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The business environment is constantly changing. For organisations to gain competitive advantage, they require innovative methods to achieve future business goals. The capital assets of an organisation, such as its high-technology, complex systems, typically have long life-cycles, and are susceptible to obsolescence, requiring multifaceted support. Implementing integrated logistic support principles in supporting such systems improves the organisation’s bottom line and reduces the total ownership and life-cycle costs. The research consists of a literature review, a case study analysis, and a questionnaire.

In this issue, we challenge readers with the salient question of whether charity always begins at home, particularly as the world witnessed a surge in armed conflicts around the globe in 2023, with devastating consequences for millions of people. As children are among the most vulnerable members of societies, the first three articles of this issue focus on them as a target group. Thereafter, attention is turned to women, older persons, and people dealing with mental health issues, as vulnerable groups. Recognising that social work, especially in a forensic context, increases the likelihood of secondary traumatic stress among social workers, we have also addressed this topic in the issue. In conclusion, a disaster-specific approach to the social work curriculum in an undergraduate social work course is presented. We also offer a book review covering the challenges arising from the interplay of culture and human rights through the lenses of emancipatory social work and Afrocentricity in a globalised world.

The third edition of 2023 presents a collection of eight articles that delve into four central themes: role players in social work, the interface of Covid-19, gender-based violence, and child rights. The articles engage with diverse challenges and dynamics within the social work landscape, contributing to the advancement of theory and practice in both local and global contexts. In this editorial, we provide an overview of the themes and the contributions each article makes to the broader discourse.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) has become a priority area of social work, in both developed and developing countries. In this article, the term ECD supervisors refers to the social workers working with ECD centres in the capacity of supervisor. These social workers can provide valuable insight into the unique management tasks and associated professional development areas uniquely required when working in the ECD sector. The goal of this conceptual article is to identify these professional development areas of management tasks required from social workers who supervise ECD centres. Ultimately, these management tasks are synthesised into three categories, namely tasks which require technical, relational and administrative skills respectively. This is an attempt to preserve the institutional memory of South African social workers, given the current shift of ECD governance functions from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education.

This paper describes a collaboration between a university and a local child welfare agency in the development and delivery of a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) child welfare course featuring lived experience knowledge and learning situated in community-based child welfare sites. We present results of an exploratory mixed methods pre-post survey and focus group evaluation which examined changes in student general knowledge, perceptions of skills for decision- making and orienting beliefs about child welfare families. The results did not yield uniform significant results. The discussion delves into lessons learned about the importance of supporting students to develop skills for respectfully gathering and critically analyzing information and how to break through what we observed as student reluctance to learn about child welfare wrongdoings. We reflect on why, despite centering curriculum on lived experience knowledge, we were not successful in overturning students' negative orienting beliefs about families and children receiving child welfare services. We conclude with considerations for new directions in BSW child welfare curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This edition of Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk offers a range of themes to the reader, with topics focusing on income-generating activities, homelessness, gangsterism, substance abuse, effective parenting, sexual orientation, community development practitioner profiling and supervision of social workers.

This article reports on qualitative research, aimed at acquiring an understanding of what transpires in an individual social work supervision session in South Africa. Findings reveal that supervision sessions are chiefly “open door” and “on the run”, with minimal evidence of critical reflection. A key recommendation stresses that the evolution of supervision in the country should enter a new phase as response to the hegemony of a neoliberal inspired managerial discourse in social work. The deliberate utilisation of more clinical educational and supportive elements, and critical reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action in supervision sessions is therefore recommended.

This is the first edition of SW/MW published by a new editorial team, who has to following in the inestimable footsteps of Prof Sulina Green and Ms Hester Uys, the former editor and business manager of the journal respectively. Their contributions towards the body of social work knowledge in South Africa and beyond are evident from the fact that under their leadership, the journal was transformed into an open access journal, was awarded a Scopes accreditation, and is ranked in the top 50 social work journals in the world, as listed by the Scimago journal ranking.

Widespread socio-economic challenges such as high levels of poverty and unemployment continue to plague South Africa. Owing to the nature of social work service delivery, social workers often serve the most vulnerable populations. However, it seems that social workers remain metaphorically in the trenches in the war on poverty, meaning that tangible evidence on the progress of poverty alleviation due to the direct involvement of social workers is meagre in social development. This article argues for the integration of a financial social work practice perspective into South African social work service delivery as a potential means of facilitating more efficient social development. The article is conceptual in nature and draws on the principles of theoretical adaptation. It posits social developmental theory as the dominant theoretical paradigm, and financial social work as the practice perspective. Analysis will highlight the current gaps in social developmental practice, and the appropriateness of financial social work to address it. The discussion aims to activate scholarly discourse on financial social work in South Africa and beyond, and to firmly position this practice perspective within sustainable social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]