Question NW1885 to the Minister of Health
02 September 2021 - NW1885
Masango, Ms B to ask the Minister of Health
Whether social workers are (a) categorised as frontline workers and (b) prioritised for the vaccination roll-out; if not, why not, in each case; if so, what are the further relevant details in each case?
Reply:
a) Yes, Social Workers are front-line workers in the care of the public.
b) Yes Social Workers were prioritised in the vaccination roll-out. After the healthcare workers the vaccination programme embarked on vaccination of workers in the basic education sector, police, social development and several other priority essential services sectors. Social Workers (public and private), along with all Social Service Professions registered with the Council were offered vaccination. The table below provide the details.
|
NO |
CATEGORY / ELIGIBILITY |
RATIONALE |
|
1 |
Group A: DSD National and Provincial Staff (all on PERSAL) (Incl. of SACSSP Staff as well as cleaning and security staff) |
Rationale: All frontline staff who are in direct contact with members of the public through NPO registration, monitoring and evaluation, processing of child protection register applications, consultations for adoptions, engagements with CSOs, civil society and stakeholders, incl. distribution of food parcels to the public, customer related queries etc. amongst others. |
|
2 |
Group B: SASSA Staff Nationwide (all on PERSAL) |
All front frontline staff dealing with grant applications incl. home visitations to assist i.e. the elderly, persons with disabilities, and child support grant beneficiaries amongst others, |
|
3 |
Group C: National Development Agency: (all on NDA database) |
Our staff are in direct contact with the public collecting applications on a daily basis for consideration of grant funding for projects, in addition, they do capacity building training and monitor projects on sites across the republic. Furthermore, they include a cohort of people who assist in manning SASSA queues. |
|
4 |
Group D: Social Service Professions; (incl. SW +ASW + CYCCs + ACYCCs +Student Social Workers + CDPs) |
Social workers who provide psychosocial support to citizens affected and infected by covid-19 as well as other social ills, conduct site visits and work with DoH across the country. Incl. of CDPs. Incl. Private sector/ NGO’s / Public Sector etc. |
|
5 |
Group E: ECD Workforce: (Incl. of entire workforce) |
A cohort of educators looking after children at ECD centers which remain open during the current lockdown alert level, and are thus at risk in the a similar manner in which school teachers are. Data base from ECD PES + ISF (for unregistered ECDs) |
END.