Towards a sustainable, coherent and appropriate child welfare workforce in South Africa

Abstract

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.