South Africa - How To Apply for Foster Care

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Procedure

Apply In-Person:

1. To apply for fostering a child in person, the person who wants to foster a child must visit any nearest office of the Department of Social Development or an accredited organisation for child protection.
2. You can visit the Department of Social Development office with the help of contact details link given below. Contact details for all the provinces in South Africa can be found in the following link: Link
3. Visit the office of any of the above mentioned departments for obtaining the Application form to apply for fostering a child, from the concerned department.
4. Make sure that you have all the documents listed in the “Required documents” section of this page. Fill the application with relevant information and as required.
5. Also, it is necessary that you should bring the child who you want to foster and the child’s biological parents (if any) along with you when visiting the office to apply.
6. After the application completion, you will be required to attend an investigation carried out by a social officer at the office, who will assess you and the foster child.
7. Attach all the required documents with the application form and submit it to the social worker who is investigating you and the child.
8. After successful submission, the social worker will examine the form and verify all the attached documents thoroughly.
9. Then, he/she will formulate a report based on the assessment made and produce it at the Children’s court with appropriate suggestions.
10. In accordance with the report produced at the court, if the child is truly found to be in need of foster care, the presiding officer at the court will issue an order in favour of the child in need.
11. The approval order of the placement issued by the court will contain the names of the foster parent, foster child and the foster placement duration.

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Required Documents

• Affidavit for the child’s abandonment (if applicable)
• Death certificates of the Child’s parents (if applicable)
• Child’s birth certificate
• Applicant identity document

Office Locations & Contacts

Department of Social Development,
134, Pretorius Street,
HSRC Building,
Pretoria.
Directions using Google map: Link
Customer Care Help line: 012 312 7727
E-Mail: [email protected]
Website: Link , Link

List of Department of Social Development Offices

Provincial Contact Numbers:
GAUTENG - (011) 355 7687 / 7977 / 7878
LIMPOPO - (015) 293 6004 / 6054 / 6011 / 6053
NORTH WEST - (018) 387 3434 / 0255 / 3497 / 0281
MPUMALANGA - (013) 766 3098 / 3253 / 3031
FREE STATE - (051) 400 0302 / 0304 / 0307
EASTERN CAPE - (043) 605 5000
KWAZULU-NATAL - (033) 264 5400
WESTERN CAPE - (021) 483 3858/ 3765 / 3158 / 5445
NORTHERN CAPE - (053) 807 5600

Eligibility

• Any person having a valid Identity document and desire to foster a child in need is eligible to apply.
• Any person, who had attained 18 years of age, fit for raising a child and proper and has a desire for fostering a child, can apply.
• The person applying must be willing and capable of taking care of the child in a proper manner.
• The person who is willing to foster a child must accomplish the child’s growth with a comfortable environment and ensure the child’s development in an effective way.

Fees

• The complete service is free of cost.
  

Validity

• You can only foster a child for the period indicated in the court order. Once the indicated period of the court order has lapsed, the presiding officer may, after reviewing the recommendation from the social worker, extend the period of the court order.
  

Documents to Use

• All forms are available at your nearest Department of Social Development office or organisation.
  

Sample Documents

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Processing Time

The processing time for application and issuance of placement approval order is variant depending on the case.

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications.
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type='website'>video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the '&' inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver,
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M' Video ID is 'Y0US7oR_t3M'.

Instructions

• The biological parents must be involved in the process. If you do not know where the biological parents are, the social worker will assist you in placing an advertisement in newspapers for one month, calling on them to come forward.
• If the biological parents do not come forward, the process will proceed. The child must be involved in the entire process.

Required Information

• Particulars of the child
• Particulars of the applicant
• Identity number of the applicant
• Information about the biological parents (if any)

Need for the Document

• It is necessary for a person who wishes to foster a child, to register in the Department of Social Development, for obtaining the approval order from the court of South Africa.
  

Information which might help

The child, to be fostered must be under 18 years of age and/or:

• have been abandoned or orphaned and be without any visible means of support
• display behavior which cannot be controlled by the parent or care-giver
• be living on the streets or begging for a living
• be addicted to a dependence-producing substance and without any support to obtain treatment for such dependency
• have been exploited or exposed to exploitation
• be at risk if returned to the custody of the parent, guardian or care-giver
• Be in a state of physical or mental neglect, maltreated, abused or degraded by a parent, a care-giver, a person who has parental responsibilities and rights or a family member or by a person under whose control the child is.

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

Please explain what are other uses of obtaining this document/certificate.
e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

External Links

Place some external links which might help.

Others

More information which might help people.