New app to help Western Cape social workers

The Department of Social Development’s Annemie Van Reenen with hundreds of files in the registry at the department’s Langa office. A new app is designed to cut down on paperwork and filing for social workers. Photo: Marecia Damons / GroundUp

• The Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD) has launched an application to help social workers cut down time spent on paperwork.
  
• The application allows social workers to upload clients’ documents to a database and fill in forms digitally.
  
• It is already being used by 1,054 DSD social workers, supervisors and managers across the province and will be offered to other departments and to welfare organisations.

A new app launched on Thursday by the Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD) aims to slash the amount of time social workers spend on paperwork.

The new Social Work Integrated Management System (Swims) application is designed to make administration of cases easier and faster. The app, which went live in April, is already being used by 1,054 social workers, supervisors and managers across the Western Cape. In June, 5,698 forms were loaded on the app, and 2,157 cases were opened, the department said at the launch in Langa on Thursday.

“On average it takes about 15 minutes for a social worker to fill in the relevant paper forms for a case of child protection, for example. With Swims, this time is cut down to 8 minutes,” said MEC for Social Development Jaco Londt at the launch in Langa on Thursday. “That is a seven-minute per case saving. If we multiply that by an average of 60 cases per social worker in a month, that’s 420 minutes being saved per month per social worker.”

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Elarna Siljeur, who has been in the field for 17 years, working in the Atlantic Seaboard, Gugulethu, Heideveld, Manenberg, Mitchells Plain and Mowbray. A social worker sometimes can manage up to 300 clients, she says, fill in multiple forms and complete process notes, clients’ bank forms, and consent forms.

In cases where abused children need to be placed into a new home, the adult under whose supervision the child will be placed also needs to be screened. Forms must be completed for every person living in the home.

She said that social workers often complained about the paperwork.

“The Swims app will make the process easier,” said Siljeur. The application allows them to scan documents like IDs, birth certificates, consent forms and banking forms.

“All we need to do is pick up a phone, log into the case and get background on it. At the touch of a button, we have access to information and don’t have to wait for the registry staff to go and find a file on a particular case,” said Siljeur.

“We can do so much more early intervention and prevention work if we can save more time. This app is a win for us,” she said.

Annemie van Reenen, the department’s chief director for service delivery management and coordination, said a team had travelled to 45 offices across the province to assess challenges facing social workers. “The main thing they flagged is the high administrative burden. I told my team we need to start working on a solution.”

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In 2021, Van Reenen submitted a pitch to the provincial treasury and received funding for three years from 2022. R1m was allocated to developing the application and R2m to procure smartphones for social workers.

She said 602 social workers and 189 social auxiliary workers will regularly use the application and managers and supervisors will also have access to the platform. The app will also be offered to other departments in the provincial government and to welfare organisations.

The Swims application will be available without an internet connection. “When social workers are in the field, doing home visits, they can upload the relevant documents onto their smartphones. When they get internet access, the information uploaded will be synced to the app’s databases,” said Van Reenen.

The department is also discussing the possibility of collaborating with the National Department of Social Development on the further roll-out of the system.

This article was originally published on GroundUp.

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