RE-THINKING SOCIAL CARE DELIVERY IN GHANA: AN AGENDA FOR A HOLISTIC APPROACH

Creating a separate ministry for women and children affairs, independent of the department of social welfare had always been a concern to many and a worry to most social care professionals not only because it was superfluous but also an unnecessary duplication of social care delivery and budgetary interference of the traditional mandate of the department of social work. For precisely, it is the department of social welfare that has the appropriate work force of trained professional social workers equipped with the relevant and appropriate skills ,knowledge and the experience in undertaking the delivery of quality social care service

Undoubtedly, this duplication may have accounted for the seemingly covert professional antagonism, seeming conflict of interests and jealousy that clouded the professional judgement and service delivery of practitioners within these two institutions, which never augured too well for the service users and the country in general. As it is said, 'when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers', such has been the unfortunate plight of many marginalised, oppressed, disadvantaged and vulnerable persons of the community, such as children and young person's who find themselves within the criminal justice system and statutory care for an example

The observation has been circumstances of conflicts which may have impacted on the quality of services delivered to these vulnerable and needy children , given the failure to appreciate and acknowledge that all children matter, given the contextualised framework of the welfare principle inherent in both the children's act 1989 and the juvenile justice act 2003.

For example , the ministry of women and children affairs is mandated to respond and address the needs of all children, in promoting their welfare at all times, but it is only the probation unit of the department of social welfare which has to date always picked up the pieces of those children who fail foul of the law, and indeed come in conflict and or with the law within the constraints of a rather limited budget, without any commensurate financial or personnel commitments from the ministry of women and children affairs

This may account for what may be rightly observed as the inadequate professional services being provided or made available to those children and young persons who are caught up in the criminal justice system and statutory (residential) care, thus risking their rehabilitation and resettlement with dire implications for public safety , prevention of reoffending and their specific welfare needs

It has been this institutional failures and inadequacies in the face of blatant non –cooperation, the lack of collaboration and partnership that have to date contributed to the half baked, lack of holistic and a much more pragmatic approach to juvenile justice administration and institutional child care in our country , unlike what pertains in most democratic jurisdictions

The new agenda for practice and service delivery:
An institution with a single mind of purpose and focus on the intent and purposes of the twin child care legislative provisions, is better placed to position itself in addressing the social care needs of all children as paramount at all times, given the understanding and appreciation that all children matter, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion, culture, religion and age of development etc.

In most developed and some developing democracies, all persons assessed as in any kind of socio-economic need are deemed as vulnerable, at risk of personal safety and disadvantage, requiring varied degrees of social care, social intervention and or social protection intervention and support of a kind

Thus the term social protection cannot and should not be seen as a somewhat isolated practice that differs from the phenomenon of undertaking relevant and appropriate measures of intervention strategies in addressing the specific socio-economic needs of those assessed as in need of quality social care intervention. The point here is simply this: for those citizens who find themselves trapped in the web of socio-economic difficulties, be they children in contact or conflict with the law, adolescents, families, adults or the aged/older persons who suffer disadvantages, vulnerability and marginalisation to the periphery of society, will require some amount of social protection from the challenges of their harsh circumstances, in promoting and upholding of their fundamental human rights

For one thing, children sentenced to probation order by the courts are not provided with any framework by the probation unit of the department of social welfare to undertake the relevant ,necessary and appropriate offence focused intervention work to address their criminogenic needs and reinforce any identified protective factors ,so as to help them develop those appropriate skills and knowledge to keep them out of further trouble with the laws of the country and prevent any further risk(s) of criminal behaviour to the themselves, families and the community in general

Furthermore, probation officers especially those in Accra, whose practice the writer had the privilege of personally observing their practice , work under extremely challenging circumstances, having to travel long distances sometimes with their own money to conduct interviews for court reports or undertake post sentence home visits , rendering them at risk of personal safety, harm and vulnerability. At other times practitioners would have to personally purchase the paper on which court reports are written, a phenomenon that in my opinion constitutes recipe for potential compromise of service delivery in terms of good practice

The advantages of the realigned ministry of gender, children and social protection, and being perceived by others as the apt re-definition of the social care agenda and quality service delivery in Ghana, may be several. For one thing, the opportunity for developing a framework within which the socio-economic needs of the seemingly marginalised, oppressed, disadvantaged and vulnerable members of our community can be brought under a single institution and addressed holistically. This will adequately promote the specific welfare needs of service users, within the context of anti oppressive, anti -discriminatory and equal opportunity practice policies and procedures

The need for Organisational restructure, review of job description and core duty:

However this may be dependent on the extent to which the ministry addresses its organisational restructure, job description and core duty of social care practitioners, which will be necessary and crucial in reflecting the appropriate responses to the challenges of best practice and quality service delivery

Significantly, if the vision, mission statement and the mandate of the new ministry is to be positively realised and the professional aspirations of social work practitioners are to be achieved, in placing the needs of service users at the fore front of service delivery, quality professional training , in-service training and education will be vital in building the professional capacity of practitioners as agents of real social change for national development. It is in this regard that the ministry may have to categorise and organise service delivery by identified teams, with team managers responsible and accountable to a service manager/director, who should and must be directly answerable and accountable to the sector minister

