Submission
to the National Assembly on
the Children’s
Amendment Bill (B19B- 2006)
From the
South African Congress for Early Childhood development and Early Learning
Resource Unit (ELRU): August 2007
This submission has been endorsed by
the following organisations:
RAPCAN
SASPCAN
ACESS
Children’s Rights Centre
Children’s Institute
Wozabona
Foundation for Community Work (FCW)
TREE
New Beginnings
Introduction and background
information:
Note:
A comprehensive service can include:
preschools, nursery schools or educare centres, playgroups, crèches/day care,
baby care, home visiting and parent education and support programmes, family
education, health and nutrition programmes (White paper for Social Welfare
1997), Grade R/Reception Year, After school care, Summer camps, Programmes for
disabled children, children with chronic illness (including those children
infected and affected by HIV AIDS) and children with special needs. Developmental screening programmes.
There are
many relevant changes to this Bill accepted
by the NCOP and related to strategies,
systems and
norms and standards. These are welcomed and should remain. However
particular clauses in need of change or strengthening are noted below if this
Bill is to come closer towards the realization of the wider ECD vision that we
are all striving to achieve!
Clause |
Amendment
proposed |
Proposed
amendment and motivation. |
78 B19B |
Provision The MEC
for Soc Dev of province may, from money appropriated by the
relevant provincial legislature,
provide and fund partial care facilities and services for that province,
taking into consideration the national and provincial strategies contemplated
in section 77. |
Amendment: Motivation: It is imperative that the MEC is
required to make a firm commitment to provide funding or ECD will remain
vulnerable to provincial budgets as is presently the case. |
Latest 79 |
Norms and standards. (1)The minister must determine N&S by
regulation after consultation with interested persons, including local
government. |
Amendment: Insert : The Minister must…… after
consultation with NGO’s, FBO’s and CBO’s with interested persons including local
government. Motivation It is important to mention the
NGO’s, FBO’s and CBO’s who provide the bulk of services and
programmes. |
80 |
Partial care to be registered. |
Amendment New insert d) Registration must take place at
one venue for both facilities and programmes. Motivation. It appears that the registration
process has not been simplified and that facilities will still have to
register with other departments eg environmental health and safety and
education which makes registration a costly and time consuming process. |
81 |
Application
for registration and renewal of registration.
ii) any documents
that may be prescribed by regulation. |
Amendment:Insert (d) new. All officials involved in the
different components of ECD should receive training on the principles and
importance of ECD. Motivation. Self explanatory Amendment:
insert (ii) any documents that may
be prescribed by regulation must be “user
friendly” A key objective for ECD is to
increase access to the large numbers of children outside of existing
provision. The importance of ‘user friendly’ documents (documents appropriate
to the language and level of language of the targeted population) must be
underscored. |
82 2 b |
Consideration
of application (b)the applicant is a fit
and proper person to operate a partial care facility (c) the applicant has the
necessary funds and resources available to provide the partial care services
of the type applied for: |
Amendment. Inserts (b) Definition of a “fit
and proper person to operate a partial care facility” is required. Cross
reference to regulations. (c)The applicant has the necessary skills, funds and resources ….. Motivation Personnel must be appropriately
trained or have experience and be in the process of being trained. |
83 |
Conditional
registration (c) providing for any other matters that may
be prescribed. |
Amendment (c) Insert: providing for any other matters
that may be prescribed by regulation. (The relationship of norms and standards (79) and (95) to
the proposed regulations and the recently published Guidelines for ECD Services (Dept of Soc
Dev 2005) requires clarification and cross referencing.) |
84 |
Cancellation
of registration. (3) The provincial head of social
development may assist a registration holder to comply with the prescribed
norms and standards in (79) or any
provisions of this Act where the cancellation was due to non-compliance with
those N&S, conditions, requirements or provisions. |
Amendment,
insert (3)… may assist ………with advice or
by means of a conditional grant Motivation: Assistance remains vague and says
nothing about the need for funds. This needs to be linked to the vision
to extend service provision to the vast number of vulnerable children and
families who remain outside of service provision. |
85 |
Notice of
enforcement. (3) New |
Amendment: Insert
new (3): If a partial care facility is
closed then alternative arrangements must be made with immediate effect. Motivation Closure of partial care facilities
often leads to great hardship for the parents/caregivers as alternative
facilities, particularly with regard to disabled children and children with
special needs are hard to find in many places. |
87 |
Record of
and provision for partial care facility. |
Amendment: Insert (b) prioritising the types of facilities
most urgently needed for those children and families currently outside of
service provision. Motivation. It is vitally important to ensure
that provision is extended to include those categories of children who are
presently outside of service provision |
90 |
Regulations |
Amendment Motivation. Fees act as a barrier to access
for many vulnerable children and appeals are a costly and time consuming
procedure. Income sources such as grants and
subsidies other than fees are required in order to expand service provision. Child support grants(CSG) are
extremely vulnerable to the demand for fees. Fees defeat the purpose of the
CSG’s which is to strengthen child growth and development and provide
adequate nutrition. |
CHAP 6 Clause 91 |
EARLY
CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT Early
