EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT - Cape Town

1 Making progress possible. Together. INVESTING INEARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENTTO BUILD A CARING CITYD ocument navigation shortcuts Entries on the Contents pages link to the relevant page. The tabs on the right-hand pages link to the first page of the relevant section. The document title in the footer of each page links to the first Contents page. EDUCATIONIS THE MOSTPOWERFUL WEAPONYOU CAN USE TOCHANGE THE WORLD. NELSON MANDELACITY OF CAPE TOWNSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORATEINVESTING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT , CITY OF CAPE TOWN 20152 FOREWORDWe have a duty to provide Cape Town s young children, in particular those foundin the low socio-economic index, with the best possible start to their formativedevelopment so that they can unlock their full potential and rise above theircircumstances.

2 During the first six years in a child s DEVELOPMENT they acquire concepts, skillsand attitudes that lay the foundation for lifelong learning. This period is the most critical,when they require the most care and support as they experience rapid physical, mental,emotional, social and moral growth. For this reason the City is making a massive investment in EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (ECD) by building ECD centres of excellence. Besides being facilities for children, they couldinclude space for ECD capacity building training and vegetable gardens, as well as cater fora toy library forms part of our goal of getting to the point where every child has access to a facilitythat can provide the building blocks so crucial to their future.

3 The importance of well-func-tioning ECD centres cannot be overstated as part of this administration s efforts to build a car-ing city and an opportunity city. A child who receives the right kind of stimulation in theirearly developmental years will no doubt cope better when they enter the formal educationsystem and so it is important that we do everything in our power to ensure that our ECD cen-tres are able to fulfil this very crucial role in the lives of our addition, the City is very aware of the many challenges that ECD operators face in be-coming compliant. For this reason, a number of measures were put in place to try to assistthem. It is in our best interests to help as many ECDs as possible become compliant, becauseultimately it will benefit the children who attend these centres.

4 As part of its 2014/15 financialyear, the SDECD Directorate has committed a budget of R1,9 million to skills developmentprojects and programmes that are aimed at building the capacity of ECD practitioners. Thisallocation has enabled the directorate to implement the following projects: Accredited First Aid level 1 training, which reached 164 ECD practitioners and includedthe provision of first aid kits to 135 ECD centres. The provision of toys and educational toolkits to support 93 ECD centres in upgrading theircurriculum programmes. 11 ECD centres for children with disabilities benefited through the provision of stimulationkits to support their educational part of a strategic focus to empower community ECD forums towards ensuring theireffectiveness and sustainability, the directorate also allocated training opportunities acrossvarious organisational DEVELOPMENT skills to 23 community-based ECD registration is extremely crucial, because it means that the operator is compliant withthe various laws and regulations governing childcare.

5 But it also means that they can apply forsubsidies to the provincial department of Social DEVELOPMENT and build an even better platformfor the DEVELOPMENT and growth of the children in their care. It also provides peace of mind forthe thousands of parents who rely heavily on childcare facilities while they are at work. COUNCILLOR SUZETTE LITTLEM ember of the Mayoral Committee for Social DEVELOPMENT and EARLY ChildhoodDevelopment (SDECD)INVESTING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT , CITY OF CAPE TOWN 20153 INVESTING INEARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENTTO BUILD A CARING CITYThe EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (ECD) period is when cognitive stimulation,nutrition and emotional attachment all work together to shape the identity, copingskills, intelligence and problem-solving abilities that children will need to grow intowell-adjusted adolescents and adults.

6 The City of Cape Town takes this DEVELOPMENT period very seriously and realises that it isimperative to support our young citizens EARLY on in order for them to become well-rounded,active and involved residents of our City, and our country. It is also a very important tool toempower people to rise above poverty and other social ills that are prevalent within many ofour providing good ECD services and support, we also adhere to the requirements set forthin the Children s Act for a child s holistic challenges in terms of infrastructure, resources and training our three main focuspoints have given the City the opportunity to provide ongoing support to the ECD sector inorder to reach levels of compliance with regards to educational, health and safety regard to training, expansion and awareness, the City has been running programmesaround raising awareness.

7 Organisational DEVELOPMENT , entrepreneurial training and devel-opment, the improvement of child safety, provision for wellness and nutrition needs, the im-provement of practice standards, and training and raising awareness around the needs ofchildren with disabilities or special-care requirements, such as those suffering from foetal al-cohol syndrome and HIV/Aids. The City strives to manage, develop, coordinate and report on implementation of its pro-grammes, projects and interventions relating to the ECD Department by planning, designing,monitoring and evaluating programmes via project management methodologies. In addition,they activate ECD registration support by managing relationships with identified external stake-holders (NGOs and service providers) as well as collaborations with Western Cape Government.

8 During the 2014/15 financial year, the relationship between the City of Cape Town andprovincial government gained momentum with the launch of joint ECD registration are aimed at imparting registration information to ECD practitioners and stakeholdersat community level. Various City of Cape Town and Provincial Department of Social Develop-ment officials engage with ECD stakeholders in communities and take them through a step-by-step guide on registration procedures and associated statutory requirements. These jointECD registration drives reached more than 600 ECD practitioners, who all expressed greatappreciation for this opportunity. It is important to note that through this initiative betweenthe two spheres of government, 184 ECD centres were registered and more are expected togain their registration status based on the applications received into the of the SDECD Portfolio Committee played a very important role during the im-plementation of the joint ECD registration drives by encouraging participation by communitystakeholders and identifying unregistered ECD centres within their wards for site inspectionsso that they could receive expert advice on registration compliance.

9 Through the committee soversight role, its members were able to monitor the implementation of Council s IDP, budget,business plans, strategic objectives, policies and programmes in relation to EARLY theme of the ECD registration drive is: To invest in EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT tobuild a caring city , and this demonstrates the administration s commitment to deliver to theECD sector and to build on the future of the lives of the children in the City of Cape RAELENE ARENDSEC hairperson of the Social DEVELOPMENT and EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (SDECD)Portfolio CommitteeINVESTING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT , CITY OF CAPE TOWN 2015 CONTENTSFOREWORD Councillor Suzette Little, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Social DEVELOPMENT and EarlyChildhood DEVELOPMENT (SDECD).

10 2 INVESTING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT TO BUILD A CARING CITYC ouncillor Raelene Arendse,Chairperson of the Social DEVELOPMENT and EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (SDECD) Portfolio Committee .. 3 GLOSSARY OF 6 LIST OF FIGURES AND 7 PART A: ABOUT EARLY CHILDHOOD 9 THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD 10 ECD SERVICES IN SOUTH 12 The national context .. 13 The Constitution (Section 28) and Bill of Rights .. 13 The South African Bill of Rights .. 13 The Children s Act .. 14 The Provincial context .. 16 Reporting of an abused or neglected child and a child in need of care and protection .. 16 National Child Protection Register.