I will request a meeting with the Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, to present the DA’s plan to address the shortage of social workers in South Africa.
     

     
A reply <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_-slGu8-FTxcUNUNUpSbml5ME0/view?usp=sharing>  to DA parliamentary question reveals that there is a 75% shortfall nationally. This means that we currently require 51 000 more social workers to meet the requirements set out in our national legislation.
     

     
This critical shortage has been going on for some time. In a reply <https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_-slGu8-FTxa1ppalVyUDctRE0/edit>  to a DA parliamentary question in June 2013, the Minister acknowledged that there was a 77% shortfall. Since then, not much has happened to turn this difficult situation around.
     

     
Social workers play a crucial part in our society. They provide support, in the form of therapy and inventions such as removal of children from destructive environments, to children who have been abused, abandoned or neglected.
     

     
This role is crucial given that 96 000 children grow up in child-headed homes and approximately 40% of our children grow up in homes headed by a single parent. Many South African children clearly grow up in difficult circumstances, and social workers play an important part in assisting these children.
     

     
In our social protection policy <http://www.da.org.za/docs/657/Social%20Protection.pdf>  the DA has set out the steps that we would take to address the social worker shortage. 
     

     
These steps are:
     
     

• Establishing dedicated training colleges for social workers with the aim to establish two such colleges in every province within ten years.
• Offering generous bursaries for social work students and encouraging private sector investment in bursaries for social workers.
• Improving the image of social work and bringing greater alignment between the salaries of social workers in the public sector and those working for NGOs.
• Actively recruiting social workers from the African continent and the rest of the world.
• Maximise government outsourcing of services to good NGOs working in the field, accompanied by strict contract management to ensure accountability.

     
The Minister has an obligation to provide support to those most vulnerable in our society and the DA will do all we can to ensure this happens.

 

Issued by DA