Implementation of the Children

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Implementation of the Childrens Act

• Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People
  with Disabilities.
• 16 September 2009

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Content of Presentation

1. Background
2. Content of the Childrens Act 38 of 2005 as
   amended.
3. Implementation readiness.
4. Costing.
5. Implementation plans.
6. Regulations Norms and Standards.
7. National Policy Framework and Strategy.
8. Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.
9. Training guidelines.
10. Norms and Standards and Practice Guidelines.
11. Child Care and Protection Forum.
12. Communication material.

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1 Background

• During 1997 the Minister for Social Development
  requested the South African Law Reform Commission
  to investigate the Child Care Act.
• The findings revealed that the said Act did not
  have a rights based approach. The new legislation
  namely the Childrens Act which is a combination
  of both the Childrens Act No 38 of 2005 and the
  Childrens Amendment Act No 41 of 2007 focus much
  more on childrens rights and the best interest
  of children.
• Both these two pieces of legislation will be
  consolidated into one document which will be
  named the Childrens Act as amended.

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2. The Objects of the Childrens Act 38, 2005

• The Childrens Act seeks to protect all children
  in the following manner
• The preservation and strengthening of families
• To give effect to the following constitutional
  rights of children, namely
• (i) family care or parental care or appropriate
  alternative care when removed from the family
  environment
• (ii) social services
• (iii) protection from maltreatment, neglect,
  abuse or degradation

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The Objects of the Childrens Act 38, 2005

• Paramouncy of the best interests of a child
• To give effect to the Republics obligations
  concerning international instruments binding on
  the Republic and
• To make provision for structures, services and
  means for promoting and monitoring the sound
  physical, psychological, intellectual, emotional
  and social development of children
• To strengthen and develop community structures
  which can assist in providing care and protection
  for children
• To recognise the special needs that children with
  disabilities and chronic illnesses may have

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3. The Content of the Childrens Act 2005 and
Childrens Amendment Bill
Interpretation, objects, application and implementation of the Act. Principles. Parental responsibilities and rights. Childrens Courts. Partial Care. ECD. Protection of Children Part 1 and 4. Prevention and Early Intervention. Child in need of Care and protection. Contribution Order. Alternative Care. Foster Care. Child and youth care centres. Drop in centres. Adoptions. Inter Country Adoptions. Child abductions. Child trafficking. Surrogate Motherhood. Enforcement of Act. Administration of Act.
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Contents of the Act

• The Act has 22 chapters, which can be summarized
  as follows
• Chapter 1 deals with the interpretation, objects,
  application and implementation of the Act.
• Chapter 2 provides for childrens rights and
  deals with issues such as the best interest of
  the child, child participation, social, cultural
  and religious practices, access to childrens
  courts and the age of majority.
• Chapter 3 deals with all matters pertaining to
  parental responsibilities and rights agreements
  and the assignment of parental responsibilities
  and rights by order of court. This chapter also
  provides for the rights of fathers, presumption
  of paternity, parenting plans and the rights of
  children conceived by artificial fertilization.

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Contents of the Act cont

• The functioning, powers and jurisdiction of
  childrens courts, the conduct of proceedings
  before the childrens court and presiding
  officers and other court officials from the
  subject matter of chapter 4.
• Chapters 5, 6 part of chapter 7,8,11,12,13 and
  14, respectively, are in the Childrens Amendment
  Act. These chapters deal with provincial
  competencies regarding service deliver to
  children.
• Chapter 7 is a crucial part of the Act as it
  provides for the National Child Protection
  Registers A and B and measures relating to the
  health of children, consent to medical treatment
  and HIV and AIDS testing and provisions for
  child-headed households

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Contents of the Act cont

• Chapter 9 deals with the child in need of care
  and protection, provides for the identification
  of such children and provides for actions to be
  taken with regard to children in need of care and
  protection.
• Chapter 10 deals with Contribution Orders.
• Chapter 15 and 16 respectively provide for
  adoption and inter country adoption and give
  effect to the Hague Convention of Inter-Country
  Adoption.
• Chapter 17 makes provision for the protection of
  children against child abduction and Chapter 18
  deals with child trafficking.
• Chapter 19 introduces new legislation into the
  South African Legal System by formally providing
  for surrogate motherhood.
• Chapter 20 provides for the enforcement of the
  Act through powers of inspection and the creation
  of offences.

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Contents of the Act cont

• Chapters 21 and 22 deal with general
  administrative issues and other miscellaneous
  matters such as regulations, delegations and
  assignments, outsourcing of services and
  transitional measures.

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4. Costing

• The Childrens Act as amended has been through an
  extensive and detailed costing process. The
  process involved all national and provincial
  departments that play a role in the
  implementation of the Act. The final costing
  report was submitted to the Minister in July 2006.

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5. Implementation Plans

• Costing results revealed that
• The Childrens Act creates additional
  responsibility on the State to make plans for,
  and encourage, the development of a range of new
  services including partial care, prevention and
  early intervention services, child and youth care
  centres and drop-in centres where these are
  deemed necessary. This was not an expectation
  within the Child Care Act.
• The Act also requires additional human resources
  especially social workers and other social
  service professionals

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Implementation Plans cont

• Overall, the Childrens Act extends the
  responsibility of the State, and regulates a
  wider range of services than those covered by the
  Child Care Act. In practice, this creates the
  need for greater State capacity for the
  registration and monitoring of a range of new
  services, as well as a responsibility on the
  State to create such new services where they do
  not exist.
• The new obligations extend to other departments
  such as SAPS, DOH, DOJCD, DOE, and Cooperative
  Government and Traditional Affairs.

