Assignment task:
You are a social work manager at Amathole Child Welfare Services in Amathole district, in the Eastern Cape Province. The district has six (6) municipalities. There are three (3) satellite offices of Amathole Child Welfare Services in the district, and each office services two (2)municipalities. You manage all three (3) offices. The staff complement of each office consists of two (2) social work supervisors, six (6) social workers, three (3) auxiliary social workers, two (2) administrators and t w o2 ) general workers.
The population of Amathole District is 880,790. The majority (40%) of the residents in the district are elderly people; 22% are adults, 26% are young people while children make up 12% of the population. The majority of the children are in the care of their grandparents because m o s tof the adults and young people have migrated to the cities for work and only come home occasionally. Since the Covid-19 outbreak in South Africa, a large number of the residents of Amathole district have been diagnosed with theillness. To date, 1013 residents have been infected with the corona virus. The recovery rate of residents is poor: of the 1013 people who tested positive for the virus, 541 are currently infected. As a result of the high infection rate, the Premier of the Eastern Cape, Mr Oscar Mabuyane, and the executive of the Eastern Cape Provincial Government have taken a decision to place the district under level 5 lockdown, limiting the movement of residents within the community and prohibiting their travel outside the district.
The increase in the number of Covid-19 cases has been cause for serious concern for your organisation since there is an increase in the number of residents requesting food parcels. As a manager, you therefore came to realize that it cannot be business as usual, and that you need to adapt your service delivery programmes and prioritize pressing issues. You therefore call an urgent staff meeting to discuss the plight of the residents and as a collective you agree that you need to solve the problem of food insecurity in the district. Following the staff meeting, you also organise a meeting with the board of directors of the organisation to request their support with the project. During your meeting with the board they express their willingness to help. As a manager you emphasise to the board the need to involve the residents in the planning and implementation of the food project. Together with the board you therefore agree that a task team should be established to drive the project and that ti should consist of two social workers, a supervisor, you as manager, two community leaders and the secretary of the board. You then agree that the task team should meet twice a week to make sure that the project gets underway.
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QUESTION 1: The recent Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc throughout the workforce, including the social service sector. Discuss the impact of Covid-19 on social work practice as you have observed and experienced it.
QUESTION 2: Discuss the reasons why Amathole Child Welfare Services is suitable to assist the residents of Amathole district by discussing five (5) differences between social welfare services and businesses.
QUESTION 3: The difficulties posed by the Covid-19 pandemic have shown that social services organisations need to be able to adapt to different circumstances. Therefore, as a manager and realising that ti cannot be business as usual, you recognised that Amathole Child Welfare Services needs to become a learning organisation. Discuss what the learning organisation approach entails.
QUESTION 4: Discuss five (5) functions of the board that will be carried out by the board of directors of Amathole Child Welfare Services in fulfilling their commitments to the project.
QUESTION 5: Discuss four (4) principles of good governance that the proposed task team would give effect to in the management and execution of the two projects. Also, indicate how each principle will benefit the organisation and the residents.