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In this article we report on a South African study conducted with 1,779 learners aged 11 to 18 years from 8 schools in urban areas in and around Johannesburg. These learners' perspectives on school safety confirm that South African learners experience their schools as unsafe. Their primary concerns related to coercion and violence against learners by peers or teachers on school grounds, although they regarded the physical school environment and domestic and community conditions as impacting school safety. To address safety concerns, learners desired the punishment of offenders and greater involvement and accountability of adults. We recommend an urgent whole-school intervention using a critical gender lens.

The final draft of National Family Policy (2006) of South Africa, which will significantly influence social worker's approach to families, is examined. The policy can be commended for its vision on welfare of families but is negated by its conservative approach on family forms, traditional gender based division of labor and lack of specific guidelines.

This article builds on existing literature on the material effects of cash transfers. It explores people's own perceptions of the role of unconditional cash transfers in building, maintaining, and transforming social relations in a small village in rural South Africa. Much of the literature studying the impacts of cash transfers in the global South relies on quantitative measures. Thus, there is a paucity of micro-level qualitative research on beneficiaries' own perspectives on the social impacts of cash transfers. To this end, we explored whether the Child Support Grant, a small cash transfer given to impoverished caregivers of children, changed individual and intra-household relationships, as well as community solidarity in this village. We argue that South Africa's cash transfers have largely had positive social transformative effects on individuals, in relation to a sense of dignity, autonomy and increased decision-making powers for primary caregivers, usually mothers or grandmothers. Positive effects were also perceived in relation to these households and communities, although some contested effects and limitations were also found. These findings are of interest in the ongoing broader debates around the effects of cash transfers globally as well as regionally in Sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cash transfers have delivered measurable benefits for poor and vulnerable children in low‐ and middle‐income countries. However, on its own, a cash transfer is insufficient to promote holistic child well‐being. In the quest for appropriate complementary family support services, known as 'cash plus' programing, this qualitative study sought to explore the perspectives of a group of South African caregivers, all of whom were in receipt of a Child Support Grant (CSG), in relation to their own caregiving and family functioning. Critical areas of support to families were identified to further scale up the already positive impacts of the CSG, such as mental health services, social supports for caregivers, decreasing levels of poverty and growing caregiving knowledge and skills. Key conclusions are that improving the quality and integration of public services and developing culturally appropriate and evidence‐based family strengthening programmes are critical to complement and boost the positive impacts of the CSG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If gender is neglected in the design and implementation of mainstream social welfare models, unequal social and economic outcomes for men and women tend to be reproduced. This paper contributes to debates about how social protection can contribute to promoting gender equality by considering the gendered redistributive and transformative effects of three types of social security instruments in South Africa: social assistance, unemployment insurance and public employment programmes. All the instruments have some pro-poor and gendered design innovations. The Child Support Grant has had better outcomes than the other instruments, but redistributive and transformative gender effects across the social security spectrum are disappointing. Limited social transformation is largely due to implementation inefficiencies and unresponsive institutions. To serve both economically redistributive and socially transformative ends, gender-sensitive synergies between social security instruments and with other multisectoral interventions could be strengthened, such as access to social services (especially quality child care) and access to basic services (such as water, electricity, transport and internet services). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Families in Africa have been undergoing changes recently. The objective of the study was to review published literature on the types, determinants and consequences of family changes in Africa and highlight research gaps in the area. Methods Sixty-nine journals from 1976 to date that were downloaded from databases such as Pub Med, J Stor, Google Scholar and Science Direct were systematically reviewed. Results There are family transition in Africa due to socio-economic factors, religious, health and political changes. Seventy-two percent of the studies employed a quantitative approach, 20% qualitative and 7 % mixed method approach. There are research gaps on topics such as same-sex marriages, cohabitation and father only households. Conclusion Families in Africa are responding to socio-economic and other changes that are happening around them. Family research is still under studied in Africa. There is need for more mixed method studies that explain the quantitative findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on youth development approach to understand the particular experiences and needs of young mothers or caregivers who are receiving a child support grant (CSG) for a child in their care. Transitions from childhood to adulthood are complex and characterised by risk and uncertainty, which are powerfully exacerbated by social contexts.

Developmental social work is receiving increasing international recognition and much may be learnt from its application in different societal contexts. The article draws on empirical data from a South African study and provides valuable insight into how social workers conceptualize and translate developmental social work into practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper evaluates how well South African minimum standards for social work education, known as Exit Level Outcomes, are aligned to a social development paradigm. Developmental social work is a relatively new approach in social work education internationally, and this article can therefore provide lessons for other countries using this paradigm in an education model based on national minimum standards. The complexities and difficulties of using a minimum standards approach in education are discussed and the policy context for the development of these standards in South Africa is explained. The use of a social development framework for the analysis is motivated in relation to its relevance to the social context. Nine criteria for a social development perspective were drawn from the literature to form an analytical framework. A content analysis using this framework was done on the minimum standards. The results show that the minimum standards are generally aligned with social development principles that drive national priorities, but a few significant gaps exist, which are outlined and discussed. This article attempts to grapple with the complexities of using these minimum standards to drive both curricula related and extra curricula activities in social work education in South Africa [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]