The protection and well-being of children remain one of the most pressing priorities for social welfare systems across the globe. In many societies, children face complex vulnerabilities resulting from social, economic, and health-related challenges. These vulnerabilities necessitate responsive, coordinated, and community-oriented interventions to ensure that children not only survive but are given the opportunity to thrive in safe and supportive environments.
Social work as a profession plays a vital role in creating and sustaining these protective environments. However, the increasing demands on social workers and the scarcity of resources have led to the expansion of roles within the social services workforce. Among these roles is that of the Social Auxiliary Worker (SAW), who serves as a vital link between formal social work services and the communities they aim to support. Positioned within local contexts, SAWs are often the first to identify children at risk and initiate appropriate interventions.
There is, however, limited empirical research that specifically examines how SAWs contribute to the protection and care of children who are awaiting foster care placement, particularly within community-based organisations operating outside the statutory foster care system. What remains underexplored is how SAWs navigate prolonged foster care delays, the nature of their day-to-day protective interventions during this interim period, and the ways in which they collaborate with statutory actors to safeguard children's well-being. This study addresses this gap by providing in-depth, contextually grounded insights into the roles, contributions, and challenges of SAWs working with children awaiting foster care placement, thereby extending existing knowledge on auxiliary social service labour and strengthening evidence to inform child protection policy and practice in South Africa.
The aim of this study was to understand how social auxiliary workers employed in community-based organisations, who often operate in under-resourced settings, contributed to the care and protection of children awaiting foster care placement. The study objectives were to: (1) examine the nature of child protection services provided by social auxiliary workers; (2) explore the extent and impact of the collaborations they facilitated to strengthen service delivery; and (3) identify the challenges social auxiliary workers encountered in fulfilling their roles within the broader child protection system.