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Implementation Plans cont.

• In line with the costing report, National
  Departments and Provinces developed
  Implementation Plans.
• The draft national intersectoral plan consist of
  a situation analysis, activities, projects,
  budgets and human resource requirements for the
  implementation of the Act.
• Individual plans still have gaps and DSD is
  visiting all Provinces to assist them to update
  and finalize their plans.
• All plans need to be finalised for the national
  intersectoral plan to be comprehensive and
  complete.

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6. Regulations

• DSD DOJ drafted the regulations as required by
  the Act.
• The draft DSD regulations were finalized and
  approved by the Select Committee on Social
  Services and the National Council of Provinces on
  17 19 March 2009 respectively.
• The Act requires the Minister of DSD to consult
  with other Ministers who have obligations in
  terms of the Act on the regulations. The draft
  DSD regulations were submitted to the respective
  Ministers for consultation and the office of the
  Chief State Law Advisor for review and
  certification on 10 February 2009.

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Regulations cont

• The Departments of Basic Education, Health and
  Police responded and made proposals on the draft
  Regulations.
• The Office of the State Law Advisor reviewed and
  certified the draft DSD Regulations and provided
  feedback in May 2009.

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Regulations cont

• To implement the Act the following processes need
  to be finalized
• The DSD is in the process of revising and
  finalizing the Regulations.
• The Justice DSD Regulations should be approved
  by the respective Ministers.
• Both Regulations need to be proclaimed before the
  Act may be implemented.
• The Minister of Justice and the Minister of
  Social Development need to agree on the remaining
  sections of the Act that may be promulgated and
  the possible date of promulgation.

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7. National Policy Framework and Strategy

• DSD in conjunction with USAID are in the process
  of drafting a national policy framework and
  strategy to ensure that the Act is implemented in
  a uniform, coordinated and integrated manner.
• The policy will include a strategy and will be
  finalized by end of September 2009.

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8. Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

• DSD finalized a framework to monitor and evaluate
  the implementation of the Childrens Act.
• The 1st phase involved developing indicators.
  201 Indicators were developed and 60 were
  prioritized for the 1st year of implementation.
• The ME framework will monitor and evaluate the
  quality of services, as well as childrens access
  to services.
• It will evaluate how the Act impacts on, or
  improve the quality of life of children.
• It will also monitor the enforcement of the
  legislation to ensure that childrens rights are
  protected.

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9. Training Guidelines

• DSD is in the process of developing training
  guidelines for the practical implementation of
  the Childrens Act. The guidelines will be
  divided into three modules
• Phase 1 Orientation/foundation training.
• Phase 2 Intermediate phase training.
• Phase 3 Advanced phase training.
• Phases 12 have been finalized.
• Phase 3 will be finalized by end of September
  2009.
• When phase 3 is finalized, training guidelines
  for trainers will be developed.

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Training Guidelines cont

• National DSD is continually engaged with
  Provincial DSD and other Departments.
• In 2006 after the Amendment Act was passed,
  social workers in the Provinces were briefed.
• After the 43 sections were promulgated in July
  2007, representatives from Provinces were trained
  on the promulgated sections.
• In 2008 the National office visited the Provinces
  to provide broad orientation on the Act.
• Some Provinces contracted service providers to
  train staff in their Provinces.

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10. Norms and Standards Practice Guidelines

• Project started in May 2009 and will be finalized
  in May 2010.
• The project will start with business process
  mapping which will lead to the development of
  practice guidelines.
• The practice guideline will determine the norms
  and standards.
• There are some norms and standards available,
  however some are not in line with the Act.
• There are norms and standards in the regulations.

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11. Child Care and Protection Forum

• An Inter-sectoral Steering Committee on the
  Childrens Bill was constituted during the
  process of drafting the Childrens Bill. It
  composed of the childrens focal points within
  the various Departments. This Committee was best
  placed to deal with issues pertaining to the
  Childrens Act, its implementation and
  enforcement.
• The Committee included the following Departments
  DSD, DOH, DOE, Home Affairs, DCS, ORC, Treasury,
  DOJ, SAPS, UNICEFF, Foreign Affairs and
  Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

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11. Child Care and Protection Forum (CCPF)

• In February 2008 DSD established the CCPF.
• It extended membership of the Childrens Bill
  Steering Committee to National NGOs and
  additional Departments like Arts and Culture,
  Sports and Recreation, Housing and Transport.
• It comprises of representatives from Provincial
  DSD, National Departments which have obligations
  to implement the Act and National NGOs.
• The Forum will continue to assist with the
  implementation of the Act.

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12. Communication

• DSD with the support of USAID developed a
  training DVD on the Act.
• With the support of UNICEF three
  child-friendly/low literacy booklets were
  developed on the Act.
• Use of media electronic and print media

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Way Forward

• Finalization of Regulations.
• Promulgation of the Act.
• Implementation plans finalized, approved and
  resourced.
• Finalization of the National Policy Framework and
  Strategies.
• Implementation of Monitoring and Evaluation
  Framework/Indicators.
• Finalization of training guidelines and training.
• Communication material distributed.
• Norms and Standards and Practice Guidelines to be
  developed and finalised.