Reviewed Submission on the Draft Children’s Amendment
Bill
From the National Association of Child and Youth Care
Workers (NACCW)
September 2007
Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development
Introduction
Child
and youth care workers provide direct ‘life space’ work in child and youth care
centres and other settings. However they are not expressly defined and named in
the Bill and are not expressly allocated functions and roles in the Bill
(except sometimes in the Child and Youth Care chapter).
We
therefore recommend the insertion of a definition of a “child and youth care
worker” as follows: “Child and Youth Care worker and auxiliary child and youth
care worker means a person who is registered or deemed to be registered as a
child and youth care worker or an auxiliary child and youth care worker, in
terms of the Social Service Professions Act, 1978 (Act No. 110 of 1978)”.
Acknowledgements
Current developments in
the field of Child and Youth Care.
Challenges
Roles
CYCW’s are there when the rubber hits the tar. In other words they
are there when the child and the family needs someone
now and not the day thereafter, but now. The one reason why there are not a lot
of them, CYCW’s here today is because they are
involved in the life space of the families that are sick, vulnerable and at
risk.
They
work within the most poor conditions that most people
here have not seen and might not see.
As
stated in the introduction, Child and youth care workers provide direct ‘life
space’ work in the lives of vulnerable and at risk children, therefore child
and youth care workers work in a variety of settings that includes the
following:
§
community based care; these CYCW’s
deal with complex issues from children in trouble with the law, abandoned
children, children dropping out of school for some reason, children with
disabilities, ISIBINDI is a
programme that was developed by the NACCW that is aimed at providing support
and care and ‘life space’ development for young people who are affected by or
infected with HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the programme is to provide a CYCW to a
family where the parents are alive and at various stages of HIV/AIDS. The CYCW’s ensure that the children and parents are safe,
secure and have the basics to survive.
§
residential care: i.e. ‘secure care centres: CYCW’s work with children who are in trouble with the law
for the most serious offences and are awaiting trial. They teach the young
people skills to deal with their circumstances. places of safety: CYCW’s work with
children who are awaiting trial for less serious offences as well as those
awaiting placement at an alternative residential care facility. children’s homes: CYCW’s work in the life space of children who are placed at
these children’s homes teaching and modelling appropriate behaviours, teaching
life skills, equipping children with skills to live independently and preparing
these young people for reintegration into the broader community.
§
partial care: e.g. shelters for
children living on the street. The CYCW’s work
throughout the day and the night making sure that these children have meals,
are safe, have medical care and to encourage them to get back into the
community by offering them life skills programmes and other opportunities.
§
in certain provinces, child and youth care workers work in
schools and provide support for learners with challenging behaviour,
What will the effects be if CYCW’s are not professionally recognised?
Way forward
Alfred
Harris and Francisco Cornelius, NACCW,