childhood development Definition … birth to school
going. (1)
ECD for the purposes of this Act means the process of
emotional, cognitive, spiritual, moral, physical and social dev or children
from birth to school going age. (2) ECD services means
services- (a) intended to promote
ECD and (b) provided by a
person, other than a child’ parent or caregiver, on a regular basis to
children up to school-going age. (3) An ECD programme
means a programme structured within an ECD service to provide leaning and
support appropriate to the child’s developmental age and stage |
This section defining the ambit of
ECD remains problematic. Amendment Motivation. Studies have shown the critical developmental
importance of the prebirth period which highlights the importance of the
Department of Health as a key ECD partner with the Departments of Social
Development and Education. The definition 0 -9 is in line
with international standards and the UNCRC to which The importance of After
care for children up to nine years where parents or caregivers are
working must be emphasized. Grade R
provisioning would also fall under this ambit. This section should however be
explicit that the Department of Education is responsible for providing and
regulating Grade R services that are attached to the formal schooling system
and that the Department of Social Development be responsible for all other
ECD provisioning, including grade R offered at community, home based
facilities and family outreach programmes. The Department of Social
Development should be responsible for providing for and regulating all other
ECD services outside the formal schooling system. This includes services for
6 – 9 year olds who are in the formal system but use ECD centres outside the
formal system, such as after school
centres run by NGOs. The present situation is a bit of
a grey area in that some of these are at schools but the subsidy is from DSD ECD is the first line of prevention and intervention
for children and families. Therefore Chapter 8 clause 144 need to be cross referenced here so that
early prevention is included in the
holistic view of ECD as intended. Early childhood development programmes include a
range of programmes to support child
development including direct support for the role of parents as the child’s
first duty bearer. Programmes
include those that provide
support to parents of children with disabilities, chronic illnesses, special
needs and to children and families living in poverty and difficult
circumstances as well as to children and families in more well off
circumstances. These
programmes include parent
support groups, parent advice services, counselling services, referral services and
partial care and early childhood development
centres and programmes. Children with disabilities and children living
in poverty are more vulnerable to abuse and neglect if their parents are not
adequately supported to care for their children’s extra needs as caring for a
child with a disability places strain on a family. In order to assist parents to move
away from using violence (corporal punishment) to discipline their children,
programmes that provide information and support to parents and to
practitioners on alternative non-violent positive forms of discipline should
be provided and funded. |
93 |
·
Provision of ECD programmes. ·
(1)The MEC for social
development of a province may, from money appropriated by the relevant
provincial legislature, provide and fund ECD programmes for that province. (4)The funding of ECD programmes in
communities where families lack the means of providing proper shelter, food
and other basic necessities of life to their children must be given priority. (5)ECD programmes must be provided
by – (a)a partial care facility
providing partial care services for any children up to school going age.; and (b)a child and youth care centre
which has in its care any children up to school age. |
Amendment:
Insert: (1) The MEC MUST….. Motivation The omission of budgetary
commitment for ECD services and programmes completely undermines the
integrity of this Bill and remains a serious omission. This is a vital
provision if we want to ensure that budgetary requirements and procedures are
in place to secure adequate funds for ECD services and programmes and to
achieve the intention of 93(4). Amendment Insert: 2(c) determine measures to
ensure that budgetary requirements and procedures are complied with to secure
adequate funds for the provision of early childhood development services and
programmes. Motivation: Mechanisms to ensure delivery must
be in place: At a meeting of the Portfolio
Committee on Socia Development on 20 June 2007, Musa Mbere(Director for
Children, national Department of ocial Development) said that the national
Department of Social Development had allocated R2.4 bn for ECD to provinces,
but the provinces used some of these funds for other purposes which indicates
that clear legislative mandates are required![1] Mechanisms are required
to make things work, to ensure co-ordination between government departments
involved in providing services and resourcing ECD sites. Most of the problems
in the ECD sector are due to the lack
of inter-sectoral collaboration. “At provincial level ECD function is
seldom stand-alone and typically falls under other Directorates. The location
of ECD within provincial departments differs across provinces. They are
managed in an ad hoc, inconsistent, uncoordinated manner”. [2] The Department of Social
Development must ensure:
The 2001 White Paper on Early Childhood
Development[3] seeks
to increase the amount and quality of ECD provision through inter-sectoral
collaboration. Key elements are the phasing in of a compulsory Reception Year
(Grade R)[4] for
children by 2010, a variety of programmes for children birth to 5 years
including developmental screening,
home based and family education outreach programmes, nutrition and
health programmes; practitioner development and the development of a
strategic plan for inter-sectoral collaboration with the other role players
involved in pre-reception year provision. Integration was identified and
supported unanimously by all parties as a major goal and as a challenge to be
addressed in the development of the Guidelines for Daycare.(2005).
