Audit of Residential Facilities, Final report - Division for Social Policy ...

Many of the homes that are resistant to change are controlled by „mother bodies‟.These bodies act as a pool of resources and personnel yet they also often alsohamper transformation initiatives. The Department needs to conduct a more thoroughstudy into their practices and address their resistanceDiversity awareness should be done with home management and staff so that theyare sensitised to different cultural and religious practicesAt the same time instead of enforcing compliance with punitive measures, DSD mustembark on a process of assisting homes with transformation by helping them todevelop a transformation strategy. Business Plans must include a plan fortransformation with clear indicators by which to measure the progress made by homesTransformation is not only about racial integration of homes but also on all the otherprinciples inherent in the Transformation Guidelines such as the composition of theBoard, management and staff, and transfer of skills from established organisations toemerging organisations. A few homes have started „twinning‟ with sub-economichomes in their areas but others have felt that they do not want to appear as imposingtheir help onto homes that need it. Instead they believe that the Department shouldfacilitate this process through their own needs assessment of a home and introducethe home that will assist, so that it is seen as a formal agreement and as part of theircapacity building programme.Government must look at supporting black people who apply to white homes andcannot afford to pay with the pension and government subsidy. There could be asliding scale developed to accommodate different categories of older persons in needof subsidised accommodation.While there is clearly difficulty in finding suitable, skilled individuals, a more stringentpolicy should be put in place targeted at Management levels with the primary aim ofmonitoring the recruitment of management and senior level staff as well as thestructure of the „mother bodies‟3. Intersectoral collaboration The challenge remains the collaboration of government departments with a view toensure mainstreaming of older persons in all programmes as well as the integration ofservices. This will promote optimum utilisation of resources.81 | D S D A u d i t o f R e s i d e n t i a l F a c i l i t i e s