- A new conditional grant to support the employment of social worker graduates from the national scholarship programme will be introduced next year, National Treasury said on Wednesday.
“With effect from 2017/18, a new conditional grant to provinces will support the employment of social worker graduates from the national scholarship programme. Social workers will be employed by provinces and non-profit organisations,” said National Treasury in the 2016 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan tabled the MTBPS in Parliament on Wednesday.
According to the MTBPS, a second conditional grant will expand early childhood development services and the maintenance of related infrastructure will be introduced.
National Treasury is working with the Department of Social Development on a strategy to guide future financing for early childhood development.
On Wednesday, Minister Gordhan said as announced in the 2016 Budget Speech, the old age, disability and care dependency grants each increase by R10 this month.
Government has now decided to also increase the child support grant by R10 to R360 to offset the effects of high food inflation recorded earlier this year.
“In addition, Cabinet has approved in principle an extended child support grant for orphans who have lost both parents but are in the care of extended family members. The grant, which could be implemented in 2018/19, brings the income protection afforded to these orphans closer to parity with that provided to orphans in foster care,” the Minister said.
Tightening delivery in public service
Meanwhile, the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation will step up service delivery monitoring over the medium term. This will include 90 unannounced visits to service delivery facilities per year.
Over the medium term, sites to be visited include hospitals, clinics, police stations, Home Affairs local offices and magistrate courts.
The MTBPS also noted that focus over the medium term will be on improving service delivery, complemented by effective accountability to citizens.
A central task team will be implementing the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) and cleaning up the PERSAL human resources system for the public service.
The IFMS is a project to review, upgrade and integrate government’s financial management information technology systems. – SAnews.gov.za