No abstract available.

The majority of the residents of Khutsong are employed at mines in the area south of Carletonville (stretching form East Driefontein in the east to Deelkraal in the west), as well as in Carletonville itself. The large majority of these people are dependant on public transport for commuting to work, for undertaking trips for shopping purposes and for going to school. The condition of the road network in Khutsong is of such a nature that large areas are totally inaccessible to public transport (especially in the rainy season) resulting in a situation where large numbers of people have to walk unacceptable long distances between their places of residence and public transport routes. A comprehensive programme have been embarked upon in consultation with the community to rectify this situation.

M.A. (Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. (Socialis Scientiae) / The aim of social services in the SAPS is to achieve, maintain and promote optimum social functioning in order to improve the productivity of members of the SAPS. As a result of -their unique working conditions which are often characterized by a great deal of stress and frustration, statistics regarding marital problems in the SAPS are high compared to other social problems. This study was undertaken to design a marriage programme to be utilized by social workers and social coworkers in the SAPS, and to evaluate its utilisation value during trial use and developmental testing by submitting the programme to the social workers and social coworkers. The research purpose of the study was to develop and evaluate a social work programme. Development research as put forward in Edwin Thomas's model (1978, 1979, 1980, 1984) was used as research design. In order to evaluate this development objective, the following development targets for research were set: To obtain information about the influence of the work of SAPS members on their marriages. To identify additional contributory causes of marital problems. To study literature on marriage counselling. To design a programme for marriage counselling in the SAPS within the structure of a developmental research more. To evaluate the utilization value of the programme by submitting it during trial use and developmental testing to social workers and social coworkers in the SAPS .

In this research study the researcher attempted to gain an insight on what constitutes sustainability of poverty alleviating projects. Further, the researcher attempted to explore and gain understanding of the role of social worker in promoting sustainability of poverty alleviating projects. Since the literature on sustainability is limited, it is hoped that this study will provide valuable information for further research on the topic. In the limited literature study undertaken however, it was evident that despite the generic service that they provide, social workers have a role to play in community development. It was found that social workers can no longer afford to restrict their service provision to the traditional methods of social work. The egalitarian nature of their profession demands that they occupy the centre stage in poverty alleviation as they are strategically placed between the poor and the decision-makers in government. Eighteen respondents composed of six social workers, six committee members and six community members from six poverty alleviating projects were interviewed. One project from each of the six districts of Tsomo, Nqamakwe, Butterworth, Centane, Idutywa and Willowvale were used in the research study. The fmdings suggested that social workers, committee members and community members have differing opinions on what promotes or impedes sustainability of poverty alleviating projects, All respondents however agreed that participation as well as empowerment through training were basic requirements towards sustainability of poverty alleviating projects. Again the findings agreed with the literature that social workers have an important role to play in promoting sustainability of poverty alleviating projects.

The introduction of a new policy and approach to South Africa’s welfare system saw a shift in focus and advancement made towards, the redress of past socio-economic imbalances which was brought on by apartheid laws and legislations which deliberately discriminated against South Africa’s majority groups. Within this new welfare system, came the introduction of The White Paper for Social Development (1997) which advances Developmental Social Welfare as the new approach to social welfare in South Africa.The body of literature around this approach focuses on transformation of welfare services since the adaptation of the new developmental welfare policy in 1997. Amongst scholars there is consensus on the need to continuously explore and to make an analysis of the transformation process advocated by this new approach. Interests in recent times suggest the need to bench mark the transformation process against a set of indicators. This and the study of available literature resulted in this qualitative, exploratory-descriptive and contextual research study with the following goal: To contribute to the proposed evaluation of the implementation of the developmental social welfare approach by measuring progress towards developmental social welfare through social workers’ perceptions and experiences. On the backdrop of the research goal a qualitative research approach was used. A purposive sampling method was used to draw participants from two Non-governmental organisations in Pretoria. Data was collected by means of two focus group interviews and two individual interviews which were tape recorded for data analysis. All the interviews were transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was done using Tesch’s model for data analysis and the findings were displayed in the form of themes subthemes and categories. Data verification occurred in reference to Guba’s model for trustworthiness. The researcher then drew conclusions from this analysis of data and used literature control to discuss the findings. Through these processes this research presents findings in relation to social workers perceptions of the concept of developmental social welfare, their perception on the implementation progress of the developmental social welfare approach, perceptions on Indicators of developmental social work and social welfare and in relation to the principles of the proposed framework by Patel and Hochfeld (2008).

