Budget constraints cut social worker scholarships for 2022-23

THE Department of Social Development will not be funding aspirant students wishing to pursue studies to become social workers in the 2022-23 financial year.

This as the department faces budget cuts that hampered the financing of its social worker programme and the absorbing of graduates whose studies it funded.

Now, the department has partnered with other departments including SAPS and the departments of Education, Correctional Services and Home Affairs, to lobby the National Treasury to make an allocation for the employment of social workers.

This emerged when the department made a presentation on its annual performance plan to the select committee on health and social services.

DA MP Delmaine Chesley Christians expressed concern that the department has discontinued the social worker scholarship programme after it was unable to absorb graduates due to lack of planning by the government.

“What will happen to the wasteful expenditure as thousands of graduates sit at home?” Christians asked, adding that the department's stance would increase the unemployment rate and rise in social ills.

Committee chairperson Maurencia Gillion said she was worried about the budget cuts in the department. She also said she was concerned that the country did not have enough social workers.

“Is there a strategy to continue with the absorption of the graduates within the department nationally and provincially and in the non-government sector and Department of Education?” Gillion asked.

Khumbula Ndaba, acting deputy director-general for strategy and organisational transformation, said the department has a draft sector strategy for the employment of social services professionals.

“This is an overarching strategy. Its focus is broad in that we look at employment of social workers in the provinces, in the private sector as well as the different national departments,” Ndaba said.

He also said they have been engaging with a number of national departments to look at what was possible.

“The idea is to work towards a collective bid by the departments to the National Treasury for the institutions to get funding for employment of the social workers.”

Ndaba said the joint bid made to the National Treasury would address the issue of employment of social workers.

“We will table this bid before the National Treasury beginning June. We covered half the departments and the rest will be covered before the end of the financial year,” he added.

Ndaba said his department was urging others and the provinces to continue with the employment of contract social workers.

“They will do so within what is available in their budget while we are making all of these efforts.

“Some are responding positively. This is not a panacea to the problems as we look at long-term solutions,” he said.

The department funded 1 370 social worker graduates who were completing their studies between 2019 and 2021.

In June 2021, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said the allocation for social worker scholarships was reduced in the period between 2017 and 2019 to fund the conditional grant for employment of social work graduates.