Question NW2319 to the Minister of Social Development
16 August 2022 - NW2319
Siwisa, Ms AM to ask the Minister of Social Development
In light of the shortage of social workers especially in schools, what are the reasons that social workers who were beneficiaries of the Social Work Scholarship Programme are not placed in schools?
Reply:
The employment of social workers in school settings is the responsibility of the Department of Basic Education. However, sector departments such as DSD and DBE have not been able to absorb and employ qualified social work graduates due to budget constraints across the whole of Government.
The critical shortage of social service professionals is acknowledged as one of the challenges for the social sector in the National Development Plan (NDP). To address this, the Department of Social Development (DSD) is leading the Intersectoral Forum that is coordinating efforts in the development of a Draft Sector Strategy that seeks to bring on board sector departments for employment of social workers across Government, including DBE, Health. The sector departments will submit a joint bid to the National Treasury to obtain funds for the recruitment and permanent employment of social work graduates.