Social Service Professions Act, 1978 (Act No. 110 of 1978)

In these Regulations, unless the context indicates otherwise, a word or expression that is defined in the Act has the same meaning in these Regulations, and in addition—

"Act"

means the Social Service Professions Act, 1978 (Act No. 110 of 1978);

"expert testimony"

means a written report or oral evidence provided by a witness with specialised knowledge, training, skills and expertise;

"forensic social work assessment"

means an investigation of a specific matter by application of scientific assessment methods or processes designed to answer a question or a set of questions to establish the facts of the matter within the court of law;

"forensic social work"

is a specialised field of social work that focuses on the interface between the legal system and the secondary client (the individual, family, organisation or institution being assessed) and is characterised by the primary function of providing expert testimonies in courts of law;

"forensic social worker"

means a social worker with scientific and specialised knowledge, skills, training and education and experience in forensic social work, who provides the court with written or oral impartial and factual expert testimony;

"forensic social work investigation"

means conducting a process of forensic assessments using forensic social work knowledge, techniques and tools in order to compile a forensic social work report with accurate information to establish facts or evidence that can be used in courts of law;

"forensic social work report"

means written evidence based literature on the facts, assessment, findings and recommendations;

"forensic social work techniques"

means the application of evidence based social work assessment methods and tools used to analyse and interpret information;

"primary client"

means a court of law or a body that commissions a forensic social work investigation;

"SACCSP"

means the South African Council for Social Service Professions established by Section 2 of the Social Service Professions Act, 1978 (Act No. 110 of 1978);

"secondary client"

means the individual/family/organisation/institution being assessed; and

"social work"

means a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people with the principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities being central to social work and underpinned by theories of social work, social sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledge, social work engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance wellbeing.