Children and families services team:
Suggestively, the organisational restructure may take into account a children and families services team that has the responsibility and duty to investigate, interview , undertake a needs- led assessment of the specific social care needs of all children, regardless of their social class, ethnicity, religion, language ,disability and gender ( except those who are physically challenged, as they would require a specific team- see below ) who may come into contact with the team. Practitioners should have the relevant professional capacity to devise and develop appropriate care plans, implement, monitor and review such care plans as relevant in accordance with a carefully well thought out practice guidance, guidelines , protocol and policy of the ministry, as part of the core functions of the duty of care

Clearly, services for fostering, adoption and child protection ( especially in cases of domestic violence, abuse of all kinds including child abuse ) should also constitute the remit of the children and families team, in as much those for the residential homes and orphanages within the framework of multidisciplinary approach to best practice

Adult services and older person's team:
Secondly, it will be important and necessary to establish an adult and older persons' services team, with the responsibility and the duty of undertaking the relevant and appropriate core duty of social care intervention and service delivery in line with the ministry's guidance, guidelines, protocol and policy as identified above

Physically and mentally challenged team:
Thirdly, establish a physically and mentally challenged team that will cater for the social care needs of all children, adults and older persons, who are physically challenged or experience mental health difficulties within the context of anti oppressive, anti discriminatory and equal opportunity practice . It should undertake all those tasks identified above as core duty and responsibility for the specific service user, in accordance with laid down procedures of quality and best practice.

Youth offending team:
Additionally, the need to set up a youth offender team, that has the professional capacity for balancing justice as epitomised by the juvenile justice act 2003, with welfare as determined by the children's act 1989 , with the duty and responsibility to all children who come into conflict with the laws of Ghana and or find themselves in the criminal justice system will be relevant and appropriate. Advisably, it may be good practice for this team to function as a multidisciplinary team, given the multifaceted needs of juvenile offenders.

Best practice is that evidenced by the British youth justice board, to constitute this team across the professional disciplines of social work/probation, education, health preferably a community psychiatrist nurse, psychologist, substance misuse worker, the police , a restorative justice practitioner, with social work skills and knowledge and a victim impact assessment /support worker. The team should have the unique responsibility and duty of undertaking what is known in practice terms as appropriate adult services to children and young people during interviews at police stations on arrest, in ensuring that they are not unduly harassed or subjected to discriminatory and oppressive conduct and practice

Furthermore, the team should undertake crime awareness and education initiatives or an early intervention work with young people in schools or with those on police reprimand programmes or are referred to district assembly child panels, as part of an overall diversion from prosecution and from court, and offer a framework for parenting education, professional advice and support to those parents, whose children are assessed as at risk of self harm, vulnerability and are at the cusps of criminality

Additionally, youth offending officers will have to devise and supervise bail support and remand schemes, interview and prepare court reports on young offenders for the court, attend court and assist/ undertake court duty, including post sentence interviews and vulnerability assessments, community supervision of all community sentences including community reparation and restorative justice.

Above all, the team should undertake throughcare supervision of young offenders in correction centres in partnership and collaboration with professionals working with such young offenders in the penal regime and supervise their released licence(s) and or parole

As a significant stake-holder of juvenile justice administration, the ministry may do well in offering support for any advocacy for penal reform which takes due account of the development of sentencing guidelines for the courts which is long overdue, in promoting the uniformity of sentencing of young offenders in the bid to reducing the incidences of potential discrimination and prison overcrowding.

Furthermore the ministry should extend this support to the call for the amendment of the criminal procedure code and the juvenile justice act, in developing other community sentencing thresholds. This should include options such as community pay- back, community reparation, community service and restorative justice, alongside the current probation order in conformity with the UN Minimum Standards Measures for non custodial sentences (1999) in reducing the young offender's risk(s) of custody which should be a last resort, as applicable in most democratic jurisdictions that value fundamental human rights

Devising and implementing anti discriminatory and equal opportunity practice framework and policy:

An important element of quality social care service delivery or social protection and best practice will be for the ministry, as a matter of urgency devise and develop an anti oppressive and anti- discriminatory practice guidance, guidelines, protocol and policy framework for social care practitioners

Additionally, an equal opportunity practice policy framework must simultaneously be devised and developed to regulate the working face-to face relationship between service users and practitioners at all times, as no service user or professional should be subjected to any form of oppression and discrimination. Pursuant to this, a framework of complaints procedure will need to be developed and put in place, if these policies are to be meaningful and enforceable. Indeed anti oppressive, anti –discriminatory and equal opportunity practice policies should become integral features of our criminal procedure code

Social care council:
Effective, evidence based and best practice will demand the setting up of a social care council, synonymous to the nurses and midwives council or to that of any professional body with the responsibility and the duty of regulating social care practice.

The council should have the overall oversight of the training and education of social care practitioners. It should have the capacity of ensuring the uniformity of their professional training and education- mandatory courses, in-service training and development, quality assurance, registration of practitioners and monitors compliance to their professional code of practice and ethics, within the framework of anti oppressive, anti discriminatory and equal opportunity practice policy

Inspection, monitoring, evaluation and review unit:

A unit that should have the responsibility of conducting professional audit into the practice and service delivery of all the teams and their practitioners, monitor, evaluate and review their practice will be vital. This will promote and ensure the strict adherence and compliance to the ministry's guidance, guidelines and practice procedure code, in the effort of delivering relevant, appropriate, quality, evidence based and best practice.

• The writer who is an ardent penal reform advocate, the operations director of offender management and rehabilitation organisation, is a social care consultant, contactable via [email protected]