58 FACULTY OF HUMANITIES ANNUAL REPORT 2021 across generations. As a recent World Bank report notes, “there appears to be no overt consideration of or attempt to align [social grants] with South Africa’s systemic development challenges.” What the report is referring to is the need to connect the most vulnerable people with a range of public services that can address the multiple barriers poverty creates. This is crucial if South Africa is to tackle the systemic nature of poverty and disadvantage. In line with this viewpoint the CSDA and the DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Welfare and Social Development, held by Prof Leila Patel, have been running two flagship research projects that have been real highlights in 2021. Both are premised on the idea that to overcome poverty and place people on a path to improved outcomes, access to multiple services are required. Income in the form of cash transfer, while crucial, are insufficient. The growing body of literature on “Cash plus Care” increasingly provides evidence of the improved effects of combining cash with other services and support. While South Africa’s welfare and social development policy landscape recognises and endorses this approach, in practice many people in circumstances of poverty struggle to access the wide range of services they need to overcome barriers. We are thus testing solutions to how these barriers can be overcome. The first flagship project, led by Leila, is the Communities of Practice for Social Systems Strengthening to improve Child Wellbeing Outcomes (CoP for Child Wellbeing) funded by the National Research Foundation. This truly interdisciplinary project brings together a range of researchers including Prof Elizabeth Henning (DST-NRF South African Research Chair in Integrated Studies – Education), Prof Jace Pillay (DST-NRF South African Research Chair in Education Psychology), Prof Shane Norris (Director of the NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development), Dr Wanga Zembe (Medical Research Council), Prof Arnesh Telukdarie (Professor in Engineering Management), and Drs Ida Faurie-du Plessis and Nompumelelo Ntshingila (Department of Nursing). In this intervention study we have been considering how to build a community of practice at school level to identify barriers to child wellbeing in the early grades (Gr R – Gr2) and how to support teachers and caregivers to overcome such barriers. It aims to promote collaboration across different sectors to better address the complex and multiple needs of children growing up in poverty. It also aims to develop innovative, collaborative and breakthrough solutions to promote better outcomes for them. In the first phase from February to November 2020 the communities of practice consortium of partners assessed a sample of children who were receiving the child support grant and were in the foundation years of schooling. That’s because targeted interventions in nutrition, health and education at this developmental stage could result in positive outcomes for children, families and communities. After gathering data for 162 children’s health, home circumstances, psycho-social functioning, and school and learning experiences, potential interventions were identified that could mitigate the risks they face. These interventions, rolled out in the course of 2021, considered the multilayered nature of poverty and the range of interventions a child may need. Locallevel communities of practice designed action plans based on each child’s situation. These groups consist of teachers, principals, social workers, educational psychologists, community-based nurses and other health workers, and NGOs in the relevant community or school. These groups work collaboratively with the schools and, crucially, with caregivers whose children have been identified as needing extra support. That includes everything from arranging eye and hearing screenings to referring families to food support programmes, running family strengthening programmes, and ensuring that teachers are better equipped to improve children’s numeracy and literacy. Families participating in a family strengthening programme One of the children undergoing an educational psychology assessment
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjU1NDYx