Western Cape DSD drastically reduces foster care backlog by 70%
The Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD) has made good progress in reducing the two-year backlog of foster care cases by 70% in the space of 5 months.
As of May this year, the Department only had 247 backlog cases to finalize from a total of 828 cases at the beginning of the year.
This is a tremendous achievement by our social worker teams within the Children & Families Programme. Our efforts to prioritize services to children and families by allocating the largest portion of our budget (R651-million) are yielding good results.
The Western Cape is fairing very well, considering the national backlog of foster care cases stands at 145 742.
However our work does not stop here, neither will we be complacent. DSD will continuously improve our systems and better coordinate with stakeholders, in order to eradicate all remaining foster care case backlogs.
Our efforts will include improving coordination between our social workers, the Children’s Courts and the South African Social Security Agency.
We’ll continue building capacity and specialization in the Children’s Act amongst our 1510 social work professionals across Departments network of 40 local offices across the province.
Media Enquiries:
Sihle Ngobese
Tel: 021 483 9217
Cell: 076 083 6543
