Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

Department of Social Development
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therapeutic programmes;
foster/cluster foster care;
adoption of children;
reunification and reintegration services.
● Child protection services for children in a child-headed household: 30
■ designation of a supervising adult.
● The National Food Relief Programme:
■ food parcels.
Community development services
Home- and community-based care
Home- and community-based care (HCBC) 31 is ‘the provision of comprehensive quality
health and social services in the home and community in order to promote, restore and
maintain people’s maximum level of comfort, social functioning and health’. 32
Community care forums
Community care forums (DoSD 2004) are ‘community-based structures focusing on
the needs of OVC in the community and ensuring that their needs are addressed. The
purpose of community care forums is to ensure early identification of OVC, be aware
of initiatives involving childcare and support, create awareness, assess children’s needs,
promote advocacy, and build capacity in families and communities’. 33
Drop-in centres
A drop-in centre 34 is a facility providing basic services aimed at meeting the emotional,
physical and social development needs of vulnerable children. 35
30 Section 137, Children’s Act
31 Home- and community-based care has been regulated by a variety of policies and guidelines over the last decade.
These include the National Integrated Plan for Children Affected and Infected by HIV/AIDS, 2000; the NSP 2007–
2011; the OVC Policy Framework; various departments of Health and Social Development guidelines; and the
Community Care Worker Policy Framework. These have all most recently been synthesised, in so far as they relate
to HCBC, into a draft South African National Policy Framework for Home and Community Based Care and Support
Programme, November 2009, departments of Social Development and Health. At the time of writing (August 2010),
the DoSD advised that the draft was still open for comment, but was expected to be completed into a final version
later in 2010.
32 National Action Plan for Orphans and Other Children Made Vulnerable by HIV and AIDS, 2009–2012
33 National Action Plan for Orphans and Other Children Made Vulnerable by HIV and AIDS, 2009–2012
34 Chapter 14, Children’s Act
35 Section 213, Children’s Act
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