​Last week, 27 July 2023, the Gauteng Department of Social Development together with various stakeholders convened a Foster Care Indaba at the Anew Hotel Parktonian in Johannesburg to create a platform for stakeholders from the public and private sectors to discuss the successes and challenges facing foster care and to identify priority areas for the future.
The Provincial Indaba was aimed at developing a comprehensive plan to avoid foster care cases from lapsing unnecessarily in the future.

The Child Care and Protection Services Director, Yvonne Deonarain, said foster care placement in South Africa remains the primary alternative care option for children seeking treatment and safety as illustrated in Section 150 of the Children`s Act 38of 2005. She said the resolutions that come out of the Indaba discussions won’t be taken lightly as they all seek to ensure the care, protection, and care of children in a safe and healthy condition.

Amongst the issues discussed was how to deal with continuous foster care cases backlogs, jurisdictions of courts and avoid the placement of children on foster care unnecessarily by providing guidance.

The Indaba received reports from the five regions on achievements and challenges. They also shared good practices.

It was evident according to the reports that all regions are on the right path for the desired results and have outdone themselves in making a significant improvement when it comes to issues affecting foster care.

According to the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), there are 39370 children who are on foster care grant in Gauteng and there- is 1175 foster care extension between April 2022 and June 2023.

It was also pointed out that one of the problems that is encountered in the foster care programme that needs to be addressed is that the province does not have a cluster foster care scheme and it is something that needs to be looked at and work towards achieving by suggesting the placement of a minimum of six children in a cluster foster care scheme which is managed by a reliable and registered designated child protection organization.

The Social Welfare Services Chief Director, Tebello Mkhonto, applauded stakeholders for their involvement and participation in the discussions and said it was necessary for them to assess and analyze the work that they have done as the province.

“Our regional reports have demonstrated that we have seen a significant improvement in terms of the service that we are rendering as the department to our children in the province and discussions like this one will help us to improve even better”, she added.