A Professional Board for Child and Youth Care Workers – A step further

Merle Allsopp

As many Child and Youth Care workers are aware, the field in South Africa is in the process of establishing a body which will regulate the Child and Youth Care profession. This body will be established in terms of the Social Service Professions Act 1978 as amended. This means that there is a law in our country which has clearly stated how such a body should be formed, how it should be made up and what it will do. In establishing a Professional Board to regulate any occupational group, that occupational group must work according to this law.

So far that is what the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW) has done in respect of applying to establish a Professional Board for Child and Youth Care workers. We have consulted with our field in a variety of ways over the past years and the following has been achieved:

The majority of those consulted with have agreed that the NACCW should drive the process of establishing a regulatory body for Child and Youth Care workers. An application has been made to the South African Council for Social Service Profession for their consideration. The Council has indicated that they agree that child and youth is indeed a Profession in its own right and therefore should be allowed to form its own Professional Board. The NACCW then proposed (in the pages of this journal and in meetings held in various regions) a composition of this Professional Board. The composition was accepted by members and then communicated to the South African Council for Social Service Professions.

On our behalf the proposed composition of the Professional Board was then written up in the form of suggested regulations to the Social Service Professions Act, 1978 (Act 110 of 1978) and have been sent back to NACCW for our consideration. They are as follows: The Professional Board for Child and Youth Care shall be constituted of the following members:

a) Five Child and Youth Care workers nominated and elected by Child and Youth Care workers in the prescribed manner;
b) Two persons appointed by the Minister from nominations by the community;
c) One Child and Youth Care worker or a person involved in the training and education of Child and Youth Care workers from nominations by the Child and Youth Care education and training institutions;
d) One Child and Youth Care worker in the employ of a social development department in the provincial sphere of government, appointed by the Minister;
e) One person versed in law, appointed by the Minister, and
f) One member of the council, designated by the council in terms of section 5(4) of the Act.

The process to be followed from now onwards is as follows:

NACCW requests Council to proceed with submitting these regulations to the Minister of Social Development for his approval. If approved they will be published in the Government Gazette for a 30 day comment period. Thereafter they will be gazetted in their final form. The process of electing a Professional Board will then be initiated.

Child and Youth Care Workers have long been advocating for the establishment of such a body. We are thus most anxious that the process continues in a steady manner, and would like to see a Professional Board in place setting standards for the profession as soon as possible. The proposed regulations submitted have been written bearing in mind the requirements laid out in the Act, and the importance of ensuring that the Professional Board is a reasonable size thus ensuring its viability.

Members who have any comment on the above regulations have been asked to contact the NACCW via any of the membership structures or offices either by phone, fax or e-mail.