The Department of
Education is responsible for subsidising Grade R whereas the Department of
Social Development subsidises all other ECD services. Subsidisation, as it
currently stands, it is open to the interpretation of officials. Subsidies
need to be covered in the regulations in such way that they are transparent,
easy to administer, do not overload bureaucracy, and keep pace with
inflation. The Interim Policy for
ECD recognises the importance of public funding for ECD services. “The public
funding of ECD programmes is justified on many grounds. It can help redress
past discrimination against young children, protect the rights of children
and women, promote human resource development, help prevent costly social
pathologies, secure more efficient performance by children in school and
improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the schooling system”[5] The Report on the
National ECD pilot project outlines
the importance of a strong political will within provincial government to
enhance ECD provisioning. This is particularly important with regard to
budgeting processes because in certain provinces funding for ECD services are
absorbed for other expenditures. It is proposed that
funding for ECD projects be ring
fenced so that they are not used for any other purposes, or provided
through a conditional grant. ECD should be moved from the periphery of
government to its core thus getting the appropriate budgeting attention it
requires.[6] |
94 Latest version. |
Norms and standards. 94(1) The Minister must determine
national norms and standards by regulation after consultation with interested
persons, including the departments of Education and Health. . (3) Early childhood
development programmes provided in terms of this section must be appropriate
to the needs of the children for whom the services are provided, including
children with disabilties, chronic illness and other special needs. |
There is confusion within the
sector on what Norms and standards are currently in operation and how this
relates to the “Regulations” and to the manual ‘Guidelines for Day Care’ (Dept
of Social Development Oct 2005). One of the drafters of the manual stated
that the “latest norms and standards are reasonable even for the poorest,
otherwise the safety of children will be compromised. It doesn’t even
stipulate that there should be running water on the property, only that it be
nearby.” We submit that that the manual should be used as the basis
for the development of the norms and standards and the regulations. 94(3) must be cross referenced to Chapter 8 on
Prevention and Early Intervention and to 194 2 (l) – see discussion below. |
95 |
Early childhood programme to be registered. (1) A person
operating or managing a partial care facility or a child and youth care
centre where an early childhood development programme is provided must- (a)
register the prog with the prov head of soc dev (b)
provide the prog in accordance with any conditions subject to which the prog
is registered; and © comply
with the prescribed norms and standards(N&S :94) (2) The Min by
regulation may exempt any person or org or any category of person or org from
the requirement to register on such conditions as may be prescribed. (a) ECD programmes provided by a
national or prov state dept responsible for soc dev or education need not
comply with subsection (1) |
Amendment Insert 95 (1) (a) ECD facilities should
be allowed to apply for registration and subsidisation jointly to avoid
unnecessary delays. Motivation: Description of the
current situation- Cash subsidies for crèches and for ECD programmes ECD facilities are
currently eligible for subsidies from the Department of Social Development if
they are registered with the Department (or from the Education Department if
they are registered grade R providers). But many facilities often operate in
poor areas and are in need of state support/subsidies in order to comply with
the standards required for registration. Registration is a lengthy and
expensive process and facilities cannot apply for a subsidy until they are
registered. This is a catch twenty two situation because if the registration
requirements are examined, it is clear that facilities will need a stable
source of income to meet some of the registration requirements. Often ECD
facilities assume they will automatically receive subsidisation upon
registration.[7] Refer discussion Clause 98 which allows
conditional registration. |
96 |
Application for registration and renewal of registration. 96(1) An application for
registration or conditional reg of an ECD prog or for the renewal of a
registration must- (a)be lodged with the prov head of
soc dev of the prov where the partial care facility or child and youth care
centre is situated in accordance with a procedure prescribed by regulation; |
The regulations are critical to
this and following clauses. It is essential the NGO’s, FBO’s and CBO’s are
consulted with regard to the regulations that form the basis of this and
following clauses. Amendment Insert: 96(5) All officials involved in
