Social Development minister given two years to solve SA's foster care crisis
Cape Town - The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has granted an order to keep thousands of lapsed foster care orders valid for another 12 months, and has given the Social Development minister two years to develop a legal solution. Foster care orders are valid for two years, after which a social worker assesses the situation and decides whether to extend the placement or return the child to his or her previous home.
About 60 000 fewer children were beneficiaries of foster child grants between 2016 and 2018, and lapsing foster care orders have been a subject of discussion between organisations, civil society and the Department of Social Development for almost a decade. Fostering refers to “the placement of a child who needs to be removed from the parental home, into the custody of a suitable family or person willing to be foster parent”.
For that, there is a foster child grant of R960 a month, which 416016 children in South Africa received in 2018.
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