?If there is one thing that South Africa's new government of national unity should prioritise, it is child-headed households. Children from these households are being deprived of their constitutional rights to family or parental care, alternative care, adequate shelter and social security. There is also an expectation that they should care for and protect their families.
This is according to Dr Niccoh Diago who heads the Men's Intervention Programme at Community Cohesion, a non-profit organisation (NPO) in Hout Bay, Cape Town. He recently obtained his doctorate in Social Work at Stellenbosch 肆客足球.
“Because these children do not have caregivers, they are at risk of being exposed to violence, different forms of abuse and crime. Child-headed households are dysfunctional because the children do not have access to social services and support," says Diago.
“Child-headed households have also been overlooked and have become normalised in many communities, while legislation has not been properly applied and adequate resources have not been allocated to address their situation. It's clear that these children needed emotional support and nurturing households as well as counselling services."
To help shine a light on the plight of children in child-headed households, Diago interviewed social workers and social worker supervisors from specific child protection NPOs in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape, as well as a designated person from one of these provincial departments of social development (DSD). As to why he focused on these three provinces, Diago says an analysis of child-headed households in the 2017 General Household Survey revealed that about three quarters of these households can be found here. KwaZulu-Natal also has a high number of child-headed households.
“I interviewed these people because they have a specific role in protecting the rights of child-headed households and their reflections on the delivering of social services to child-headed households are important in order to gain an understanding of the scope of services that are available and should be delivered to this vulnerable group."
He points out that there is no existing research on the delivery of social services to children living in child-headed households, especially regarding their rights to care and protection.
“The findings of my study show that children in child-headed households were experiencing emotional difficulties because they were living without the care of parents and had to take on adult responsibilities," says Diago.
“They had minimal support from extended family and community members resulting in them being left alone to fend for themselves and becoming socially burdened without any support, such as an adult to attend school meetings and sign school forms.
“Some of these children dropped out of school because they would become pregnant or engage in illegal activities to make ends meet. This infringed on their right to parental care, basic education, and to be protected from neglect or being degraded.
“Of all the different services listed in section 150(3) of the Children's Act (No 38 of 2005), only counselling services were rendered meaning that there is a huge gap between social services delivered by social workers and services that should be delivered to children of child-headed households in terms of the Act. In addition, no adult caregiver was appointed to supervise the children as outlined in section 137 of the Children's Amendment Act (No 41 of 2007)."
The dire situation of these children is exacerbated by the fact that social workers find it increasingly difficult to deliver the required services to them because of, among others, high caseloads, staff shortages, transportation shortages and limited funding, according to Diago.
“The shortage of social workers impedes the ability of child-welfare NPOs to meet the increasing demands for social services. Furthermore, limited funding makes it difficult for social workers to conduct home visits and assist children and families in need.
“Sufficient funding must be made available to designated child-welfare NPOs, more social workers should be employed, and both the Children's Act and Children's Amendment Act should be revised to ensure that effective social services are delivered to children living in child-headed households."
Diago says the findings of his study could assist NPOs and the DSD in developing strategies that would focus on responding to the needs of child-headed households, thereby ensuring that the rights of these children to care and protection are protected.
As regards further actions on this issue, he recommends a national study with social workers and social worker supervisors employed by the DSD about the rights of child-headed households to care and protection, as well as research about the implementation of existing legislation to give effect to certain rights of children as contained in the Constitution.
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