002: Draft Children’s Bill submitted to Minister

• December 2002: SALRC published final report and final proposed draft Bill

4

Background

• January to July 2003: DSD prepared Bill for tabling• August 2003: Bill approved by Cabinet• October 2003: Certified by State Law Adviser• October/November 2003: Bill split:

– Part dealing with national matters – to be dealt with i.t.o sect 75 of Constitution

– Part dealing with provincial matters – to be dealt with i.t.o sect 76 of Constitution

• November 2003: First briefing of Portfolio Committee for Social Development (Nat Assembly)

5

Background

• February to May 2004: No progress due to elections• June 2004: Bill reintroduced to Parliament• August 2004: Start briefings to new Portfolio Committee• Middle August 2004: Public Hearings• September 2004 to June 2005: Deliberation of the

Children’s Bill in Portfolio Committee• 22 June 2005: Bill approved by National Assembly,

referred to NCOP for concurrence• August 2005: Start briefings to Select Committee (NCOP)

6

Background

• September 2005: Public hearings - certain aspects• October / November 2005: Deliberation of the Children’s

Bill in Select Committee • December 2005: Bill adopted by NCOP with amendments• December 2005: Bill referred back to National Assembly • December 2005: Bill adopted by National Assembly with

further amendments• June 2006: President assented to Children’s Act• 19 June 2006: Children’s Act, No. 38 of 2005 published• 1 July 2007: 43 sections of Children’s Act promulgated.

Background

• April/May 2007: Amendment Bill redrafted to accommodate comments from departmental workshops and provincial public hearings.

• 29 May 2007: NCOP approved redrafted Children’s Amendment Bill as Bill 19B of 2006.

• June 2007: Bill referred to National Assembly.• August/September 2007: Portfolio Committee for

Social Development held public hearings on Bill.

Background

• October 2007: Portfolio Committee deliberations on Children’s Amendment Bill.

• 23 October 2007: Portfolio Committee vote on amendments to Bill 19B-2006.

• November 2007: Second reading debate in National Assembly to take place, where after Bill will be referred back to NCOP.

• The NCOP to passed the Bill in Dec 2008.

The Content of the Children’s Act 2005 and Children’s Amendment Bill

1. Interpretation, objects, application and implementation of the Act.

2. Principles

3. Parental responsibilities and rights

4. Children’s Courts

5. Partial Care

6. ECD

7. Protection of Children-Part 1 and 4

8. Prevention and Early Intervention

9. Child in need of Care and protection

10. Contribution Order

11 Alternative Care

12 Foster Care

13 Child and youth care centres

14 Shelters and drop in centres

15 Adoptions

16 Inter country Adoptions

17 Child abductions

18 Child Trafficking

19 Surrogate Motherhood

20 Enforcement of Act

21 Administration of Act

10

REGULATIONS• DSD & DOJ drafted the regulations as required by the Act.

• The draft DSD Regulations were finalised and approved by the Select Committee on Social Services and the National Council of Provinces on 17 and 19 March 2009 respectively.

• The Act requires the Minister of DSD to consult with other Ministers who have obligations in terms of the Act on the Regulations. The Draft DSD Regulations were submitted to the respective Ministers for consultation and the office of the Chief State Law Advisor for review and certification on 10 February 2009.

11

REGULATIONS (CONT….)

• The Departments of Basic Education, Health, and Police responded and made proposals on the draft Regulations.

• The Office of the State Law Advisor reviewed and certified the draft DSD Regulations and provided feedback in May 2009.

12

REGULATIONS• To implement the Act the following processes need to be finalised:

– The DSD is in the process of revising and incorporating the amendments proposed by other departments and the State Law Advisors.

– The Justice & DSD Regulations should be approved by the respective Ministers.

– Both Regulations need to be proclaimed before the Act may be implemented.

– The Minister of Justice and the Minister of Social Development need to agree on the remaining sections of the Act that may be promulgated and the possible date of promulgation.

13

Costing

• The Children’s Act as amended has been through an extensive and detailed costing process. The process involved all national and provincial departments that play part in the implementation of the Act. The final costing report was submitted to the Minister in July 2006.

14

Implementation of the Act

• Costing results revealed that: – The Children’s Act creates additional

responsibility on the state to make plans for, and encourage, the development of a range of new services including partial care, prevention and early intervention services, child and youth care centres and drop-in centres where these are deemed necessary. This was not an expectation within the Child Care Act.

