23 - 24 February 2016
The Department is mandated by both the Constitution of South Africa (Section 28 of the Bill of Rights) and the Children's Act (Act - No 38 of 2005) to provide care and protection to children especially orphans and vulnerable children.
The main focus areas of the Department is to fund Home community based projects, aimed to reduce vulnerability caused by psycho-social aspects related to HIV and AIDS, prevention, treatment, care and support, as these affect groupings such as orphans, persons living with HIV and AIDS, older persons, youth and people living with disabilities
The Department is currently funding the stipends of the caregivers within the HCBC NPOs, Program funding, as well as an administration fee. These care givers do not only render direct services to OVC's, but also provide a range of psycho-social support to vulnerable households, that is aimed at the restoring of the normal functioning of individuals and families, thus addressing poverty and also rendering prevention programs to bring about change and minimize the psycho-social impact of HIV and AIDS in communities.
Since the inception of the HCBC Programme within the Department, millions of funds have been transferred to for these organizations for the effective and efficient implementation of the programme. To date, the Department is funding 45 HCBC organizations in the form of payments of stipends to the care givers employed in the organizations.
The services rendered by the care givers are in line with the Provincial Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS, TB and STI`s 2012- 2016, as well as the Departmental Annual Performance Plan. The services are also aligned with the Monitoring and Evaluation tools on which the care givers were trained on a continuous basis. However, currently challenges are still being experienced relating to the reporting from the HCBC care givers.
The organizations are expected to report on a quarterly basis to the District offices, where the quality of the reports are assessed and then send to the Provincial office, where the performance are monitored by the Policy and Planning Unit within the Department.
Some of the main factors that are leading to the under reporting are the following: High turnover of care givers due to better opportunities;
Lack of understanding on the reporting processes;
Lack of effective supervisory/managerial skills;
Lack of knowledge of supporting evidence;
Low morale of care givers;
Non- commitment and guidance from the management boards.
In order to address the above-mentioned issues/challenges a Service Delivery Engagement are being held on 23 - 24 February 2016, at the Mittah Seperepere Convention Centre in Kimberley.
The purpose of this event was to allow HCBC organisation to engage with each otherand the department in order to discuss the following:
Overview of each organization.
Their overall functioning, challenges and achievements (best practice model).
Detailed discussion on the Annual Performance Plan and the linkages with their service delivery.
Reporting expectations in terms of service delivery and financial compliance.
Implementation of Social behaviour change (Prevention) programme as mandated by the National Department.
Detailed discussion on the M&E Tool (National tool) and the supporting evidence as expected by Policy and Planning Unit.
The Target group is all 45 funded HCBCs (represented by a Board member, a Project manager, a Administrator and two (2) Care givers), all five (5) Districts (represented by the District Managers, Social Work Managers and HIV/AIDS Co-ordinators, as well as key Provincial staff.
