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In an attempt to better understand the challenges faced by front line practitioners – the social work practitioners – and find ways to improve the delivery of social services in communities, the Department of Social Development has recently hosted district and provincial dialogues with social work practitioners across the country to discuss critical matters pertaining to the social work practice.

The dialogues gave social work practitioners an opportunity to speak out on the daily challenges they face relating to working conditions, supervision and management as well as the integration of services with other role players for effective service delivery. Through these sessions, social work practitioners also have been able to air their views on the reality of social work practice on the ground as well as matters relating to their retention in the sector.

Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, has called a Social Work Indaba from 24 to 26 March 2015 – under the theme “Revitalising social work practice in South Africa” – to engage social work practitioners on these and other matters. The Indaba aims to develop proposals and interventions aimed at addressing factors that impact on social work practice, critically look at the social work approaches and techniques which are applied within the practice as well as to develop strategies that will promote integration and a multi-disciplinary approach among relevant role players in the delivery of social services.

Supervision has been revealed as a major inhibiting factor in the delivery of quality social services during the dialogues.  While social work supervisors are appointed, they are not available in sufficient numbers to effectively mentor the estimated 19 500 practitioners in the public service. Currently the ratio of supervisor to practitioner ranges from 1:10 to 1:13 depending where you in the country, leaving many practitioners working without supervision.  Because of this high ratio, service office managers are also expected to be social work supervisors but are unable to dedicate sufficient time to this task because of their own workload.  As such, suggest practitioners, social work supervision has been reduced to report writing.

High caseloads have also been pointed out as an inhibiting factor to quality service, affecting both social workers and their supervisors.  Currently the ratio of social workers to population countrywide is estimated at 1:5000, well above recommended levels.  This is exacerbated by the fact that social workers are expected by communities to be ‘general development workers’. The effect of this is poor implementation of norms and standards in social work practise. Linked to high caseloads is stress, which may sometimes lead to depression, especially because practitioners are often confronted with traumatic situations on the field.  As a result, the need to be consistent in the debriefing and counselling of practitioners has been highlighted.

Social work practitioners have also spoken of insufficient personal development programmes, making career progression and studying towards specialisation difficult.  Inadequate and poorly resourced offices, lack of vehicles as well as the non-payment of danger and rural allowances – in line with the scarce skill status – have also been raised. The Social Work Indaba that will look into these issues is part of the Department’s key objective to reform the social welfare sector and services to deliver better results.

Among the initiatives the Department is pursuing in this regard is the review of the White Paper for Social Welfare (1997).  The review is looking into the fragmentation of policy outputs and outcomes; the status of quality control, monitoring and evaluation systems in the sector; allocation of financial resources for social welfare services; accessibility of services; the implementation of community development strategies; and the diversification of the workforce required to deliver social welfare services. Further, in order to meet the 55 000 social service practitioner target as set out by the National Development Plan, the Department has rolled out a scholarship programme funding students who want to study social work at universities.

Since the scholarship programme started, about 8 000 young people have graduated through the Department’s assistance.  More than 3 500 of these have been absorbed into the public service.  The Department is working closely with provinces to address the issue of absorption. The Department has also sought to find those social workers who are qualified but remain unemployed.  To this end, the Department has started compiling a database aimed at keeping a record of all unemployed qualified social workers in the country.  The database is used to lobby, on an ongoing basis, for funds to create social work posts that are required within the public service.

Attempts to improve the quality of service delivered by social work practitioners also include the Social Work Veterans Forum.  This initiative provides young and upcoming social workers with an opportunity to learn from their veteran counterparts who have been in the field for a long time.  It is a major opportunity for social workers who have recently graduated from institutions of higher learning to build working relations with veterans and benefit from their wealth of knowledge.

The Social Work Indaba, to be held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban, therefore seeks to build on these initiatives through direct participation of the practitioners who interact with communities on a daily basis.

Issued by the Department of Communications on behalf of National Department of Social Development