EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON FINANCE 29 AUGUST 2008

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT Ensure the proper development of children: physically, emotionally, socially, cognitively, morally and spiritually. Guided by the following principles :Protection, development. Nondiscrimination and participation and the best interest of the child Development and implementation of policy, legislation, norms and standards. Provision of programmes Monitoring and evaluation Budget allocation Infrastructure Needs assessment Partnerships Coordination of services (National Integrated Plan for ECD).

PACKAGE OF SERVICES Integrated management of childhood diseases Immunisation Nutrition Referral services for health, social services and grants Early learning stimulation Psychosocial programmes

THE ROLE OF DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Registration and review of ECD sites (mainly 0-4 age group and after school care) Provision of grants/subsidies to disadvantaged children in places of care (ECD sites) and other grants such as the Child Support Grant (CSG), foster care and care dependency grant Protection of vulnerable children Development of the capacity of parents / primary caregivers through parenting programmes & psycho-social programmes especially to OVCs and abused children Family preservation programmes Developmental Quality Assurance through norms & standards legislation Provision of guidelines Norms and standards Regulations

ECD AS PART OF THE EXPANDED PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME Aims to train ECD practitioners to improve the quality of ECD services to children Department of Education takes responsibility for training Grade R teachers & practitioners at registered ECD sites Department of Social Development committed to increase registration of ECD sites and accessibility of subsidies.

NUMBER OF REGISTERED SITES 2006/72007/82008/9 June

ProvinceRegistered sites 2006/7Registered sites 2007/8Target for Registered sites 2008/9 Gauteng Mpumalanga Limpopo Free State North West Northern Cape KZN Eastern Cape Western Cape TOTAL =13 793

NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN ECD CENTRES & SUBSIDIES AMOUNT Target for amount of subsidy per day per child 2007/8: R9.00 Actual amounts paid: –KZN: R11Gauteng: R9.00 –NW: R9.00Mpu: R11.00 –FS: R5.20WC:R7.50 –NC: R9.00EC: R9.00 –Lim: R7.50

CURRENT NUMBER OF SUBSIDIZED CHILDREN: MID JUNE 2008 Current number: Number of new children to be subsidised in 2008/9 KZN: Subsidy: R12.00 NW: Subsidy: R 9.00 FS: Subsidy: R 9.00 NC: Subsidy: R10.00 Lim: Subsidy: R 9.00 Gau: Subsidy: R11.00 Mpu: Subsidy: R11.00 WC: Subsidy: R 9.00 EC: Subsidy: R12.00 Total: TOTAL CHILDREN TO RECEIVE SUBSIDY 2008/9:

NUMBER OF ACCREDITED ECD CENTRES The concept of accredited ECD centres does not exist.

WHAT IS THE SUBSIDY BUYING? 50% Nutritional needs of the children 30% A contribution to the salaries of the practitioners 20 % Other expenses, i.e. electricity, equipment.

FUNDING FOR THESE CENTRES (CONT….) Subsidies are paid to nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) caring for children whose parents are meeting the criteria of the mean test (R1 800). NGOs get paid per claim. Some provinces provide the payment on a monthly basis while some of the NGOs claim for a six month period.

PRELIMINARY EXPENDITURE ON ECD 2008/09 FINANCIAL YEAR ProvinceBudget Allocation R'000 Preliminary Expenditure as at 30 June 2008 R'000 % Spent Eastern Cape118, % Free State85,87518, % Gauteng190,78816, % KwaZulu-Natal43,09823, % Limpopo89,0896, % Mpumalanga69,60418, % Northern Cape4,0201, % North West43,5676, % Western Cape147,59725, % TOTAL792,004117,647 Note: Expenditure figures for Eastern Cape awaited.

WHETHER FUNDING REACHES THE INTENDED BENEFICIARIES? NGOs submit proposals for funding, which is then assessed by the province. Hereafter recommendations are made per available funds. Every year provinces set targets to increase the number of children and ECD sites to be funded. After approval of the application, government and the NGOs sign service level agreements which are evaluated every year. During the evaluation process the provinces request financial statements or any other financial proof on expenditure. This enables the provinces to decide to continue with the service level agreement, or to suspend and to terminate.

CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED Registration of ECD, as per Child Care Act 74 of 1983, as mended –There are sites that are not yet registered. The plan is to continue with the registration drive. Accessing the allocated funds: –ECD sites are expected to claim the funding allocated per child per day. This entails comprehensive administrative work. –This process contribute to under expenditure. –The plan to address this is for provinces to consider to allocate funds three months in advance with strong monitoring measures on the expenditure.

CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED (cont….) Provinces have different payment systems: The plan is to have a uniform payment system. Absence of a national data base contribute to the difficulty of obtaining reliable information. Audit of ECD sites is currently being planned.

PUBLIC EXPENDITURE TRACKING STUDY (PETS) A PETS is a multi-purpose survey designed to track the flow of resources through the administrative system, on a sample survey basis. In order to determine how much of the originally allocated resources reach each level. It is a useful tool for locating and quantifying leakage of funds and problems in the deployment of human and in-kind resources. The PETS will be piloted in NW, WC and Limpopo (DSD & DOE) in collaboration with UNICEF and the National Treasury. The study will be completed by July The study is intended to inform the development of a comprehensive tracking system for ECD nationally.

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