Jeanette Schmid

The interaction of local and international child welfare agendas: A South African case

This article assesses the interaction between international and local influences in South African child welfare practice and education between 2001 and 2010. Based on a mixed methods study, it finds that the primary mechanism for international exchange occurred through funding. Professional imperialism continued to be evidenced in the domination of Northern agendas in local curricula and the lack of critical interrogation of external practices. A disjuncture between research and practice priorities was found with some areas of intersection. The article provides insight into the local/global nexus in child welfare and recommends further investigation into more authentic and egalitarian international relationships of exchange.

Quo vadis? Trends in South African child welfare policies

English South African child welfare remains in transition a decade post-apartheid. Child Protection assumptions impede policy efforts towards a more intersectoral, holistic, strengths-based, family-centered and community-based approach. Since the Anglo-American child protection orientation is criticized internationally, it is useful to reflect on the South African lessons when considering system change. French Une dé cennie aprè s l’apartheid, la protection de l’enfance demeure un domaine en transition en Afrique du Sud. Les plus ré centes politiques tendent à montrer que le champ se dé place vers une approche davantage intersectorielle, holistique, basé e sur les forces, centré e sur la famille et sur la communauté , ce qui s’inscrit tout à fait dans le cadre national de la Developmental Social Welfare. Toutefois, je soutiens que les postulats de la protection de l’enfance empêchent ce virage. Spanish El sistema de bienestar infantil en Sudá frica permanece en transició n despué s de una dé cada de post-aparteid. Recientes políticas sugieren que el campo intenta moverse má s hacia un sistema inter-sectorial, holistico, basado en capacidades, centrado en la familia y en enfoque en comunidades los cuales conforman al marco de referencia de Desarrollo Nacional de la Beneficencia Social. Sin embargo, yo argumento que las suposiciones de la protecció n del niño impiden estos cambios.

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE, COHERENT AND APPROPRIATE CHILD WELFARE WORKFORCE IN SOUTH AFRICA

There is a perennial shortage of social workers in the child welfare field in South Africa. From 2001-2010 the local child welfare workforce shifted from dominance by social workers to including a range of service providers. However, the nature of the training, employment conditions, accreditation and recognition of various cadres of child welfare workers was unclear. Appropriate, coordinated and urgent responses by agencies, universities, government and accrediting bodies are needed to manage and develop this emerging workforce into a group of personnel who are able to respond effectively to the needs of vulnerable South African children and their families.

Overlooking the most vulnerable : the child welfare research agenda, 2005- 2010

Literature highlighting both the archaeology (chronology) of child welfare developments or genealogy (insight into the discourses shaping such developments) is rare. Even less available are investigations into the research agenda regarding child welfare. This paper attempts to provide a snapshot of the priorities for child welfare researchers as represented in the international literature from 2005 to 2010 and the discourses inherent within these. The qualitative study suggests that issues regarding the identification and responses to child abuse dominate, these concerns being framed individualistically and tending to ignore sociopolitical realities. Such a construction of the research agenda potentially marginalizes systemic factors and limits the relevance of the research agenda in contexts where poverty, community violence (including war) and migration (forced and voluntary) are in the foreground. The lived realities facing the majority of the worlds children are thus overlooked. The research agenda must be expanded to address the context of the most vulnerable children and to promote child welfare alternatives that speak to their experiences.

Soul Buddyz Clubs: A social development innovation

Soul Buddyz Clubs, centered on social mobilization and children’s rights, offer a model for developmental child welfare both in South Africa and further afield. Features of successful clubs and the way in which these enhance the lives of children, particularly in under-resourced areas, are highlighted.

Transforming child and family services in urban communities in South Africa: lessons from the South

ABSTRACT Post‐apartheid, South African agencies have been required to shift their services in fundamental ways, including offering services in previously un‐resourced areas, honouring the rights of children and families, ensuring that users, staff and governing bodies are representative of the population and providing developmental social welfare services in place of child protection‐oriented interventions only. A study of urban South African child welfare agencies provides insight into the complex task of managing and leading change. In view of overloaded change agenda and resource constraints, managers focused on effecting incremental change and prioritized the most ‘rewarding’ change efforts. Transforming practice towards a developmental approach was less successful. Structural interventions were also not prioritized. Child welfare agencies internationally face demands to transform in response to the effects of local change and globalization. The studys insights might resonate with agencies working for change in other societal contexts.

Successful, sustainable? Facilitating the growth of family group conferencing in Canada

ABSTRACT Family-centered approaches offer significant promise regarding the enhancement of child and family safety. Child protection workers find value in working alongside families, whereas families appreciate having a voice in decision-making processes. The introduction of Family Group Conferencing (FGC) in New Zealand in 1989 prompted the exploration of family partnership options internationally. This study, focusing on Ontario, Canada, examines the expansion of FGC from a local pilot in 1998 to a current province-wide initiative. The internal and external factors that have promoted and inhibited change were investigated. Interviews and a focus group were used to elicit the perspectives of Alternative Dispute managers and key informants. Participants concluded that the FGC program has been successful as a result of multilevel and multipronged change efforts. However, the long-term viability remains in question, primarily because of unstable funding and uneven buy-in, on provincial levels and within child welfare agencies. To ensure sustainability current strengths should be built upon, employing the same intentional, strategic planning that characterized the introduction of FGC into the province. The Ontario experience provides pointers for interested parties wishing to embed FGC and other family-centered approaches in daily child welfare practice.

RECOUNTING STORIES IN SOUTH AFRICAN CHILD WELFARE

In order to proactively bring about change, it is critical in a post-apartheid context for South African social workers to appreciate how colonial and apartheid forces have shaped the inherited welfare priorities, structures, legislation, policies and practices. It is as necessary also to identify stories of resistance as these offer hope and alternative possibilities. Authors such as McKendrick (2001), Patel (2005) and Loffell (2000) have tracked many aspects of South African welfare history. In its submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – a body set up to formally acknowledge past injustices with the goal of bringing about political reconciliation – the welfare sector set out how it had contributed to historical discrimination and wrongs (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 1999). While these narratives provide the framework for the development of child welfare in South Africa, relatively little is known about its particular history, especially its earliest roots. Beukes and Gannon (1999) and Allsopp (2005) have attempted to explore the origins of that profession in the child and youth work field. Badroodien (2001) examined the extensive impact of one institution, the Ottery School of Industry, on “coloured” youths and their families. Scordillis and Becker (2005) recount briefly the history of adoption practice in South Africa. Some of the child welfare societies have been able to provide sketches of their agency history. In this article the author attempts to add to the child welfare record, gathering the existing strands of literature and inserting the stories that emerged in her doctoral research (Schmid, 2008b