SASPCAN

The South African Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect

SASPCAN is one of a number of national NGO's which, together with government departments concerned with child protection and several training institutions for child protection workers, are represented on the National Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, convened by the Department of Welfare.

The NCCAN in 1995 identified, as a pressing priority, the need for the different practitioners and structures responsible for helping abused children and their families to develop protocols for the multidisciplinary management of child abuse and neglect.

Protocol development is a process whereby those with child protection responsibilities clarify the steps involved in responding to reports of child abuse, identify their respective roles and responsibilities in this process, and commit themselves in writing to their particular mandates and to co-operation within the multidisciplinary team, to ensure the protection and wellbeing of the children they serve.

Protocols are needed so as to ensure that e.g. social workers, health care workers, justice personnel, correctional service workers, educators, labour inspectors and concerned community members work together to ensure the protection of children, and to prevent children from being further traumatised by the child protection system itself.

With funding from the Carl and Emily Fuchs Foundation and the Radda Barnen organisation, the full support of the national and provincial Departments of Welfare, and the active participation of Departments of Safety and Security, Justice, Education, Health and Correctional Services and a host of non-government structures, provincial and district child protection protocols have been developed in all provinces. These were presented to the Minister of Welfare on 30 May 1999 to mark the start of Child Protection Week. Meanwhile, regional and district protocols, based on provincial guidelines, are also being developed to guide the work of child protection workers at local level, taking specific conditions in each area into account.

Listed on the contact page are contact persons for the Provincial Child Protection Committees which have been steering the protocol development process.

For further national information contact Dr Eddie Harvey, National Department of Welfare, Tel. 012-312-7582, Fax. 012-323-3733, or Dr Rose September, chairperson of the NCCAN. at Tel. 021-959-2602, or Fax. 021-959-2606.