For more than 20 years child and youth care practitioners in our country have sought professional recognition. We have begged, pleaded and fought to be recognised as professional in our own right. Why? Well no doubt there may have been a variety of reasons, but as I look back on where we have come from and why, I would say there have been three fundamental reasons:

• Firstly, we believe in what we are doing, we do it well, we receive specific training, and we want to be recognised both professionally and with respect to salaries. We want to earn what social workers earn for example, and we want to take our place within a professional multi-disciplinary team without being patronised or disregarded.
• Secondly, (and most important of all) we believe that the children and youth whom we serve deserve the best — always. They deserve ethical and effective practice. They deserve to know that the people working with them are equipped to do so, have committed themselves to an ethical code of conduct and are prepared to be held accountable to it.
• Lastly, we believe this is a very special profession, with very specific knowledge and skill, very special attitudes toward vulnerable children and youth, and a very specific philosophy. “Not just anybody”, simply because they work with children and youth, can call themselves a “child and youth care worker.” We have always seen our work as different from, yet complimentary to social work, psychology and education. We have not wanted to be seen as some kind of assistant to social workers, neither do we in any way presume to do social work. When we were offered the opportunity to be social auxiliary workers, we said no thanks!

The National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW) went ahead and created a registration board as an interim measure, while continuing to negotiate with the Social Work Council for full recognition as child and youth care workers. The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Young People at Risk (1995-1999) continued the advocacy together with NACCW, and in 1998 Minister Fraser-Moleketi took new legislation to Parliament, changing the Interim Social Work Council into the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) and thereby creating the legislative framework and process for establishing child and youth care work, youth work, probation work, and community development work as professions in their own right alongside social work.

Now its up to the child and youth care workers of South Africa! The mechanism by which this all becomes a reality, by which we are born (legally) as a profession, is the establishment of a Professional Board for our field. The mechanism by which any one of us (legally) becomes a professional child and youth care worker, is registration. Broad parameters for Boards have been established in legislation. The new Council, in consultation with professional associations such as the NACCW, the SA Youth Workers Association and the Probation Advocacy Group, will set up the detailed criteria and procedures for establishing boards by February 2000 and the various professions will need to “organise” themselves and make an application to become a Board.
The criteria will almost definitely include a factor such as representivity of the majority of child and youth care workers. This means that child and youth care workers at all levels of practice will have a say in establishing the board. A group of people cannot simply walk into the council and say they represent child and youth care workers and want to set up a board. They will have to prove that they have the support of the majority of child and youth care workers in South Africa. Once application is made and accepted, the majority of board members will be elected by the child and youth care workers in South Africa.

How will this impact on you and me? The Professional Board for Child and Youth Care will have a twofold (legislated) responsibility —

• to protect the children, youth and families who receive services from child and youth care workers, and
• to advocate for and safeguard the profession of child and youth care work.

They will do this through registration and through taking appropriate action when the Code of Ethics is alleged to have been violated. As with social workers at present, registration is likely to be on the basis of approved qualification. The Board is likely to work in close cooperation with Education Institutions and organisations such as Technikon SA, NACCW, and Universities, as well as the Public Service Administration, to establish accredited qualifications.

As life-long learning is now a recognised principle, and as the National Qualification Framework (NQF) is the overall framework to be applied to all education and training at a tertiary level, my sense would be that there will be various levels of registration, such as a professional level, auxiliary level, pupil child and youth care worker and so on. Each level of registration would set parameters for the qualification required (i.e. knowledge and skill), and what workers can and cannot do at each level. This would also be in line with the new Public Service Code of Remuneration (CORE) which was initiated recently.

It is hard to predict, but seems most likely that registration at a professional level would require either a degree (4 years) or diploma (3 years). However, it would also seem likely to me that even without the degree or diploma, prior experience and learning would be taken into account in the form of a Board Exam which would establish the level of possible registration and/or additional accreditation needed before registration.

Registration is likely to play a role in employment opportunities in the future. Once minimum standards are fully implemented, together with a new financing policy, eventually, as with other professions, there is likely to be a requirement that only registered child and youth care workers are employed — that in fact no one may practise child and youth care work, without registration.

So, we have our longed for recognition. We have the long overdue regulation of our work to safeguard us and the children and youth with whom we work. The next steps are up to the child and youth care workers of South Africa. When we get what we’ve wanted for so long, when we see the full implications, we’re sometimes unsure whether we want it after all. This may be the case for some workers as they consider the implications of legislated registration, but it is almost certain that the vast majority who understand what it means to practise child-centred work, will embrace the changes with enthusiasm and generosity.