The Department of Social Development is inviting the public to comment on the draft Children’s Third Amendment Bill, which proposes several modifications to the Children’s Act.
The bill proposes to:
- address inconsistencies within the Children’s Act
- introduce new definitions
- remove the common law defence of reasonable chastisement and prohibit corporal punishment in the home
- regulate the position of unmarried fathers
- extend the children’s court’s jurisdiction to hear applications for guardianship
- clarify the conditional registration of partial care facilities
- include different types of ECD programmes, regulate funding of ECD programmes and other ECD-related amendments
- address partnerships and funding frameworks for prevention & early intervention services
- address the care of abandoned and orphaned children living with family (kinship care)
- make amendments in relation to adoption
- make amendments in relation to surrogate motherhood
The closing date for written submissions is 7 September 2018. Click here for more information.