15

Implementation of the Act

– Overall, the Children’s Act extends the responsibility of the state, and regulates a wider range of services than those covered by the Child Care Act. In practice, this creates the need for greater state capacity for the registration and monitoring of a range of new services, as well as a responsibility on the state to create such new services where they do not exist.

– The new obligations extend to other departments such as SAPS, DOH, DOJ&CD, DOE, DPLG

16

Implementation Plans

• In line with the costing report, National Departments and provinces developed implementation plans.

• The draft national intersectoral plan consist of a situation analysis, activities, projects, budgets and human resource requirements for the implementation of the Act.

• Individual plans still have gaps and DSD is visiting all provinces to assist them to update and finalize their plans.

• All plans need to be finalised for the national intersectoral plan to be comprehensive and complete.

17

Backlog in current service delivery

• Children in prison due to the lack of secure care facilities and reform schools;

• The backlogs in processing of foster care cases. • Expansion of ECD• The backlogs in the registration of children’s

homes;• The backlogs in the number of beds required in

children’s homes; and• The disparity in funding of child protection

organisations and non-state child and youth care centres across the country.

18

Intersectoral Children’s Act Steering Committee

• The Inter-sectoral Committee on the Children’s Bill was constituted during the process of drafting the Children's Bill. It composed of the children’s focal points within the various departments. This committee was best placed to deal with issues pertaining to the Children’s Act, its implementation and enforcement.

• The committee included the following Departments; DSD, DOH, DOE, Home Affairs, DCS, ORC, Treasury, DOJ, SAPS, UNICEF, Foreign Affairs, and DPLG.

19

Child Care & Protection Forum (CCPF)

• In February 2008 DSD launched CCPF • It extended membership of the Children’s Bill

steering committee to National NGO’s and additional departments like Arts & Culture, sports and recreation, Housing and transport.

• It comprises of representatives from provincial DSD, national departments which have obligations to implement the Act and National NGO’s.

• The Forum will continue to tackle all issues relating to the care and protection of children in the country.

20

M & E

• DSD finalised a framework to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Children’s Act.

• The 1st phase involved developing indicators. 201 indicators were developed and 60 were prioritised for the 1st year of implementation.

• The M & E framework will monitor and evaluate the quality of services as well as children’s access to services.

• It will evaluate how the Act impacts on, or improve the quality of life of children.

• It will also monitor the enforcement of the legislation to ensure that children’s rights are protected.

21

Training

• National DSD is continually engaged with provincial DSD and other departments.

• In 2006 after the S 75 Bill was passed, social workers in the provinces were briefed.

• After the 43 sections were promulgated in July 2007, representatives from provinces were trained on the promulgated sections.

• In 2008 the National office visited the province to provide broad orientation on the Act

• Some provinces contracted service providers to train staff in their provinces.

22

Training

• DSD is in the process of developing training guidelines for the practical implementation of the Children’s Act. The guidelines will be divided into three modules

• Phase 1 – Orientation/foundation training.• Phase 2 – Intermediate phase training• Phase 3 – Advanced phase training.• Phases 1&2 – have been finalised.• Phase 3 will be finalised by end of September 2009.• When phase 3 is finalised, training guidelines for trainers will

be developed.• DSD received the SACSSP approval and allocation of CPD

number for Module 1.

23

NPF & Strategy

• DSD in conjunction with USAID are in the process of drafting a national policy framework to ensure that the Act is implemented in a uniform, coordinated and integrated manner.

• The policy will include a strategy and the project will be finalised by end of August 2009.

Communication Material

• DSD with the support of USAID is busy with the development of a training DVD on the Act.

• UNICEF is sponsoring the development of 3 child-friendly/low literacy booklets on the Act.

Norms, Standards & Practice Guidelines

• Project started in May 2009 and will be finalised in May 2010.

• The project will start with business process mapping which will lead to the development of practice guidelines.

• The practice guideline will determine the norms and standards.

• There are some norms & standards available, however some are not in line with the Act.

• There are norms and standards in the Regulations.

26

Way forward

• Finalisation of regulations• Promulgation of the Act • Implementation plans finalised, approved and

resourced• Training • Communication• Practice guidelines and norms and standards• Implementation of the M&E• National policy Framework and strategies

Conclusion

• Successful implementation of the Act relies on cooperation and coordination between different stakeholders and professionals.

THANK YOU