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17 March 2009

Programme director
Representatives and members the National Association of Social Workers
Members of the South African Social Workers in Private Practice
Association of South African Social Workers Educators Institutions
Representatives of the South African Council for Social Service Professions Students, social workers and veteran social workers present here today
Ladies and gentlemen

I would like to start by thanking all social workers and other social service professionals for your support and for the incredible work that you do to support our most vulnerable people. I recognise just how significant and challenging your job is and the difficult conditions under which most of you execute your duties.

I also recognise the many personal sacrifices that many of you make on a daily basis to help poor families access services. I thank you for taking time from you busy schedules to join us here today on this historic observance of the World Social Work Day in South Africa. Let me also take this opportunity to welcome in our midst the veteran social workers who after many years of retirement still continue to play an important role in ensuring that no child goes to bed hungry in their respective communities.

The 17 March marks the third World Social Work Day co-ordinated by the International Federation of Social Workers. This is the first for us and we intend to make it an annual event on the social development calendar. On this day we join social work professionals in all corners of the world and take pride in the important contributions the profession has made and continue to make worldwide. As a department, we observe this day to raise awareness about the professions' rich contribution in entrenching principles of democracy and social justice. World Social Work Day is about working together to achieve social justice for everyone, as well as human rights and social development for our people.

This year's celebrations is a reminder to us all that social work should not veer from its historical commitment and founding principles of promoting human rights, social justice, social transformation or its target of serving the most vulnerable members of our society. As a department, we observe this day mindful of the socio-economic challenges confronting the social development sector in light of the current global economic turmoil. This period presents both challenges and opportunities for the social work profession.

It is an opportune moment for the profession to reassert itself not only as a caring profession, but as a development-oriented and responsive profession at the forefront of human development. Without any doubt, this crisis is likely to compound the current challenges confronting the social development sector and increase the demand for social services. The increasing levels of family dysfunction, violence against women and children and substance and alcohol abuse pose serious challenges to the profession.

All these require innovative and responsive social work interventions and the transformation of the social work training and practice. This is not an option but an obligation if we were to constantly respond to the changing needs of a constantly changing society with changing and growing expectations.

Although I don't personally know most of you, I will presume to know some of the reasons why you entered this noble profession. I will presume that because of our shared historical past or through your own personal experience, you saw social injustice, and wanted to correct it; you saw the suffering in other people’s life and wanted to heal it. This is true particularly with those who entered the profession pre-1994.

For those who entered the profession post-1994, I presume that you saw a world with more promises and entered the profession with the sole motive of building a humane society and better life quality of life for vulnerable people. By virtue of social work's historical commitment, social workers are the conscience of society-obligated to care deeply about issues of human rights and development.

As government, much of our achievements were possible because of the hard work and dedication of our social workers. In South Africa, as in other parts of the world social workers continue to play important roles in addressing a number of the major global issues that have dominated the global agenda in the 21st century, such as poverty and inequality, peace, HIV and AIDS and refugees, as well as more specific professional areas such as foster care and inter-country adoptions. In South Africa, we face an acute shortage of social service professionals, and this hinders our ability to meet the increasing demand for developmental social services. Over the past years we have lost quite a number of social work professionals to overseas countries and other sectors due to highly competitive salary packages and better working conditions.

Recognising the central role of the profession in the attainment of national priorities such as poverty alleviation, youth development, social crime prevention and social cohesion, government has declared social work as a scarce skill profession. To this end, today marks the official launch of the department's Recruitment and Retention Strategy. The strategy has two key elements, namely:

a. recruitment of student social workers to the profession by offering them bursaries
b. improvement of the working conditions and remuneration of social workers

The objectives of the strategy are:

* to provide a framework for the recruitment and retention of Social Workers as learners and professionals that will be committed to render services where they are most needed in the country
* to reposition the social work profession to meet the challenges of the 21st century
* to promote a positive image of social work as a career of choice
* to address the concerns and conditions of service that impact negatively on service provision.

The strategy aims to entice prospective social workers and revive interest in a profession for the well-being of our communities and the development of a more caring society. My department has partnered with the public broadcaster through the SABC Career Fair to recruit prospective students. In the current financial year we have allocated R105 million to the social work bursary scheme and this amount has been increased to R210 million in the 2009/10 financial year.

Currently there are 3 529 students on the departmental scholarship programme. I would like to urge young people of our country to make use of these opportunities that government under the leadership of the African National Congress has provided to empower themselves and their communities. It is for this reason that the 52nd ANC conference resolved to prioritise education as one of the core elements of social transformation to redress poverty and inequality.

The department will continuously seek to improve the working conditions of social workers so they can concentrate on the current challenges confronting us. I am hopeful that the current impasse between organised labour and the state will be resolved amicably and urgently in the Bargaining Council to enable us to implement the Occupation Specific Dispensation for Social Services Professions in the next financial year (starting in April).

Over the years government has passed a number of progressive pieces of legislation that require capable and adequate cadres of social service professionals. Although our state subsidised universities and institutions of higher learning continue to produce an excellent quality of social workers and social service professionals, we have not been able to produce these professionals at the rate and pace of demands that match the urgent needs of our communities. This is one of the urgent concerns that we need to address by engaging with academic institutions offering social work qualifications. At the same time we need to ensure that social work education and practical skills are constantly informed by the changing demands of practice. And that practice is evidence-based.

One of the biggest challenges we face in the sector is the over reliance on social work professionals in the provision social welfare. This has resulted in huge backlogs in service delivery. To address this challenge, the department has embarked on a process to recognise and professionalise other categories of social services professions such as social auxiliary work, probation, child and youth care work as well as community development work. The full utilisation of professionals in these categories will ease the workload on social workers and enable them to concentrate on developmental social work services. It is in this context that we will continue working with the South African Council for Social Service Professionals to address these challenges.

Today we take this opportunity to highlight the value of social work profession, and the individual social workers' contributions to government's vision of building a more humane society. To the many social service professionals who have walked this long route with us to provide essential social services in the many communities that we serve a big thank you to you all. We are all enriched and empowered through this collaborative working relationship.

I appeal to you, not to leave our country and our sector. Let me remind you that your patriotic duty lies in providing services to the people of this country. After all they have invested a lot in you. As government we will continue to assign high priority to the social services professions in our endeavours to reduce poverty. We will give more priority to tackling the root causes of poverty as the basic goal of our development efforts. We depend upon you to help our department and government's mission take on full meaning for millions of our people.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those who worked tirelessly in establishing the National Association of Social Workers in South Africa- the first unified professional association for social workers. This will ensure that social workers can speak collectively with one voice. Last but not least, I would like to thank the organisers and the management of Vosloorus Old Age Home in making today's celebration a success. My best wishes to all social workers on this special occasion of World Social Work Day.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Social Development
17 March 2009