Perceptions of social development by senior officials in the National Department of Social Development, South Africa.

摘要

The primary purpose of this study was to ascertain how senior government officials employed withinudthe Department of Social Development in South Africa perceived the social development approach toudsocial welfare. The study was confined to the national Department of Social Development and nineudsenior government officials were interviewed, all of them employed in different work streams butudrelated to social development policy development. A semi-structured interview schedule comprisingudof open-ended questions was utilised to collect information. A deductive thematic analysis was usedudto analyse the data. The main findings that emerged from the study were that senior managersudemployed within the national Department of Social Development had a good understanding of theudsocial development approach to social welfare. They were familiar with the key characteristics, goals,udstrategies and linkages between social and economic development. Senior government officials alsoudnoted progress with the implementation of the social development approach and identified that socialudpolicies were largely aligned to this approach. In terms of challenges, senior government officialsudidentified a range of challenges impacting on the implementation of the social development approachudand this ranged from the lack of a common understanding of social development within broaderudgovernment, inappropriate social service workforce, poor coordination and integration, inadequateudleadership and an inadequate monitoring and evaluation system to measure social developmentudprogress. Senior government officials identified a range of suggestions to improve on theudimplementation of the social development approach. One of the suggestions was the development ofudan overarching social development strategic framework to guide the social development approach andudacknowledge it as government’s chosen approach to social welfare. Many suggestions related toudenhancing the capabilities of social service professionals and this included the development of a socialudservice policy framework, enhanced engagement between higher education institutions and theudDepartment of Social Development to ensure relevant curriculum. The findings of the studyudrecommends a series of interventions to be implemented by the national Department of SocialudDevelopment such as the development of an overarching social development strategic framework asudsuggested by senior government officials, an audit of policies to assess alignment with the socialuddevelopment approach and a review of its’ consultation processes. The findings of the study identify audneed to replicate this research at provincial level to ascertain how the social development approach isudunderstood and implemented at the point of service delivery.