Social Work and Child Justice: The Case of Botswana Taolo Lucas

The Children’s Act of 2009 has entrenched social work as an integral stakeholder in delivering child justice. Social work has been assigned roles ranging from community education, investigations, working as friends of the court, supervising protected children, processing foster care cases and working with children in conflict with the law. The challenges facing social work in the performance of their duties include inadequate knowledge of the act, resource constraints, stakeholder confusion, process ambiguities, and conservative community attitudes. A comprehensive resolution of the challenge will include community conscientization, stakeholder empowerment, role and process clarification, developing standards and quality control protocols and reviewing the act to include more alternative care options.