Governments strive to improve the efficiency of service delivery with the intention of achieving societal goals. Thus, in order to ensure the quality of public services and goods provided to the people, central governments need to follow a decentralised governance approach. The decentralisation theorem states that, if the consumption of public goods and services over different geographical regions of the total population and the cost of providing these public goods and services in each region are the same for both the central and the sub-national government, the provision of public goods and services will be more efficient if they are provided by the sub-national government to their respective jurisdictions. This dissertation’s main aim is to investigate the extent to which the Eastern Cape Provincial Government (ECPG) is efficient in the provision of social services to the people under their jurisdiction. The efficiency scores obtained using the Data Envelopment Analysis Computer Program (DEAP) 2.1 version proved that the ECPG, education, health, social welfare and the housing departments are inefficient in the provision of social services. In this case, fiscal decentralisation as an appropriate vehicle for service delivery seems not to be working for the Eastern Cape Province, unless there is an improvement in the efficiency levels at which the social services are provided by these departments.

M.A. / The goal of this study was to explore the situation with regard to marketing in social work and then to provide guidelines for the different target groups in dealing with marketing in social work. To reach this goal, the following objectives were formulated: to determine the training of social workers with regard to marketing; to determine the type of marketing actions of social workers; to determine what management expect from social workers with regard to marketing; to determine the opinion of marketing experts with regard to marketing in social work; to make recommendations with regard to the abovementioned aspects.

Universities in South Africa endure the challenge on an annual basis to secure field placements for the growing number of social work students. Field practice together with the required supervision is a critical component of the social work curriculum, since it provides students with opportunities to practice the skills taught in their theoretical courses. Whilst securing field placement is an extension of the social work curriculum, it is also essential to understand the plight of the supervisors and agencies that provide this service. The literature available in South Africa on this aspect is very limited, yet the dependency on agencies and supervisors is immense. This the study aimed at exploring and describing the experiences of social workers who supervise social work students’ field placement within Durban and the surrounding areas in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. A qualitative explorative study was conducted through the use of an in-depth interview schedule and a total of 18 supervisors from a range of organizations formed the sample for this study. Supervisors were interviewed individually with the aim of exploring their experiences, perceptions, needs and challenges with regards to field practice placements and they were invited to make suggestions for a best practice model. The main conclusions drawn from this study were that agency supervisors acknowledge their critical role in this process. However, training and supporting them is minimised which impacts in various ways on their ability to function optimally. In addition, supervisors feel that students are not thoroughly screened for the profession; they are underprepared for the field and lack the basic skills essential for practice. Supervisors are often forced to function in isolation in the absence of models and theories on field practice placement and the lack of collaboration with the universities. The different universities in the province have different requirements and expectations of supervisors. The recent strategy to address the retention of social workers through the awarding of bursaries has resulted in enormous challenges, particularly related to students’ commitment, dedication to the profession and the impact on the NGO sector. The time spent in field practice is regarded as insufficient for students’ exposure to the dynamics of all types of services and the introduction of a policy, model and framework for student supervision by the professional counsel is long outstanding and impacts on the status of the profession. Emanating from the findings, recommendations have been made with regards to optimising the learning opportunity for students and to enhance the experience of supervisors in student supervision. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The main aim of the study was the description of the experiences of opportunities, rewards and challenges faced by social workers in private practice in the Durban Metropolitan Area, Kwa Zulu Natal. This study used an exploratory design, which was qualitative in nature. The researcher administered interview schedules that contained both open–ended and close–ended questions. The findings of the study indicated that some of the challenges experienced are professional isolation, stress and burnout, difficulties of managing a business and role confusion and conflict between a social worker in private practice and a psychologist. Respondents indicated that some of the benefits of private practice were working with motivated clients, control over professional growth and work environment, financial rewards, escape from bureaucracy, flexibility and quality casework services. The opportunities offered to private practitioners were employee wellness programmes, legal work, training, work in schools and quality casework services that made private practice a lucrative business. In terms of support systems it was found that the South African Association of Social Workers in Private practice was supportive. Respondents regarded The South African Council for Social Services Professions and the Department of Social Development as unsupportive. Emanating from the findings, recommendations have been made with regards to making private practice a more viable option. The findings can also be used to inform future research on a national level as well as comparative studies on the experiences between social workers in private practice and those at an agency level. Some of the recommendations in relation to private practice are that the South African Council of Social Services Profession and the Government should acknowledge social workers in private practice, the community should become more responsive to private practitioners and tertiary institutions should offer training courses to prepare social workers for private practice. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.