Communities of Practice for Child Wellbeing

One of the key social policy questions we tackle at the CSDA is how to make existing social policy instruments work better and in a more integrated fashion to ensure that people can achieve better development outcomes. The Community of Practices (CoP) for Child Wellbeing project, initiated in 2020, addresses the imperative of enhancing existing social policy instruments to alleviate childhood poverty and improve overall development outcomes for children. Recognising the limitations of cash transfers alone, the project aims to integrate various services to overcome systemic barriers to wellbeing.

The project targets beneficiaries of the Child Support Grant (CSG) in the foundation phase (Grades R to 3), focusing on bolstering social support systems to enhance ’their wellbeing. It employs a multisystemic framework integrating health, education, mental health, and welfare sectors to achieve its objectives.

The research reflects the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various aspects of wellbeing across households, focusing on caregivers and children. It shows how children fared at the end of the pandemic in 2022. In 2023 the project’s focus was on assessing the feasibility of the CoP approach for institutionalisation. This was done by further testing and evaluating the CoP model in a rural environment, where resources may be more constrained, and assessing the efficacy of the Child Wellbeing Tracking Tool (CWTT). The team also evaluated the efficacy of CoP interventions and tracked child wellbeing over the aforementioned three key foundational years (i.e. Grades R to 3).

Teachers, social workers, and allied professionals collaborate to implement interventions effectively in the project. Furthermore, the project relies on partnerships with funders, government agencies, and other key stakeholders to ensure sustainability and reach a wider audience in need.

You can read more about this project here.