Children's Act amendments still raising concerns

Issues around proposed amendments to the Children’s Act and the effect they will have on vulnerable children continue to be raised in the media. The amendments, as reported previously by Legalbrief Policy Watch, include the removal of the adoption fee clause, which would prohibit payment to social workers and lawyers in NGOs or private practice for processing adoptions. Western Cape Social Development MEC Albert Fritz is quoted in a Sunday Tribune report as saying this would lead to a shutdown of adoptions. He said social workers had high case loads and there were ‘thousands in foster care cases which need to go to court’. ‘Amending the adoption process in this way risks leaving children in a perpetual foster-care placement and creates an additional burden on the child, family and social worker, who will have to appear in court every two years for an extension,’ he said. The provincial department, he said, would not support the proposed amendment. The National Adoption Coalition of SA (Nacsa) said the national Department of Social Development ‘hastily pushed through’ the proposed amendment after consultations with NGOs. ‘One can only conclude that it is the department’s hope that these amendments will go through without a co-ordinated challenge,’ said Katinka Pieterse, chairperson of Nacsa.