Families called to support Greater Benoni Child Welfare (GBCW)

The Greater Benoni Child Welfare (GBCW) is launching a campaign to recruit families who are willing to step up for children who need their help.

If you reside in Northmead, Airfield, Morehill or Daveyton Central and you are interested in becoming a temporary safe-care parent, GBCW is looking for you.

Temporary safe care, as defined in the Children’s Act 38 of 2005, concerning a child, means care of a child in an approved child and youth care center, shelter or private home or any other place where the child can safely be accommodated pending a decision or court order concerning the placement of the child, but excludes care in a child prison or police cell.

The decision to remove a child from parental care and place a child into temporary safe care is informed by the recommendation made by a child protection social worker.

For this to take place the social worker first needs to determine what is in the best interests of the child as prescribed in sections seven and nine of the Act.

When faced with this decision, a social worker would prefer to place the child with family members or with an alternative family in temporary safe care.

Not only does a family set-up provide better psychological support to a child as compared with an institution, but most institutions are also full and some are even at overcapacity.

There are not many households who are willing and able to take a traumatised child whom they have never met into their care.

There is a financial implication to taking on an additional member of your family as well as emotional factors to consider.

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If you feel that you would like to open up your home to a child who requires care and protection, you need to keep the following in mind:

• The child has experienced trauma in his or her life in some form.

Put yourself in the shoes of the child.

Being taken from a familiar environment to a family you have never met, by a social worker you might also not know, seems like such a daunting experience.

• The child will need continuous support throughout the statutory process.

A child found to need care and protection is often required to attend a children’s court, sessions with their designated social worker and other psychological services.

They will need to be transported to these appointments and supported through their experiences.

• Although the Department of Social Development does offer some financial support to temporary safe-care parents, the cost of caring for a child in temporary safe care is the responsibility of the temporary safe-care parents.

• Temporary safe care is, by definition, not a permanent placement.

The average time frame for having a child in your temporary safe care is three to six months.

During this period it is the legal obligation of the designated social worker to render reunification services to the child’s biological parents.

If no reunification is possible, then permanent placement needs to be sought.

When a child is placed into your temporary safe care, the possibility of having the child placed with you, in your foster care, does exist.

When a child is placed in foster care, the placement will be valid for two years at which point the placement will need to be reviewed.

• To become a temporary safe-care parent, there is a screening process that needs to be done by a designated social worker.

This included establishing if your name is listed in the National Child Protection Register.

The need for safe placement options for children in need of care and protection is great in our community.