Description:
Programmes and services to promote functional families and to prevent vulnerability in families.
Purpose of the Programme:
- The Programme aims to provide comprehensive, coordinated and integrated family preservation services to families in order to enhance their capacity to form stable emotional bonds, nurture others, and become independent, resilient and socially cohesive families.
- Programmes also seek to promote functional families, prevent the removal of family members from their families of origin and keep them together as far as possible by involving them in different services which are in line with their needs.
- Empowerment of families and their members to play their requisite roles teaching them new skills on how to communicate, deal with conflict, parenting of their children, becoming agents of change and maintaining the family structure are important for the sustenance of the family.
Legislative Mandate:
All services and programs for families are guided by different legislation such as:
- Children’s Act 38 of 2005
- White Paper on Families in South Africa (2013)
- Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse Act 70 of 2008
- Maintenance Act 99 of 1998
- Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004
- Civil Union Act of 2006
- Child Justice Act 75 of 2008,
- White Paper on Social Welfare Services 1997, etc.
Services:
- These services should be rendered at all levels of intervention i.e. prevention, early intervention, statutory and reunification and aftercare services.
- Services and programs focus on the following:
- intense family and individual counselling,
- parenting skills programs,
- alternative dispute resolution and communication,
- mediation services,
- marriage counselling,
- marriage preparation and enrichment programs as well as
- promoting responsible fatherhood etc.
- The abovementioned services are rendered focusing on different approaches and theories.
- Family Life cycle,
- Systems theory,
- Integrated Approach,
- Strength-Based,
- Cognitive Based Theory, etc.
for holistic interventions to families and their members acknowledging their diverse needs.
Functions:
The Social Workers provide the following services: social work interventions, counselling, marriage counselling, and family group conferences whilst information, education and communication programmes are provided by Social Workers. The family preservation services and programmes rendered by the Department are complemented by FAMSA. The number of families provided with a service is calculated per Social Worker providing four family preservation programmes to 15 families per programme per quarter. The Social Auxiliary Workers provide two information and education programmes with 10 families each per quarter per Social Auxiliary Worker.
Family preservation services and reunification services are calculated as therapeutic services rendered over a period of time to a family. The funding allocated as per the Goods & Services budget compensates for the family preservation programmes, parental skills programmes, information and education sessions, and monitoring of services. The transfer budget is allocated for the funding of posts at FAMSA.
