Statutory social workers rendering child protection services find themselves in a disabling environment owing to high caseloads, the lack of a skilled and stable workforce, and the lack of coordination between child protection service providers. In this article, we report on a qualitative study that aimed to explore social workers’ perspectives of the feasibility of the signs-of-safety approach in the local child protection context. Three virtual focus-group sessions were held with 29 social workers. The topics included applying the approach to all levels of the continuum of care, discussing the benefits of the approach for various processes when working with children and families, sharing obligations and accountability across formal and informal groups, and ensuring constructive work relationships with families. The participants agreed that implementing the signs-of-safety approach in the local child protection context would be feasible if frontline social workers adapted the tools, techniques and principles creatively. The participants also agreed that the signs-of-safety approach would help to improve service delivery by promoting transparency and ethical and empowering practices. The findings and supporting literature provide recommendations for implementing this international approach in the local child protection context to improve service delivery and long-term outcomes for vulnerable children.
In this article, we focus on a study that aimed at gaining insight into foster parents’ psychosocial experiences in fostering adolescents presenting with risk behaviour. Foster parents were recruited from two districts in the North West province in South Africa. To achieve the study aim, we believed that a qualitative approach, utilising an exploratory descriptive design, was the most suitable. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews with a group of 32 purposively selected foster parents caring for adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17 years. The data collection continued until data saturation had been reached. A content analysis revealed that foster parents have a range of lived experiences in caring for adolescents presenting with risk behaviour, including the ability to effectively deal and cope with fostered adolescents’ emotional and behavioural needs. Based on the findings, we recommend specialised parenting interventions that are directed at enhancing foster parents’ skills in dealing with both emotional and psychological difficulties faced by adolescents who enter foster care.
Adoption involves dealing with legal and ethical complexities, competing rights and addressing the long-term implications for those involved. The principle of the best interests of children and protecting their rights must guide the process. Currently, no ethical guidelines are in place to address South African adoption practices. This article focuses on the findings of a rapid review of relevant national and international ethics documents and adoption guidelines. The Delphi method was used to identify the challenges in adoption-related practices, as well as to develop and refine ethical guidelines for South African adoption social workers, to be included in the South African Council for Social Service Professions Policy Guidelines for Course of Conduct, Code of Ethics, and the Rules for Social Workers.
This article reports on one of the objectives of a larger study aiming at the development of an adolescent risk-behavior management program for foster parents. The objective relevant to this article entailed the exploration of parenting behaviors and attitudes of parents fostering adolescents presenting with risk behavior. The respondents were recruited from the clientele of designated welfare organizations in the North West Province of South Africa. A quantitative survey using the multi-dimensional Parental Style Dimension Questionnaire (PSDQ) was administered to a purposive sample of 150 respondents. A response rate of 64.5% was achieved, with only foster mothers participating in the study. Data analysis was done by the Statistical Consultation Services of the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus) using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25, Release 25.0 SPSS. In addition, T-Tests and ANOVAs were used to test the hypothesis at a 0.05 level of significance and Spearman’s correlations examine correlations between sub-scale scores and biographical data. Sub-scales of the PSDQ were tested for internal consistency reliability and reasonable coefficients were rendered, except for the permissive parenting style scale that was excluded from analysis. The results showed a significant, positive correlation between authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles amongst the respondents. Parental attitudes and responses to risk behavior significantly affected their actual behavior towards fostered adolescents presenting with risk behavior. The researchers concluded that consideration of parenting styles in the foster care relationship context will greatly determine the nature of further interventions.
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