different components of ECD should receive basic training on the principles and importance
of ECD. |
97 |
Consideration of application (1)The provincial head of social developpment must ……. (b) issue to the applicant a cert
of registration or conditional registration or renewal of registration in
the form prescribed by regulation, if the application is granted; and ……… |
Amendment Insert: 97(1)(b) Regulations
must be drafted so that they do not act as barriers for ECD provisioning. Many ECD programmes serving the
poorest communities are unlikely to have the funds and resources unless they
become registered and subsidised. If the Bill places the obligation
on ECD service providers to meet all these requirements in order to register,
the Department of Social Development should indicate its willingness to
assist these service providers to meet these requirements. When considering an application
for registration, the provincial head of social development must take into
account all relevant factors including whether- Insert: (a)
the early childhood development facility and programme
complies with the minimum requirements prescribed by regulation; or does
not comply but submits a proposal that shows commitment towards compliance
and has requested assistance for this purpose. Insert: (c) the applicant has
the necessary skills, funds and resources available to provide the early
childhood development services in accordance with the early childhood
development applied for; or does not have the necessary
skills, funds and resources, but submits a proposal that shows commitment
towards obtaining them and has requested assistance for this purpose. |
98 |
Conditional registration |
Clause 98 allows for conditional
registration of ECD service providers. Therefore ECD service providers are
granted conditional registration and will be granted full registration on
compliance with minimum standards. It would be effective for those facilities
with few resources to be able to call upon the assistance of the departments
of Education and Social Development to meet registration requirements, thus
enabling them to apply for subsidies. It is recommended that facilities that
are conditionally registered be in receipt of developmental subsidisation
that would aid the facility to satisfy the conditions to be fully registered Refer 81. 83. 84 Partial care. A developmental grant (covered in
section 100) to assist them to meet minimum standards and become fully
registered. |
99 |
Accepted |
|
100 |
Notice of Enforcement |
Amendment Insert: (d): the person where
to go to gain access to an
assistance programme that would aid towards the compliance with minimum
standards Motivation As has been recommended
throughout the submission, where reference has been made to minimum
requirements, the Department of social development should indicate access to
assistance that would aid ECD service providers to meet minimum requirements.
|
101 |
Assessment of ECD programmes. |
Amendment Insert 101(1) A provincial head of social
development must in consultation with
the Department of Education and the ECD Directorate authorise a suitably
qualified person to assess the provision and content of ECD programmes, in
order to determine whether the programme complies with the prescribed norms
and standards (94) and such other requirements including the quality
assurance process as may be prescribed. |
Latest 102
|
Section
102- Assignment of functions to municipality. (1) Prov head may ….assign to
municipal manager 95.96.97.98. 99.100. 101 (3) THE Municipal
manager refereed to in subsection (1) may delegate any power or duty assigned
to him or her in terms of this section to a designated social worker in the
employ of the municipality |
Amendment 102(1) Insert: Delegated personnel must be
trained and sensitized to the needs of the ECD sector. Motivation: Municipality offices are more
accessible to registration applicants than social development offices. Amendment
Delete
and insert: 102 (3) social worker to social
work professional as described elsewhere. |
103 |
Regulations 103 The Minister may make
regulations in terms of section 306 concerning- a) the N&S that ECD services and programmes must comply
with; (b) any other requirements with
which ECD programmes must comply; (c) the procedure to be followed
in connection with the lodging and consideration of applications for
registration in terms of this Chap and for the renewal of such registrations; (d) the assessment and compulsory
monitoring of ECD programmes offered at partial care facilities and child and
youth care centres …. |
Amendment Insert 103. The minister must make
regulatons in terms of section 306… Amendment Insert Error. Typo – d) is duplicated
and in the last sub clause must become
(e). |
[1] Proudlock, P, Budlender,D & Jamiseson, L Draft submission to
the Natioanl Asembly on the Childrens Amendment Bill B19B. Children’s
Institute,
[2] Ibid
[3] Op cit 3
[4] The South African Schools Act has been amended to the effect that admission age to Grade R is age 4 turning 5 by 30 June in the year of admission.
[5] Op Cit 2, p28
[6] Op Cit 20 ,p4