Explore publications.

This article critically examines how contemporary child protection systems are shaped by risk-averse practice cultures, structural inequality, cultural dissonance, and uneven investment in family-based preventive interventions. Using an integrative literature review, the article synthesizes empirical studies, policy analyses, programme evaluations, and theoretical scholarship published between 2000 and 2024, with selected foundational works included where they remain conceptually central. Guided by ecological systems theory and critical social work theory, the review argues that child removal is often framed as an individual family failure, while the wider conditions that produce family vulnerability, including poverty, racism, colonial histories, housing insecurity, disability, substance-use-related need, and inadequate service access, are insufficiently addressed. The synthesis shows that poor, Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized families are disproportionately drawn into child protection systems, often through neglect allegations that are closely linked to material hardship. At the same time, evidence from family preservation, home visiting, family group conferencing, and community-based support models indicates that many children can be kept safe when families receive timely, relational, culturally responsive, and adequately resourced assistance. The article, therefore, calls for a shift from surveillance and separation toward prevention, family preservation, and social justice-oriented practice. It concludes that child protection reform requires not only improved practice tools, but also policy, funding, and accountability systems that value family integrity, cultural belonging, and long-term child and family well-being.

Youth leaving the foster care system frequently encounter several obstacles on their path to independence, such as restricted access to housing, work, education, and emotional support. Once they leave foster care, these obstacles may make it more difficult for them to become self-sufficient. The purpose of this study is to investigate how young people leaving foster care deal with these obstacles and demonstrate resiliency in their quest for autonomy. In this study, a qualitative research approach was used. Data saturation was reached with a total of 18 foster care leavers using a purposive sample technique. The information was gathered using a semi-structured interview schedule. The findings highlight that youths in Tshwane who leave foster care demonstrate resilience, place a high value on education and employment, rely on their faith and social network, and gain independence via practical help and collaboration between social workers and caregivers. The study suggests that foster care leavers should be granted access to education, vocational training, and life skills programmes. Social workers and caregivers should work closely together to provide regular direction and useful help, as well as provide access to counselling, mentorship, and emotional support. Comprehensive transitional strategies must be created as well to assist foster care leavers in becoming independent.

Foster care was instituted as a child protection mechanism in South Africa at the dawn of democracy, offering vulnerable and orphaned children alternative placement alternatives to stay with their relatives. Orphans living with HIV derive significant benefits from this placement, as their grandmothers provide essential support, enabling them to experience love, care, and safety. This study sought to examine foster parents caring for children in foster care who are living with HIV and AIDS. The study was grounded in resilience theory. A qualitative technique was utilised to collect comprehensive data, supported by phenomenological, exploratory, descriptive, and contextual study approaches. This technique facilitated an understanding of caregiving among 16 participants by providing insight into their ideas, emotions, and experiences. The study utilised foster parents as a sample, gathering their experiences through semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was conducted using the five steps delineated by Yin. This research examines four key themes: financial difficulty, diagnostic unawareness, challenges in disclosure, and psychosocial support and resilience. Despite various challenges, carers shown perseverance in foster caregiving. Participants depended on their spiritual convictions, healthcare, and psychosocial assistance from social workers and healthcare professionals. This paper elaborates on the available research about foster parents and children living with HIV/AIDS from a social work perspective. The recommendations aim to strengthen current support systems and enhance social functioning among carers and foster children..

Foster care aims to provide children with safety, health care, protection, and guidance. Despite its challenges, foster care in South Africa offers valuable benefits by providing vulnerable children with stable and nurturing environments that foster their development and enhance their educational and socio-emotional outcomes. This paper examines the benefits of foster care by exploring the experiences of foster care leavers and the perspectives of social workers in Tshwane District Municipality, Gauteng Province. In this study, the researcher employed a qualitative research approach. A total of 18 social workers and 18 foster care leavers were selected through a purposive sampling technique selected for the study. Data was collected using a semi-structured interview schedule, which allowed for in-depth exploration of participant’s experiences while providing the flexibility to probe further based on their responses. The findings highlight that foster care placements provide foster care leavers with essential support, including basic necessities, a family-like environment, improved relationships, independence, recreational opportunities, poverty reduction, therapeutic support, and educational benefits. The study suggests that the Department of Social Development should establish transition programs to support youth aging out of foster care, ensuring continued access to housing, education, and mental health services. The findings can assist policymakers in improving foster care policies to better support both foster care leavers and social workers, while also emphasising the need for further research on the long-term impact of foster care in South Africa.

Foster care is a fundamental alternative care service available for children in need of care and protection. It is aimed at nurturing the development and welfare of children who are declared to be in need of care and protection in South Africa. Over the years, foster care services in South Africa have experienced a significant amount of backlog, disadvantaging the potential or prospective beneficiaries. Children are considered part of the vulnerable groups in South Africa as considered by global organizations/institutions such as the United Nations and the African Union. Globally, foster care is one of the mechanisms considered alternative care for children who have been declared to be in need of care and protection. The paper aimed to explore the effects of the foster care backlog on the prospective beneficiaries in the Vhembe region of Limpopo Province, South Africa. The paper further seeks to provide an understanding of the foster care backlog on the prospective foster children and the prospective foster parents. The study employed the qualitative research approach to achieve the aims of the study and have an understanding of the perceptions of the participants. An exploratory research design was adopted for the paper to understand better the phenomenon from the perspectives of the participants. The objective of this study was to describe the effects of foster care backlog and how it affects the beneficiaries. The study used semi-structured and unstructured interviews to collect data with a sample of 11 participants used for the study. The study used purposive sampling because of the understanding and knowledge of the participants. Thematic content analysis using Creswell’s methods of data analysis was used in this study. Considerations were made for the use of systems theory to provide a foundation and background for the study and to understand the effects of the foster care backlog on the prospective beneficiaries.  The study found that peer group pressure, poor school attendance and drop in academic performance, lack of satisfaction with basic needs, and high levels of burnout and stress are some of the effects of this phenomenon.

The detrimental impact of childcare institutions (CCIs), or orphanages, is well known. Despite deinstitutionalisation strategies in Uganda, CCIs remain the predominant intervention method employed by Western actors responding to the needs of children there. Reforming this approach requires contextualised critical understandings of the children’s experiences and perspectives of their institutionalisation, to reduce the misidentification and misappropriation of children as orphans. Therefore, operationalising the theoretical lens of Bourdieu within critical hermeneutic analyses, this article draws upon the narratives of 30 children living within an orphanage in Kampala, to enhance critical understandings of their experiences, perspectives, and behaviours throughout transition from home to an orphanage, via the streets of Kampala, illuminating how and why they come to be living there. Guided by Ricœur’s critical hermeneutic approach, the study found that poverty drives children to the streets in search of economic opportunity and organisations perceived to offer access to basic services of which they are deprived, such as education. Education, as a form of cultural capital, is understood amongst participants as ensuring an elevated position within society, or a means of overcoming poverty. Within this transition from home to the orphanage, whilst on the streets, socially acquired dispositions and harmful stereotypes contribute to the manifestation of the ‘street kid’ construct, for which the children are marginalised, and experience physical and sexual abuse. Girls are most at risk, whereby gender inequality contributes to their exploitation and the normalisation of rape. However, for the children entry into a CCI from the streets means relinquishing agency and social capital that is integral to them, often.