The South African Government’s Budgetary Obligations to Tackle the Severely Strained Resource-and-Funding Environment of Inclusive and Holistic Early Childhood Development

Abstract

This article assesses the South African government’s international, constitutional and legislative budgetary obligations with respect to the development of all children in early childhood. The components of early childhood development (ECD) services are examined as an “essential package” of support to children, including not only education and stimulation but also health, nutrition, social services and support for primary caregivers who need this support in the home environment. This holistic approach requires budgetary collaboration between government and provincial departments to ensure that budgets for this group of children are properly assessed and allocated. With the recent assumption of responsibility for South African ECD programmes by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), clarity is needed on how future budgetary allocation will be managed to ensure cooperation with local government, the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Social Development (DSD), which was previously in charge of ECD. The expansion of public provisioning of early childhood care and education (ECCE) programmes has cost, capacity and policy implications. It is argued that this expansion necessitates the implementation of a package of services and provisioning from homes and community venues, with the involvement of municipalities in infrastructural development to advance universal access to ECD programmes. However, despite this need for holistic planning and provisioning, the current budgeting for access to inclusive, ECCE is largely inadequate, with little evidence of investigation into new and improved methods of investment and governance.

Internationally, concern has been expressed by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the ineffective implementation of relevant policies by the South African government, owing inter alia to: acute shortages of staff with expertise on disabilities and insufficient allocation of financial resources; the large number of children with disabilities who are out of school or are studying in specialised schools or classes, in particular children with psychosocial disabilities; and the low quality of education provided and inadequate curriculum content used for children with disabilities, particularly children with psychosocial disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and sensory disabilities. Urgent attention has still not been paid to this lack of proper implementation.

Domestically, the administration, financing and delivery of partial care and ECCE services are assigned to provincial bodies that are accountable for the planning, funding and oversight of these services. A province can allocate a budget from its equitable share and revenues. Alternatively, a conditional grant may be allocated to the province from the national budget. Decisions to allocate specific amounts for ECD are made at the provincial level and there have been allegations of unpaid subsidies and instances where the government has repurposed funds that were already budgeted for specific purposes. Furthermore, the funding does not fully encompass the broader scope of the education-related essential package of services that the State should provide. In this regard, there is potential to expand the private sector’s role in welfare provision to help underfunded NGOs provide essential services. Legislation on ECCE and ECD, in particular where intergovernmental cooperation and monitoring and evaluation of nutritional interventions are emphasised, may remould the current fragmented and disparate policy options into a more coherent legal duty. Such legislation should prioritise nutritional security for children with disabilities who are from poorer families. Furthermore, adequate funding should be directed to ECD programmes, with better coordination and alignment between the national and provincial departments responsible for ECD. This would ensure that resources are effectively used and transparently managed. This may involve revisiting funding models, reviewing subsidy amounts, and establishing mechanisms to hold relevant stakeholders accountable for achieving the desired outcomes. Furthermore, it is crucial to impose stronger legislative duties to enhance accountability by means of an effective financing system, the primary objective of which would be to ensure equitable support for ECD services across South Africa for children with disabilities. For children with disabilities in particular, a coordinated programme is required to address the key components of funding allocation, resource utilisation, accountability and coordination between national and provincial levels and between departmental and ministerial levels.