In South Africa, the provision of social grants, such as the Child Support Grant (CSG), has the aim of addressing high poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. The CSG in particular has had positive impacts on the educational, nutritional and health outcomes of children. Despite these positive outcomes, the CSG does not address psychosocial and parenting challenges, which if addressed could contribute to improved child and family wellbeing.
This study sought to evaluate a pilot family- and community-based intervention offered to CSG families to address the psychosocial and parenting challenges that maybe experienced by caregivers. The research question which guided the study was “Does the pilot family- and community-based intervention improve child well-being in CSG families? A related question was: What are the implementation challenges of the pilot programme?” Located within a developmental and preventative approach to child and family well-being, the intervention was evaluated against four dimensions of caregiver relations, social and community connectedness, caregiver’s engagement in child’s education and financial capabilities.
An intervention research design informed the study, which was located in Soweto, Doornkop, an urban community situated in Johannesburg and characterised by high levels of poverty, unemployment and a high uptake of the CSG. Ten caregivers who participated in the Sihleng’imizi We Care for Families programme were interviewed at baseline and endpoint to gain insights of the families’ context prior to the intervention as well as their perceived changes that occurred in their family after their participation in the programme. Additionally, the facilitator and supervisor of the intervention team and educators of the target child provided their views on the changes they observed in families and the children. Observations, session evaluations and facilitator reports provided key information about the feasibility and fidelity of the intervention.
The study findings indicate that CSG families were perceived to have benefited positively from the intervention. This included positive changes in household rules and routines, psychosocial support from Sihleng’imizi buddies, less harsh discipline practices with children and an improved knowledge of budgeting and saving of money.
The feasibility and fidelity of the intervention has provided evidence of the potential to scale up ‘cash plus’ family interventions in the South African context.
The study also provides pointers for key implications for social policy and social work practice. This includes a framework for integrating social welfare programmes and social protection policies located within the developmental approach. In addition, the Sihleng’imizi family intervention paves a way forward for the design of ‘cash plus’ programmes in South Africa. For social work practice, this study highlights ways in which evidence-based developmental social work practice can be implemented and innovative strategies designed to work with families in a community setting